It was in 1996 that Canada's Jonathon Power truly made his mark on the international squash stage. Outside the top 20 at the beginning of the year, the six foot tall Toronto star went public: "My aim is to reach the top ten by 1997," he said. True to his word, he crashed into the top ten at No.6 in January 1997. 

Two years later, however, the charismatic and colourful Canadian rose to even greater heights: Making up for a miserable injury-plagued start to 1998, he ended the year winning the World Open title for the first time -then crowned his status as North America's most successful squash player of all time by becoming No.1 in the Dunlop PSA World Rankings for the first time in May 1999. 

Power joined the PSA Tour in May 1991, and made his first appearance in the top 100 in November 1991 at 98. He claimed his first PSA Tour title in July 1992, winning the Downtown Sports Classic in Chicago, followed by two further US events in 1993, the Flagship Open in Minneapolis and the Florida State Open. He made his top 50 debut (at 49) in March 1993, but made no further significant progress until 1995 when he secured a further four titles - the San Francisco Open, Mexico's Squash Inn Open (beating fellow Torontonian Graham Ryding in the final), the Pittsburgh Open and the MAAA Invitational in Canada. 

These results helped him break into the top 30 at 22 in January 1996 - and Power's career at last seemed to be moving in the right direction. 

The real Power surge, however, came in October 1996 when he put himself - and Canada - on the squash map of the world: Unseeded, he won the $40,000 Tournament of Champions in New York, thereby becoming the first North American to win a major international squash title. This historic victory came with wins against Australia's world No.2 Rodney Eyles (3-0 in the quarters) and the Scottish world No.4 Peter Nicol 3-1 in the Semis, before he overcame Australia's Craig Rowland 3-2 in the final. 

Quickly dispelling notions of a 'one-off', Power went on again unseeded to carve through the field of the next tournament on the circuit - the German Masters in November - and won his second major succession, beating England's Simon Parke (with whom he shares his August 10th birthdate) 3-0 in the final. 

By April '97, and only his second appearance in the British Open, the Canadian already had two further titles under his belt - the International Tours in France, in which he beat Egypt's Ahmed Barada 3-0 in the final, and the Hungarian Open in Budapest, where he beat Peter Nicol 3-1 in the final. Power's British Open run was halted in the quarter-finals - by Australia's Rodney Eyles who fought back from 2-1 down to win in five games. 

In the year's richest event, Egypt's Al-Ahram International in June, a back injury caused Power to concede his second round match to Welsh qualifier Alex Gough in the third game. Later in the year, Power's back problems returned to haunt hm in the World Team Championships - in which Canada faced England in their first appearance in the final, but a back spasm left Power helpless as Simon Parke beat him with the loss of just one point, to steer his country to their successful defence of the title. 

Of the six PSA Tour finals in which Power and his distinctive "doo-rag" (a bandanna-like head-scarf) appeared in 1997, he lost only two - both in Super Series event climaxes and both to Pakistan's Jansher Khan. He took the opening game before conceding the Hong Kong Open final 14/15 15/12 15/7 15/2, and lost the Egyptian Open final in straight games. Power was successful in the US Open, beating Nicol in the semi-finals, then Simon Parke 15/6 15/10 15/9 in the final, and claimed his first Super Series title in November when he survived a close final battle with Nicol in the Qatar International to win 17/16 15/13 14/17 9/15 15/8. 

Injury disrupted Power's progress in 1998; In February, he was forced to pull out of his Super Series Finals debut following a ligament tear in his right ankle - which he incurred during a basketball game with his father John. "I was doing the father-son thing, trying to bond with my Dad. I fell pretty hard and landed on my ankle", said a disconsolate Power from Toronto. 

His first appearance in the year was short-lived - he survived the first round of the British Open, but crashed out of the second in agony after aggravating his troubled ankle against Welsh qualifier David Evans. His next appearance was altogether more successful - he went through the field of the Hong Kong Open, only conceding one game, before beating Peter Nicol 3-0 in the final (his sixth successive win over the Scot since the '97 Hungarian Open final) to win his first Super Series title. 

Squash's all-important debut in the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia followed in September. Here the predicted Power/Nicol men's final went the full distance, but this time Nicol was the victor, leaving a dejected Power to collect the silver medal - and then suffer a second time against the Scot when he and Graham Ryding were beaten by Nicol and Stuart Cowie in the quarter-finals of the men's doubles. 

Injury again played its part in the Al-Ahram International in Egypt, when a torn hamstring caused Power to concede his first round match to Belgium's Stefan Casteleyn, despite having a 2-0 lead. Following this were two further losses to Nicol - in the finals of both the US and Heliopolis Opens - suggesting, perhaps, that the Scot had finally mastered the Power magic. 

Power's 'piece de resistance' was still to be delivered, however, and the stage was to be the Centre Court at the Qatar Tennis & Squash Centre in Doha - to where the 1998 Mahindra World Open was belatedly transferred after original plans to stage the event in Bombay, India, were aborted. 

The Canadian almost cruised through the event - staged on the purpose-built all-glass showcourt he calls "my favourite court in the world" after winning the Qatar International on it a year earlier. After dismissing lifelong friend and training partner Graham Ryding 3-0 in the 3rd round, Power annihilated Egypt's Ahmed Barada 3-0 in front of a largely Egyptian audience who witnessed a match which, if scored 'traditionally', would have been a 9/1 9/0 9/0 thrashing! 
Power dropped his first game of the tournament in the semi-final, beating Australia's Anthony Hill 3-1, before facing top seed and world No.1 Peter Nicol in the final. On the day, the favourite was completely outclassed, with Power striding to a momentous 15/17 15/7 15/9 1510 victory in 72 minutes. 

"I have been preparing for this moment since I was eight years old," he told reporters after the match. "I always thought I had a good chance. If you play well, you win, and I played well tonight." 

The Power surge continued into 1999. In the first major tournament of the new year - and his first opportunity to play as world champion in front of a 'home crowd' - Power went into the Tournament of Champions as third seed, drawn to meet his rival Peter Nicol, the top seed, in the last four. The appointment was duly kept, and the world champion duly served further notice on the Scot as to who was the player-of-the moment, crushing Nicol 15/10 15/4 15/5 in 51 minutes on the all-glass court at New York's Grand Central Station. 

Power went on to overcome Ahmed Barada in the final - though this time a real contest took place as Jonathon needed 90 minutes and had to fight back from 2-1 down to beat the Egyptian 15/12 13/15 16/17 15/7 15/13. 

In February, Power added a further PSA Tour title to his growing collection, beating Scotland's Martin Heath 3-0 in the final of the Flanders Open in Belgium. 

At the end of the following month in the period vacated by the postponed 1999 British Open, Power found himself in the UK heading a 'Rest of the World' team against England in a special 3-day Dunlop Test Series organised by his recently-acquired racket brand. Partnered by fellow world champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Australia's Dan Jenson, Power led his team to a 3-0 series win, but the jaded Canadian - at the end of a month-long worldwide promotional trip - lost twice to England's Simon Parke after beating Paul Johnson in the first tie. 

He returned to London in May to make his first appearance in the eight-man PSA Super Series Finals - competing in his first tournament as world No.1. His hectic 'world champion' promotional schedule, however, was clearly still taking its toll - and Power reached the last four after beating Stefan Casteleyn and Martin Heath, but losing to Paul Johnson. He was no match for Peter Nicol, the man he had just succeeded as world No.1, and lost the semi-final 3-0, then fell again to Johnson in the play-off for third place. 

A candid Power said after his defeat by Nicol: "I just wasn't ready for somebody of Peter's calibre tonight. I must get home and forget all this world No.1 and world champion stuff, and prepare myself for the circuit ahead." 

Three weeks later he was true to his word - and remarkably facing his illustrious world No.1 and world champion predecessor Jansher Khan who was making his long-awaited comback after injury in the first round of the new Libertel Open in Holland. 

The eyes of the squash world were on this titanic encounter between two of the sport's greatest names - and the Canadian had to fight back from 1-0 and 2-1 down before overcoming the Pakistani 11/15 15/6 9/15 15/7 15/4 in 64 minutes. Power went on to take the title, beating Peter Nicol 3-0 in the final to stetch his lead over the Scot in the July rankings. 

The pair met again in August - in the final of the Hong Kong Open. Power was seeded to retain the title he won in 98, and had a relatively untroubled run through to the last eight where he overcame stiff resistance from Simon Parke, fighting back from a game down to win 7/15 17/16 15/8 15/5 , before beating compatriot Graham Ryding in the semis to face Nicol in the climax. It was their sixteenth career meeting and third time lucky for the Scot who won in straight games to make it two-all in 1999 confrontations. 

Power's biggest blow in the year was losing the world title - which he did in September in Egypt when sand blown onto the famous open-air court set by the Great Pyramids of Giza caused him to slip during his semi-final match against Ahmed Barada and injure his knee. Jonathon had already taken the opening game against the crowd's hero, but was forced to concede the match after the third game, and the title the following day to his old adversary Nicol. 

He briefly lost his world No.1 ranking to Nicol too, but regained his standing in November Dunlop PSA list on the eve of the Heliopolis Open back in Egypt. There he was again troubled by slippery courts - this time caused by the excessive humidity in Cairo, which caused his first round match against wildcard player Mohammed Essam Hafiz to be abandoned and replayed the following day. After having to beat Hafiz and Dan Jenson on the same day, Power cruised into a second successive semi-final in Egypt against Ahmed Barada - and a second successive loss to the young world No.3. 

Power was eight when he was introduced to squash by his father, who was a national Over-40 and Over-45 champion. Jonathon also excelled into basketball and tennis.