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Sarah
Fitz-Gerald tops Carol Owens in a 80 minute battle - rematch will be in
New York.
Jan 20 , 2002 by Howard Harding and Ron Beck © 2002 SquashTalk, may not be reproduced without express permission.
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Jan 20, 2002
Fitz-Gerald Wins Fiftieth Career Title [the draw]
Australia's Sarah Fitz-Gerald survived a marathon battle against long-time rival Carol Owens to win the $41,000 Hartford Women's Squash Open and claim an historic 50th WISPA World Tour title in Connecticut, USA.
In a match which truly lived up to the status of the achievement - it was also Fitz-Gerald's 80th appearance in a Tour final - the world champion and world No1 had to win from a game down for the first time since overcoming the title-holder Leilani Joyce en-route to winning the British Open title for the first time in June last year.
Owens, like her opponent also brought up in Melbourne, but now playing in New Zealand colours, took the opening game - but the gutsy Fitz-Gerald maintained her focus to claim a 2-9, 9-4, 9-7, 9-1 victory in 75 minutes, one of the longest women's finals on record.
"Nobody will be more proud than Sarah this morning - but the whole of WISPA come pretty close behind!" said Women's International Squash Players' Association Director Andrew Shelley. "Fifty Tour titles is a fabulous achievement from a great champion - one looked up to by her fellow pros as a playing star and fine ambassador for the sport." \Fitz-Gerald celebrated her 33rd birthday last month at the end of a year in which she crowned her comeback after knee surgery by claiming a fourth World Open title in front of a home crowd in Melbourne. After winning the world junior title in England in August 1987, Sarah clinched her first professional trophy in June 1989 in Adelaide, then went on to win WISPA titles in 14 countries - including the World Games, the World Grand Prix Finals, British Open, Malaysian Open and two Australian Opens, three Singapore Opens and four Munich Opens.
The only other women's player to achive fifty victories was Michelle Martin, also from Australia, who was Fitz-Gerald's chief rival prior to her retirement in late 1999.
RESULTS: Hartford Women's Squash Open, Connecticut, USA
Final: [1] Sarah Fitz-Gerald (AUS) bt [2] Carol Owens (NZL) 2-9, 9-4, 9-7, 9-1 (75m)
