Life at the top of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Match Racing Tour is not a bed of roses as reigning champion Ian Williams has discovered since soaring to great heights last year.

A lawyer by trade, Williams made history last year when he became the first Englishman to win an ISAF World Match Race Tour title.

But with world supremacy comes great expectations and as Williams and crew have realised defending the world title is perhaps just as hard as winning it.

Williams and Team Pindar are in Bermuda this week competing in the King Edward VII Gold Cup where the 2006 Gold Cup winner hopes to rebound from a disappointing seventh-place showing at the Troia Portugal Match Cup regatta in Portugal last week.

"We had a bit of a dip in form in Portugal last week and we were disappointed with the way things went there," he told The Royal Gazette.

"But hopefully we can pick it up here and gain some momentum heading into Malaysia."

Williams and Team Pindar presently top the World Match Racing Tour standings by four points over Frenchman Sebastien Col – last week's winner in Portugal – with current world number one match racing skipper and defending Gold Cup champion Mathieu Richard a further 15 points off the pace in third with two races remaining on this year's tour.

In order to make further inroads towards a successful defence of his world crown, Williams knows he cannot afford to give up any more ground on his nearest rivals in Bermuda this week.

"The King Edward VII Gold Cup is the penultimate event (on the World Match Racing Tour) and the overall positioning on the tour is very important," he added.

"Therefore our eyes will be on Mathieu (Richard) and Sebastien (Col).

"We will be really focusing on this regatta (Gold Cup) and trying to win it.

"We do have a bit of a lead in the tour with four good results to count in the top four.

"But it is still anybody's game and it will certainly come down to the last event (Monsoon Cup in Malaysia)."

Williams now hopes to rekindle some of the magic that swept him to a maiden Gold Cup triumph two years ago on local surf.

"When we won two years ago it was a fantastic moment and a really pivotal moment in my career," he added.

"Now we get to come back and try and regain the trophy."

Williams is also cautiously optimistic he can defend his world title come season's end, stressing:

"I think there's less pressure on us because we have already won a world championship whereas Sebastien (Col) and Mathieu (Richard) haven't."