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Sarah Fitz-Gerald:  On the comeback road
profile by Ron Beck 4/2000, Photos © Stephen Line and Ron Beck

(information updated on 05/21/2000)

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Video interview view with Real Player (2.1MB) view with Windows Media Player (1.3MB)

Three-time Champion Seeks to Complete Road back to Top

Sarah Fitz-Gerald, world champion, is gracefully paving a comeback-road upwards toward the coveted #1 in the world ranking. Popular among WISPA tour fans and players, Fitz-Gerald has quietly dedicated herself to bringing herself back to the top of the game after a career-threatening injury. Fitz-Gerald has won 33 WISPA tour titles and is hungry for more.

Test Series with Campion Anticipated in June 2000

With Fitz-Gerald unable to compete at the Grand Prix Final in 2000, fans are eagerly awaiting the emergence of a Fitz-Gerald - Campion rivalry. Fitz-Gerald's sponsor Dunlop, is currently organizing a test series to showcase the new rivalry in the UK for June. The format will be three head to head matches in four nights.

Knee Problems

Fitz-Gerald, a 30-year old professional from Melbourne Australia, underwent knee-ligament surgery early in 1999, but was back on tour shortly thereafter, looking to win the 1999 Women's Grand Prix Finals held in Hurghada, Egypt. It was a fateful and frustrating event for her. Early in the competition, Fitz-Gerald re-injured her knee, realized she would be unable to compete competitively, and withdrew from the round robin event.

Back home in Melbourne, she underwent a second surgery and began a single-minded rehabilitation program to bring herself back into top competitive form. When she left the tour, her main rival was fellow-Australian Michelle Martin. The Martin - Fitz-Gerald rivalry had galvanized the squash world, with Sarah's victory in the 1998 world championship, coming back from 8-0 down in the fifth game to defeat Martin, the climax. With that she clinched her third successive World Championship crown in Stuttgart, Germany and recorded her 30th career WISPA World Tour title.

Long Time Rival Retires

With Fitz-Gerald on the sidelines, it looked that Martin would be hugely dominant, but Cassie Campion occupied the competitive void, and to the surprise of most observers, beat Michelle Martin in two successive weekends in the USA in the fall of 1999, first beating Martin in the world championship in Seattle and then the next week in the USA Women's Open. Following that disappointment, Martin abruptly retired.

New Rivalry with Campion, David and Leilani Joyce ?

So, re-emerging onto the competitive scene at the 1999 British Open in December 1999, Fitz-Gerald found the landscape at the top much changed. Cassie Campion was now the woman to beat, and Nicol David the incredible junior from Malaysia, a rapidly rising star. The British Open was Fitz-Gerald's first competition in eight months and her rustiness and conditioning was exposed in the second round. After losing, Fitz-Gerald gained a lot of kudos for her un-selfish decision to support her friend and world number two player Leilani Joyce of New Zealand. Leilani credited Fitz-Gerald for her huge upset of the highly favored Campion in the finals of the event. The genuineness and warmth with which Joyce made a point of singling out Fitz-Gerald's help says a lot about Sarah Fitz-Gerald as a person.

Strong Start to 2000

After a quiet Millenium New Year spent with her friend Sharon Bradey at Bowdoin College in Maine - Fitz-Gerald resurfaced on the WISPA tour with a new determination to make some waves.

She did that indeed - winning three successive tournaments in Southport, Greenwich in the USA and the Rosebowl Classic at Thame England in February 2000. She capped the Rosebowl appearance, her 33rd tour win, with a strong victory over world #4 Natalie Grainger. But again, it was her strong character which rose to the front -- as the former three-time world champion uncomplainingly has entered the qualifying rounds of all of the 2000 tournaments she has entered. It is a rare champion indeed who will submit to the two addional rounds of the qualifier each weekend without requesting -- or even demanding -- a "wildcard". Sarah, instead, has approach the qualifying route as a fun challenge.

Great Career already

But even if she doesn't accomplish anything further, Sarah has alreadh had a career most players would envy. It was in 1996 that Sarah Fitz-Gerald achieved two of the highest points of her career: She won the World Championship title for the first time in Malaysia in October, and the following month was rewarded by her first appearance at No. 1 in the WISPA world rankings.

The Australian No. 1 consolidated that success in 1997, finishing the year with a remarkable ten WISPA World Tour titles - includ-ing the successful defence of her World Open title when she beat compatriot Michelle Martin in the final in her long-time rival's home town of Sydney.

Furthermore, she won the inaugural World Games title, going through the tournament in Finland without conceding a game.

1997 was almost a perfect year for Fitz-Gerald, who followed her World Open success in Sydney with an emotional first-time success in the Australian Open. This time the venue was Sarah's hometown of Melbourne, and the understandably partisan audience included her mother Judith, a four-times winner of the title in the fifties.

Sarah's WISPA World Tour successes in 1998 included victories in the German Grand Prix in Munich, and retaining her Las Ve-gas Open title in the USA - and in September she celebrated the end of her second complete year as world No. 1.

Famous Comeback

It was in November that Sarah staged one of the great comebacks of all time to become the World Open champion for the third suc-cessive year.

In the fifth game of the final in Stuttgart, Germany, she saved seven matchballs from 8/2 down to beat fellow Australian Michelle Martin 10/8 9/7 2/9 3/9 10/9 in one hour and 22 minutes.

"I remember wondering whether it was possible to come back from this position," said Sarah afterwards. "I didn't want to make it easy for Michelle - I was determined to put the occasion out of my mind, telling myself to treat it as a practice match back at Caversham in England!"

The Stuttgart success also marked Fitz-Gerald's third world title success using Dunlop.

Sarah splits her life between Australia and England, basing herself in Caversham, near Reading in Berkshire, to play the European season - a routine she has followed for over twelve years.

In addition to her exemplary performances on court, Sarah uses her energies for the good of her fellow players off court in her role as President of the Women's International Squash Players' Associa-tion (WISPA).

"What I really want to do now is just to get squash recognised for the great game it is," said Sarah.

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