Name: Laurens Jan Anjema

Date of Birth: 01st December 1982

World Ranking: 17

World Series Ranking: 14

Height: 188

Weight: 85

Birthplace: Den Haag, Netherlands

Residence: Den Haag, Netherlands

Racquet: Head

Clothing Sponsor: Fred Perry, Canterbury of New Zealand

Sponsors: Punt & Van de Weerdt Tax Advisors, Reewoud Enegietechniek, AA-drink

Coach:

Interests: Guitar

Clubs/Teams: HSRC De Diepput, Exeter Diamonds, and Hamborn

National Ranking: -

Website:

Twitter: @ljanjema

Facebook:

Biography: Laurens Jan Anjema became the highest-ranked Dutchman of all-time in March 2007 when he overtook former world No22 Tommy Berden. The 30-year-old from The Hague went on to celebrate a career-high world No9 ranking in December 2010 - and has maintained this position in the world's top ten throughout 2012. It was in March 2010 that LJ clinched his biggest Tour title, winning the $40,000 Open de Squash Banque Nationale Groupe Financier in Canada as third seed. He made his breakthrough in the semi-finals where he beat second-seeded Englishman Adrian Grant – then went on to overcome a second Englishman Daryl Selby in straight games in the final. The tall left-hander's standout achievement in 2011 was winning the NetSuite Open in San Francisco - marking the 11th Tour title of his career. Seeded two, Anjema recovered from two games down to beat Egypt's Omar Mosaad in a dramatic 100-minute marathon final. After picking up his seventh successive Dutch national title in February this year, Anjema notched up his 29th Tour final appearance at the Manitoba Open in Canada in March - unable to repeat his title success of two years earlier. But the following month, he made the quarter-finals of the El Gouna International Open in Egypt and in May battled through to the last eight of the revived British Open at the famous O2 Arena in London "Reaching the quarter finals of the British Open and El Gouna ranked as my most satisfying performances of the year," said Anjema. "And losing in the first round of the North American Open (in February) was my biggest disappointment!" Anjema's ambitions for 2012 are simple: "To beat Amr Shabana!" The Dutchman's passions in life extend well beyond squash: "I like techno, jazz, blues and other authentic music. I like to play the guitar and write songs. "When I'm not training I like to play tennis or go out with friends. The thing I enjoy most about being a professional athlete is that feeling when you know you've performed at your best. What I find difficult about being a professional athlete is avoiding monotonous training. "In general I love the highs and lows .... love going to new cities and meeting new people. In the summer I train at high altitude in the mountains of Colorado. In the winter I twitter! "My favourite movie is Fight Club. "I think it's a great criticism on modern society and how much value we put on material possessions. In the end, we're not special. We're not a beautiful or unique snowflake. We're the same decaying organic matter as everything else," Anjema continued. "I love writing, too." September 2012