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Sabine Schoene, flag-bearer of squash popularity in Germany
copyright © 1999, courtesy of Dunlop Squash Update, June 1999

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Best-ever German player has further international goals

By Howard Harding, London England, June 1999

Sabine brings German squash to new heights

Sabine Schoene is Germany's highest ranked player of all time. Though still only25 years old, she has just won the German National title for a remarkable 12th successive year- - winning her first title when she was just 14 - which is believed to be an unprecedented feat in the sport worldwide.

Sabine, from Parsdorf, near Munich in southern Germany, broke into immediate squash prominence as a junior. During a glittering international junior career, she won the British Open U-16 titles in 1989 and 90, and followed that up with the U-19 British Open titles in 1992 and 93. In 1992 she also became European Junior Champion in Norway, a year after reaching the finals of the World Juniors, also in Norway.

Achiever in home country

Clearly able to take advantage of playing on her home soil, Sabine claimed her first WISPA World Tour title in September 1994 when she won the Dunlop Open in Wuppertal in Germany - a title she successfully defended a year later, before adding the Finnish Open to her senior trophy collection.

In 1996 she won the HCI Cup in Hamburg, and reached the World Open quarter-finals for the first time - a feat she repeated the following year when she also reached the first World Games finals in Finland, losing to Sarah Fitz-Gerald.

For Sabine, 1997 the breakthrough

1997 was for Sabine a breakthrough year, in which she achieved runners-up positions in the US Open and Aachen Open in Germany; semi-final berths in the German Grand Prix, Al-Ahram International in Egypt and Philadelphia Open in the USA; and quarter-final placings in the Heliopolis, Singapore, and Malaysia Opens, and Monte Carlo Classic, together with the World Open. This led to a career-best No 6 WISPA world ranking, reached in November of that year.

More excellence in 1998

In 1998, Sabine qualified for the WISPA Grand Prix finals in Egypt in March, and made her first appearance in the last eight of the British Open the following month. Her success in the ten Grand Prix events of the year led to her competing in the 1999 World finals, again in Hurghada. This took place in April, a week after she reached her third successive semi-finals of the German Grand Prix (Citroen Classic) at her home club in Parsdord - and lost for the third successive year to Australia's Michelle Martin!

The German Army Woman

1998 also proved to be an eventful year for Schoene off-court. She joined the German army in January and after basic training became a first aid soldier. She has joined a special sports section, which requires her to spend only one day a week "doing the normal things a soldier has to do", while training and competing in international events.

"I soon realized that I am pretty good with rifles, machine guns, pistols or whatever," Sabine confided. "I shot gold in all disciplines!"

Schoene was promoted to sergeant in April this year. "This meant hard army training every day - for example, staying outside for 45 hours when it was -25o C, and getting up in the mornings every day at 4:30 AM! It was hard work for three solid months, but great fun also," said Sabine. "Next year I plan to become a paramedic."

More ambitions on tour

With her army duties relaxed until next year, Schoene has been back in action on the WISPA World Tour. She reached the finals of the Germerling Open in Munich, and then jetted over to Central America where she reached the last four of the Mexican Open in Mexico City.

The future? "I think I've got a few more German National Titles in me, and I am determined to break into the world top five."

You can reach Howard Harding by email in London at Email: HowHard@aol.com

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