Martin on Top of the World

Hurghada, Egypt, April 1999 © copyright Colin McQuillan

Michelle Martin, the women's squash world number one from Australia, raised herself up from depressed idling mode to something approaching her top gear in Hurghada, Egypt, to win her second successive WISPA World Grand Prix Title, and to record her 50th victory in more than a decade on the WISPA World Tour.

Quietly troubled by an unvoiced private problem and openly deflated by a failure to be elected to the WISPA Management Board a week earlier, the 32-year-old blonde from Brisbane virtually sleepwalked her way through the qualifying rounds on the all-transparent court mounted on the private Red Sea beachfront of the Marriott Hotel.

She lost to Carol Owens for the first time in her career in the last match of Group A, but raised her game to defeat England's Cassie Jackman 9-3, 9-2, 9-6 in a 43 minute semifinal and then avenged herself on Owens by defeating the 27-year-old world number nine 9-4, 9-7, 2-9, 9-4 in the 53 minute all-Australian final.

Jackman emerged at the head of Group B, cruising through the qualifying rounds ahead of South Africa's Natalie Grainger after the world champion, Sarah Fitz-Gerald, pulled out with a recurrence of the knee ligament problem for which she had surgery in Australia over Christmas.

Owens played almost irresistably to top Pool A and reach the final, exploiting the cooling evening conditions of the open air court to impose her front court accuracy and deception on New Zealand's Leilani Joyce, England's Suzanne Horner and Martin herself before defeating Grainger in the crossover semifinals 9-6, 6-9, 3-9, 10-8, 9-7 in sixty one minutes.

"But the sea breeze dropped away on the night of the final," said Owens, "I was a bit tired from the earlier work, too, so when Michelle started leaning on the ball a bit, she got away from me. The only time I got into the final was when the ball slowed down a bit before bursting at 7-1 in the third game."

The new ball flew at a rattling pace and Martin was keen to keep things bustling. "I was a bit negative about everything early in the week, but I managed to empty my head of everything except squash ahead of the final," the champion said. "I guess after twelve years on the circuit, I am professional enough to do that, and perhaps that is what keeps me ahead of the others."

The pair know each other well. Owens has lost four other finals to Martin over recent years, and most recently lost to her in the semifinals of last October's Carol Weymuller Open in New York.

Owens knew Martin was below her brilliant best, but Martin knew that a fast ball on a warm court should be kept moving at maximum revs to prevent a good tournament becoming a breakthrough for her opponent.

After a nervous beginning, contributing four unforced errors and a sloppy penalty stroke interference in the opening game, Martin took charge in a forceful but tense manner. She seemed to understand all too well that Owens needed only a small shift of fortune to pounce once more, as was so well illustrated in the slower paced third game.

With the new ball, however, she relentlessly hiked her rallying pace through the fourth game until Owens, chasing and retrieving, could raise only enough energy in the ultimate exchange to feebly boast a backhand into the tin.

Jackman defeated Grainger 9-3, 9-2, 9-6 for third place. Leilani Joyce, Suzanne Horner, Sabine Schoener, and Sarah Fitz-Gerald were the also-rans.