He made his professional debut in 1993, appearing for the first time in the January PSA world rankings at 251. By March 1994 he reached 100, and made his top 50 debut at 45 eight months later in November. Not until September 1996 did he first break into the top 20, leaping from 29 to 19. His ranking fluctuated little in the months that followed - until November 1998, when he became one of very few players to make his top ten debut from a position outside the top twenty - soaring from 21 to 7, before moving on to a career-high No.5 the following month. 

Martin has spent most of his squash career in the shadow of his world No.1 compatriot Peter Nicol - but, in the Al-Ahram International in October 1998, he achieved one of his most satisfying PSA Tour wins when he beat Nicol for the first time since the pair were in their early teens - 12 years before! 

Unseeded Heath's 48-minute 15/9 15/5 15/11 victory - Nicol's first defeat since claiming the sport's inaugural Commonwealth Games gold medal in Malaysia the previous month - took place in the semi-finals, and followed earlier upsets against England's Mark Cairns, Welshman David Evans, and Australian Byron Davis. Now Heath found himself in his first ever Super Series final - against local star Ahmed Barada, and around 5,000 fans urging their squash hero to win this prestigious title for Egypt. Undaunted by this wholehearted opposition, the Scot made sixth seed Ahmed Barada fight for every point, before the Egyptian ultimately claimed the title 15/7 15/17 15/11 13/15 15/13 in 98 emotionally - charged minutes. 

This was the breakthrough that Heath's talent had threatend for some years - the inspiration for his dramatic end-of-year No.5 position in the Dunlop PSA World Rankings. 

Heath first made his mark on the PSA Tour in 1993 - when he reached the quarter-finals of the Sao Paulo Open in Brazil - early the following year registering his first tour title by winning the Mazda Professional Championship in Hong Kong, then later claiming the Philadelphia Open title in the USA. In 1995, he won the Oasis International Classic in France, and at the end of the year successfully defended his Philadelphia Open title. 

After becoming the Danish Open champion in April 1996, Heath went on to secure his richest tour prize to date - beating Pakistani's top seed Zubair Jahan Khan 3-0 to win the Singapore title in October without conceding a game. He later ackowledged that he failed to capitalise on this success: "I started to get too keen after Singapore, and became ill and injured - the result of which was losing in the first round of the next eight tournaments I played!" 

Exactly a year later he was back on the winner's rostrum again, lifting the Singapore Open trophy for the second successive year - again, without conceding a game throughout the tournament. Within a few days he was competing in the 97 Hong Kong Open, where he beat England's No.5 seed Simon Parke in straight games, then Stephen Meads, to reach his first Super Series quarter-final, where he fell to the ultimate champion Jansher Khan. 

Heath bagan 1998 by reaching the final of the Esso Flanders Open in Belgium, and later failed to win his third successive Singapore Open title when he fell in a five-game quarter-final to Pakistan's Mir Zaman Gul. He followed his Al-Ahram success by reaching the quarter-finals of the Pakistan Open, losing to Canada's Graham Ryding who went on to remove the event's top seed Ahmed Barada in the semi-finals. 

At the end of the year, he was a first round casualty in the Heliopolis Open in Egypt, losing in five games to Australia's Rodney Eyles, then again came up against Ahmed Barada in the second round of the World Open in Qatar, losing 3-1 to the Egyptian. 

Heath's disappointment early in 1999 at being a second round casualty in the Tournament of Champions in New York (losing 3-2 to Australia's Byron Davis) was tempered by his delight at reaching the final of the Flanders Open in Belgium in February. Like fellow Scot Peter Nicol, he had chosen not to compete in the British National Championships - then beat runner-up Simon Parke in five games in the Flanders quarter-finals, and England's newly-crowned British champion Paul Johnson 15/12 8/15 15/7 12/15 15/11 in the semis. His final hurdle proved insurmounrtable, with Canada's world champion Jonathon Power added a further title to his collection beating Heath in straight games. 

In April, he reached the final of the WSF-organised Greek Open in Athens, where he lost to Mark Chaloner in five games. A week later he teamed up with Peter Nicol and former Australian John White to form the strongest Scotland entry that had ever competed in the European Championships. Heath lost to old rival Simon Parke as the squad went down 3-1 to defending champions England in one of the closest finals on record. 

Later in May, Heath competed in the PSA Super Series Finals in London for the first time - but lost to Jonathon Power and Paul Johnson in the initial pool matches, despite being a game up against the Englishman. 

In September, Heath returned to the scene of his 98 desert triumph in Egypt - but this time for the World Open which was being staged on the same Al-Ahram International court by the Great Pyramids of Giza. Again he reached the last four - after a win over Welshman David Evans and a straight games defeat of 4th seed Paul Johnson. History, however, did not repeat itself almost a year later. Despite taking the first game, Heath lost in four to compatriot Peter Nicol - who went on to lift the sport's most prestigious title. 

Two months later, it was Nicol who again halted Heath's progress into Egypt - this time in the Helioplolis Open in Cairo, where Heath beat Welshman Alex Gough in the first round before falling to Nicol in a four game semi-final. 

The son of basketball player and semi-professional footballer, Heath took up squash at the age of eight. He graduated from Glasgow University with a BSc in Physiology, Psychology and Sports Science, and eventually plans to study for a Masters degree in the USA. While in his early career he was influenced by Jansher Khan and Chris Dittmar, but he currently seeks inspiration from the likes of Herman Hesse, Buddha and Allen Ginsberg. 

Of the two ambitions he listed at the beginning of 1998, only one remains outstanding: "To achieve a world top four ranking". 

Heath's other goal almost two years ago? "To beat Peter Nicol when it counts"!