Top Ten Female Squash Racquets / Rackets Players of the Decade 2000-2010

(updated 23-jan-10 15:41 )

A Decade of Intriguing Rivalries, two periods of Domination, and increasing parity

The first decade of the 21st century was a fascinating period of growth and change on the Women's pro squash tour. We have been entertained by a battle for supremacy between wide ranging personalities and playing styles. We present here SquashTalk's top ten women of the decade. It is, of course, a personal and subjective list, as there is no single measure of excellence as time advances and careers overlap. What we have done is try our best to combine views of time at the top (world #1), major titles won (British Open, World Open in particular), playing ability and excellence, and impact on the sport.

The year 2000 began with Leilani Rorani the British Open titleholder.

Leilani won two British Opens and was world number one for 10 months, but her career ended too early in the decade (Sept 2002) for us to rightly include us in this listing.

Leilani's abilities and accomplishments, however, need to be noted in this recap (read recap of Leilani's career)

Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the hard hitting and sunny Australian star was still on the road to recovery from a serious knee surgery at the beginning of the decade. Fitz-Gerald would come back strongly and be dominant for the next two and a half years.

Carol Owens, a fellow Australian, who competed with Fitz-Gerald since junior squash, took the World Open in 2000 in Edinburgh, but Fitz-Gerald then ran off a specatular two years of squash, through 2001 and 2002.

Then in early 2003, Fitz-Gerald abruptly retired. She wasn't being beaten (although Owens had briefly interrupted her string at #1), she wasn't diminished in her skills or tournament play. She was simply tired of it all. Especially with her dominance through the early rounds of most tournaments, and in many cases all the way through, the grind of traveling the world from one city to the next for a series of 3-0 matches was getting too much for her.

Carol Owens battled her way to number one shortly following Sarah's retirement, and held it for most of 2003. then she retired.

Cassie Jackman was the next number one. Cassie retired. Then Rachael Grinham took over the top sport for much of 2005. Vanessa Atkinson, however, put together a dominant 2005 season to take significant titles that year. Although Vanessa was only world #1 for one month officially in '05, and four in '06 she was the best in the world for over a year.

In 2006, Nicol David and Vanessa Atkinson traded off as number one; and then David took over the top in mid 2006, and has stayed there through the end of the decade.

Natalie Grinham, Rachael Grinham and Jenny Duncalf have all knocked off David from time to time; but as the decade ends, its still David at the top.

THE UPLIFTING SISTER ACT

The Grinham sisters, Rachael and Natalie, have enriched women's squash over the past decade. They are different in style, competitive with each other, and each other's best coach and supporter on tour. We have watched with interest while first one and then the other has had the upper hand in their highly personal rivalry. The two of them together have presented a formidable "double opponent" for Vanessa, Natalie Grainger and for Nicol David.

Both Grinhams hail from Australia, but Rachael plays out of Cairo, and Natalie out of Amsterdam and under the Dutch Flag. While Rachael achieved the world number one position, and that honor has so far eluded Natalie, Natalie has been every bit the elite player as well. For Natalie, her misfortune is to have been at the top of her game during the period of Nicol David's dominance.

The two sisters, Rachael and Natalie, are an inspiration to a generation of women players. The two embody effort, heart, athleticism, preparation, hard work and sportsmanship. In a number of years of watching them play I never have seen an unsportsmanlike act by either, nor have I seen either give up on a match.

And their secret weapon - their loyalty to each other. The Grinhams coached each other on so many occasions -- often with one knowing that a successful coaching outing would mean her opponent would later on likely be her sister!

NUMBER ONE: Nicol David

When Nicol David burst onto the international squash scene as a junior, she was already a star in her native Malaysia. She won the Junior Women's World title TWICE, in 1999 and in 2001. As the figurehead as well as the hopes and dreams of the highly visible Malaysian squash program, Nicol David was and always is under massive pressure and a large microscope in her native country. Nicol David's genius (in addition to her obvious squash talent and championship mentality) is her ability to seemingly get beyond all of that pressure and channel it into momentum behind her.

Presenting a compact figure on court, the lasting impression of Nicol David, in a game of court coverage, is a relentless, tireless and effortless pursuit of the ball.

Nicol David has already piled up an impressive resume. Four world opens, three British Opens, and a 51-match winning streak.

Nicol David combines speed, endurance, and an economical style with an inflappable mental approach to the game. Nicol David has all the winning shots and combinations, but doesn't play the risky shot. She plays flawless positional squash. And then, don't give her the opening. She will take the opening and hit the winning shot.

The only unfortunate aspect of her early career (from the fan's point of view) is that she barely crossed paths with Fitz-Gerald on court - only meeting her several times while Fitz-Gerald was completely dominant and David was still learning the differences between junior and professional competition.

In fact, when I spoke to Fitz-Gerald about David, on the eve of one of their meetings, Fitz-Gerald was out front about it. "She won't be beating me now," Fitz-Gerald said, "She doesn't have enough experience yet, and I won't be giving her an inch." Fitz-Gerald didn't.

Vanessa Atkinson and Rachael Grinham provided Nicol David the strongest opposition in the mid 2000's, and in fact, at her peak in 2004, 2005, and 2006 Vanessa showed that at her best she could be better than David. But that was only for a short timeframe. Rachael and later sister Natalie, as well as Natalie Grainger, provided David a one-two-three set of obstacles that Nicol has needed to get past in most of the big events of the past few seasons. This has proved a formidable challenge for David, and each of those three has fallen short many times, winning, though, a few. In the past few months, Jenny Duncalf has emerged as a real threat to Nicol David's dominance, beating her in two straight events as 2009 came to a close.

What happens in the next 36 months will really determine David's lasting legacy in juxtaposition to Devoy, Martin, Fitz-Gerald and McKay.

NUMBER TWO: Sarah Fitz-Gerald

Sarah Fitz-Gerald was the dominant woman in squash between 1997 and 2003. During that period of time, she won five Women's World Open titles and two British Open crowns. She won a total of 65 WISPA professional titles, and bookmarked her periods as number one in the world around a period of serious knee injury and recovery in 1999.

It often looked easy when Fitz-Gerald was on the court - as she outdistanced most of her opponents of the day. At the very beginning of her career, Michelle Martin (also from Australia) was very much her equal, and from 2000 through 2003, Carol Owens and Cassie Jackman provided here with her best opposition.

In fact, it was Carol Owens who deflated a good 2000 season for Fitz-Gerald, as Owens prevailed over her rival in a terrific World Open semi final match in December of that year in Edinburgh.

Sarah was an outgoing player, but at the same time managed to give away very little of what she was thinking on court or what she thought of her opponents, so we may never know very much about the internals of this remarkable and fine sports figure.

For Fitz-Gerald, the actual tournament play often seemed so easy that she was almost embarassed to talk about it. And she engaged in a series of one-on-one exhibitions with Cassie Jackman so that both players could get the competition that they needed and desired outside of actual WISPA tournament play.

A true squash junkie, Fitz-Gerald was always around the court when not playing, and famously coached her rival, Kiwi Leilani Joyce, to the 1999 British Open title, moving effortlessly into the coaching corner

NUMBER THREE: Carol Owens

Carol Owens was a wonderful complete player, who used the lob as both a recovery from danger but also an attacking shot. Coupled with her accuracy and fitness, Carol Owens was a versatile player who would put her opponent under constant motion and pressure.

Carol won two World Open titles (2000 and 2003) and was world number one for over a year. Owens retired as world number one after a fifteen year career. As opposed to Sarah, Owens was outspoken.

Owens career overlapped those of Michelle Martin and Sara-Fitz Gerald, and she never receive the support and attention from the Australian squash establishment she felt was appropriate. Consequently, she changed her Nationality to New Zealand, and in fact was world number one under the New Zealand flag. She was fully embraced by the Kiwi squash establishment, and gives back today, as she coaches in Auckland and has played a strong coaching role in the emergence of Joelle King (current ranked 31) as a WISPA star.

Able to put on spectacular tournament runs and individual performances, she also had some specatular losses of momentum - which whether they were due to loss of concentration, or other, marked her career up to her World Open wins.

But Owens was a fierce competitor who scored important wins over all of her contemporary rivals - Fitz-Gerald, Joyce, Grainger, Jackman, Bailey. Rachael Grinham, Atkinson.

Dwnes collected a total of 27 WISPA tour championships.

[ read Carol Owens Tribute and Carol Owens retires]

Carol Owens has smoothly worked into a coaching career, being named Auckland NZ Coach of the year recently.

NUMBER FOUR: Rachael Grinham

Rachael Grinham, the older of the remarkable Grinham sisters from Australia, took over the world number one position when Carol Owens retired in 2004.

Grinham held the number one position for a total of 16 months between August 2004 and November 2005

Rachael had been flirting with the top up until then, but never real had been able to break through against either of her Australian rivals Fitz-Gerald and Owens.

With the successive retirement of those two players, Rachael inherited both world WISPA and Aussie bragging rights.

As often happens, Grinham rose to the occasion, and took full advantage of her top spot. With each win and each month at the top, her confidence grew. For Rachael Grinham, her success appears to have been attributable to a combination of athletic abilities and quickness, superior fitness and ability to bring on the power, mental toughness and steadiness, all balanced with a variety of tactics possibly aided by her permanent training home in Cairo.

Consider Rachael's head to head record against some of her contemporary rivals: against her sister, Rachael is 13-8. Against her great rival, Vanessa Atkinson, Rachael is 16-7. Against Natalie Grainger she is an impressive 12-3. Against her Egyptian rival, Omneya Abdel Kawy, se is 14-7. And against Nicol David, she has a total of six wins and is a respectable 6-22. One of the rising players with the best record against her is Jenny Duncalf. Rachael is 8-5 versus Jenny. And, very interestingly, Rachael is only 5-7 against Linda Elriani.

Rachael has been, in many ways, a quiet number one and elite star. She frequently left it to her raquet to do the talking. When Rachael and her sister Natalie quietly protested against the lack of support from Australian Squash, by making themselves unavailable for the World Team Championships, she let her actions totally speak for themselves, never commenting openly.

Rachael continues to be an impressive force as we move into 2010. Since January 2001, Rachael has been in the world top ten except for three months at #11 in 2001 and 02. Rachael is currently number four in the world at age 33.

NUMBER FIVE: Vanessa Atkinson

Vanessa, the red-headed Dutch star, took over as world number one from Rachael Grinham. Vanessa worked her way to the top just as Nicol David was emerging at the top as well and a great rivalry between Vanessa, Nicol, Rachael and also Natalie Grinham unfolded at the midpoint of the decade. I wrote at the time, and still believe, that due to the in-built intertia and time delays of the world ranking system, Vanessa was playing as best in the world for really a number of months before she took over the number one spot. While Vanessa held World #1 for only five months, at her peak she was truly one of the best of the decade and a truly remarkable player.

I first met Vanessa Atkinson when she was 16, taking lessons in The Hague from Rory Watt. Vanessa turned pro at age 19, in 1995, and she won the World Open nine years later, in 2004. Though not born in Holland, Vanessa grew up in Holland and captured the attention of the sports-mad Dutch as she reached World #1.

Vanessa's game combines a fearless attacking game, great reaction speed, court speed and fitness; a great sense for tactics, and wonderful use of her height and reach. Her repertoire of attacking shots, from deadly drops, to volley boasts and drops, and attacking boast, often forced her opponents into risk taking modes.

Her wrist work and effortless reach struck fear into her opponents.

The only chink in Vanessa's armor is a loss of confidence that creeps into her game at strange moments during matches and during tournaments. She is often very hard on herself. As a consequence she would occasionally have very bad losses and that inconsistency penalized her as far as her world ranking position has been concerned. [Profile of Vanessa in her early days] Vanessa has won a total of 20 WISPA tour titles. Vanessa is currently at world number 12 and still a very dangerous opponent in every draw.

NUMBER SIX: Cassie Jackman

(Also read Cassie Jackman retires)

It is an extremely tough call to place Vanessa ahead of Cassie.

Cassie Jackman was a great competitor from England, who was Sarah Fitz-Gerald's main rival in 2000 and part of 2001. Like her rival, Fitz-Gerald, Cassie's career was broken up by several injury gaps. Possibly the most enduring memory of Cassie is the almost tragic unfolding of the 1999 British Open in Aberdeen, Scotland. With Fitz-Gerald just barely back on court after her knee woes, Jackman was the prohibitive favorite to give England a British Open Champion in 1999. The British press all but annointed Jackman champion before the tournament began, and gave her so much publicity that it would have taken an incredible amount of discipline to ignore it all. An over-publicized and over-confident Jackman became the foil to the elegant Leilani (Joyce) Rorani in the final of that event that year. Jackman also lost in the British Open finals (to Rachael Grinham) in 2003.

WISPA only issued rankings bi-monthly until November 2000, but Cassie held the number one position for 10 months in 2000 and six months in 2004. Jackman retired at the end of 2004, forced into retirement by nagging injuries. She won a total of 27 tour titles and the World Open in 1999.

Cassie had a complete game. She could completely hold her own against hard-hitters like Fitz-Gerald, against the all court strategy of Owens and the athleticism of Grinham. She had a temptation to "go short" too often at inoportune and critical times -- such as during that British Open final against Rorani.

Jackman always played extremely well in the USA and was very popular with American audiences. She won the Weymuller in Brooklyn twice.

NUMBER SEVEN: Natalie Grinham

Natalie Grinham, sister of Rachael, and an Australian international in her early career, currently plays as a Dutch player, married to former Dutch number one (and currently her manager) Tommy Berden.

Natalie emerged out of the shadow of her older sister as she moved into the top ten in 2003 and the top five in 2004. She has been continuously in the top 5 since February 2004 and currently is world number two.

Natalie has been following an intensive and serious campaign to defeat Nicol David.

Natalie, interestingly, holds an identical record against Nicol as does her sister: They are both 6-22 against David. And it is Nicol David who is Natalie's nemesis. With both of them peaking during same years, the best ranking that Natalie has been able to achieve is second to Nicol David's first. [read also Natalie Grainger profile, by Rob Dinerman]

NUMBER EIGHT: Natalie Grainger

Natalie Grainger achieved world #1, although merely for one month in June 2003. Beyond that, Natalie has very consistently been in the world top five for much of the decade. She has won a total of 22 tour titles and had one win over Nicol David in 2009 and two in her career. She has three career wins over Rachael Grinham out of 15 tries. She stands 9-8 lifetime against Natalie Grinham, and is 11-4 lifetime against Vanessa Atkinson.

Natalie currently plays for the US, is the US Champion, and is the US #1. Originally hailing from South Africa, Natalie also played for England for a period.

It is hard to place Grainger so far down at number eight - this is more a statement about the quality of the top seven rather than anything at all negative about Grainger or her career. Grainger is deceptively quick and versatile on court. Her fundamentals are so sound that she can take every positional advantage and move for the kill at the slightest opening. Over the past five year she has worked extremely hard at her fitness and peaking, and has showed up ready for all the big events.

In addition to being a very likeable person off court, Grainger has a wonderful persona on court, all focus and all effort. The only possible downside to this is that she is so even on court, that she may have a hard time bringing herself up to a special peak at those crucial moments in big matches.

With the scope and schedule of the world tour, it is a disadvantage to be based in the US (as she is now), but she has kept her game at an elite peak despite that disadvantage. At 33, she is still in the top five.

Natalie Grainger brough squash a rare honor and visibility when she was honored this year by the US based Women's Sports Foundation (see article).

NUMBER NINE: Linda Elriani

Linda Elriani (nee Charman) was a 100% tough competitor, who rarely showed cracks in her resolve. From 1999 through 2006, Elriani spent nearly seven years in the world's top ten. Her highest ranking was world #3 but she was always an extremely tough out for everyone ranked above and around her. Among the players that she had a lifetime winning record against was Rachael Grinham, with a lifetime record of 7-5 and Natalie Grainger, with a lifetime record of 6-5. She won 14 WISPA tour titles before her retirement in 2006.

To quote from Martin's tribute [See also the complete article: Tribute to Linda Elriani as well as Linda Charman's return to form],
" At her best she was the complete player with a strong physique and fitness to stay with anyone on the circuit. She hit the ball beautifully, could volley superbly and knew how to use the height of the court to the fullest."

Linda was never invisible. She was always a presence on or off court and she always put forth a strong and intense effort. Because of her height and her ability to volley almost anything, she achieved a positional advantage against most players except those who could either keep her constantly scrambling, or those rare few, such as England's Rebecca Macree who had similar characteristics and could out muscle Elriani.

The difference between Elriani on court and off court was often startling. Intense, imposing and totally determined on court, she rarely backed off or backed down. Off court, she is one of the most relaxed, finest and nicest people. She was and is a fine ambassador for the sport.

In fact, Elriani's ever-presence on tour (until 2006), and her everpresence in latter stages in the draw, made here a totally solid selection for the decade's top ten.

NUMBER TEN: Tania Bailey

Tania Bailey makes the decade's top ten, at number ten. In putting her here, I judge her to have beaten out some illustrious players such as Omneya Abdel Kawy and Rebecca Macree. Tania's career jump started when she won the World Junior title in 1997 and turned pro soon after that. Tania first broke into the top five in January of 2001; she reached number four in 2003. (see early career profile) A long series of injuries and illness slowed her.

After returning to the tour, Tania won the British Open in 2006. She returned to the top five in 2007, spending most of that year at number four and much of 2008 at number five. With her proven ability to win big titles (World Juniors, British Open), I have always viewed Tania as probably the best player to never be ranked higher than she has been. Relatively compact in stature and physical presence, Tania is extremely economical in movement, very mobile and catlike on court, and totally aware of positional squash on court. She plays the percentages, attacking when the opportunity is there but not when it's not.

At 30 years old, she currently stands at number 20 after returning from another gap in being able to compete at full strength. I fully expect her to come back strong in 2010 and we will see what she can accomplish.

An Illustrious group of Honorable Mentions

Madeline Perry, Shelley Kitchen, Omneya Abdel Kawy, Rebecca Macree and Vicky Botwright all get our vote as just off the top-ten list for the decade. Each of these players has a lot to offer and has added a lot of color and depth to the tour.

Madeline Perry, whose highest ranking has been number six in the world, is the best player ever to come out of Ireland, and monopolized the Irish National Title for a number of years. She suffered a difficult non-squash injury about two years ago, but has recently come back to competition stronger than ever and has had strong results in recent months. Perry is one of the fittest players ever and puts most of her opponents through a long battle. Perry is currently world #8 at 32 years old.

Omneya Abdel Kawy, an Egyptian, came up through the juniors as Nicol David's main rival. Omneya has some special talents she brings to the court. These include magical racquet work, extreme touch and deception, an ability to look slow but move extremely smothly and rapidly, and superior anticipation. These all add up to a package the should have, and may still, propel her higher and farther than it has. As things stand, she has been in the world top ten since 2005, is currently world number seven, and reached a high of world number six.

Rebecca Macree, now retired, was one of the tallest players on tour and used her height and reach to maximum advantage. In fact some of her opponents took her to task for her unwillingness to clear, or put another way, her ability to obstruct and physically crowd. In 2002 she received a five week ban from the tour for arguing with the referees. Her highest world ranking was #7 and she won six tour titles.

Vicky Botwright, will have her career indelibly linked forever with the infamous Thong incident, a public relations stunt that Vicky volunteered to stage. Her top career ranking was #5 in 2005. She retired in 2008 having won a total of four tour titles [See also, Vicky's retirement and career retrospective].

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