Sarah comments on the second round and her win over Natalie Grainger

10.13.00 Birmingham, SquashTalk News by Sarah Fitz-Gerald

[also: in process quarterfinal women, quarterfinal men's draw]

GOOD DAY FOR THE EXPERIENCED PROS
It was a late night last night but a great day for me in my comeback efforts. It was also a good day for Sue Wright, who inexplicably has not been given an opportunity for selection to the UK team, for Suzanne Horner, and a great accomplishment for Vanessa Atkinson. The other top English women lost out in yesterday's action - Brind, Bailey, Grainger, and Campion.

SUE WRIGHT
Sue employed a heady strategy in outdoing rising star Tania Bailey - using a combination of cut shots, cross courts and angles to counteract Tania's athelticism and break up her rhythm.

VANESSA'S BIG DAY
Cassie big upset loss to Holland's Vanessa Atkinson is being attributed to some calf pains she encountered during the match. But that's not to take away from Vanessa Atkinson's great play yesterday. Vanessa played a very strong match and deserved to win.

SARAH AND NATALIE
For my part, I saw my match with Natalie as a real challenge to see how far I had come back in my training. I planned a simple game plan - driving the ball deep into the corners consistently, hoping for Natalie to eventually play some open balls. I stuck with that game plan, and that's exactly what happened - Natalie provided me the errors off of my deep game, and I was able to pull out the 9-4, 9-4, 9-4 win in a little over a half hour.

TODAY'S CHALLENGE
Now today I have a big challenge against fellow Aussie Carol Owens. Carol has been playing well all year and will be keyed up for today's match.

Carol Owens goes up against Sarah Fitz-Gerald in today's quarterfinals - Aussie vs Aussie (or is it New Zealand vs Aussie - see Martin Bronstein's column)

• Golestan Radwan: Egypt
• Tomas Barva, Czech Republic
• David Blick, Alaska USA
• Kim Tunney: Midwest USA
• Andre Maur: Atlanta USA
• Paul Ansdell: Massachusetts USA
  

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