Preview of KL Open by Colin McQuillan

There is no defending champion for this Women’s World Open Squash Championship in Kuala Lumpur. New Zealand’s Carol Owens retired from the WISPA World Tour after defeating England’s Cassie Jackman in last year’s final.

Jackman is back to try for one place further this time, but seeded above her in the 2004 field is the little Australian who took over her World No1 ranking this year, Rachael Grinham, and lurking threateningly in the draw are Dutch Champion Vanessa Atkinson, US Open Champion Natalie Grainger, fifth seed Natalie Grinham, England No2 Linda Elriani, Malaysia’s Asian Champion Nicol David and British Open Over-35 Champion Fiona Geaves.

David was the surprise package of the 2003 championship in Hong Kong, coming unseeded past current world junior champion Omneya Abdel Kawy, second seed Natalie Grainger, and 13^th seed Fiona Geaves before losing to the fourth seeded Jackman in a straight games semi-final.

Just to show that was no fluke, David took another win over Grainger in Shanghai last month when they met in the quarterfinals and went on to beat the World No. 1, Rachael Grinham in the semi finals of the first professional squash event ever seen on mainland Chinese soil.

In a glittering junior career, the Penang-born star - the most successful Malaysian woman squash player of all time - won the Women's World Junior title in Belgium in June 1999, then became the first person ever to claim the title for a second time by defeating Abdel Kawy in the final in her home town of Penang two years later in 2001.

Nicol has quickly adapted to the rigours of the senior circuit and celebrated a rise to career-high World No7 ranking last month.  Four-times the Asian champion, Nicol has already won three WISPA titles in 12 final appearances.

At the British Open In October she went out in the quarter-finals to top seeded defending champion Rachael Grinham, with whom she mounted a highly successful WISPA Promotional Tour to Shanghai and Beijing in June this year.

Her improving senior record brings the Penang born Amsterdam based 21-year-old Malaysian in as seventh seed this time, with both Kawy and Jackman, second seeded this time, again in her path to the quarter-finals.

Jackman, now aged 31 and married for a second time, was honoured with an MBE during the British Open but seemed to lose focus afterwards to lose fairly comprehensively to Grainger in the semi-finals in Nottingham. She plans to retire after the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and would like nothing better than another World Title to go along with a Gold medal to make up for her British Open disappointment.

Another former World Junior Champion and one of England’s leading players for more than a decade, Jackman’s international career peaked in January 2000 when she became World No1 for the first time, two months after winning the World Open title in Seattle.

In 2002 she established a unique record when she won silver and bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester to become the only woman to win a pair of Commonwealth medals in successive Games.

However, she suffered a major setback in September 2002 when forced to undergo a second career-threatening back operation.  Remarkably, Jackman clambered back up the WISPA world rankings to regain her World No1 spot in February this year – the same month that she established a new record in the British National Championships by winning the women's title for the sixth time.

Cassie has enjoyed one of her best years on the WISPA World Tour, with appearances in six finals and first time success in the World Grand Prix Finals in Qatar. But she lost disastrously to Rachael Grinham in the World Team Final in Amsterdam in September after twice leading in a 75 minute first string encounter.

Jackman has a real problem getting past the diminutive Australian, who will be well remembered as the little kid with steel tooth braces who took the World Junior Championships by complete surprise in Kuala Lumpur, beating a field that looked to be headed by the English led by Jenny Tranfield and the South Africans led by Natalie Grainger.

The older of the two Grinham sisters from Toowoomba in Queensland, Rachael has refined the speedy inventive style of those early junior victories since moving her base to Cairo. 

Arguably, last year's British Open was the turning point for the 27-year-old - who pulled off a stunning semi-final upset over the top seeded Carol Owens, then World No1, before beating Jackman in the final to claim the title for the first time.

Rachael went on to collect four WISPA Grand Prix titles in the following year; the Kuwait Open, Texas Open, Hurghada International and Bahrain WISPA Classic.  Four victories this year over Jackman, helped Rachael succeed her great rival as world No1 in August.

She went down to Vanessa Atkinson in the quarterfinals of the last World Open. Since then she has learned much from a series of tough title fights against most to the top players. As she showed in the British Open Final against a Grainger fresh in from winning the Atlanta Masters and the US Open, and running hot for the biggest win of her life, she can adjust her play and her approach, almost sub-consciously it seems, to deal with most circumstances

Before that final she was match balls down in the third game to Atkinson in the semi-finals and had to fight doggedly back against an opponent who just seemed unable this time to clinch the deal.

Although born in England, Atkinson came through the Dutch junior system, having been resident in the Netherlands since childhood.  She achieved a significant breakthrough in the 2000 British Open when she upset top seed Jackman to reach the quarterfinals for the first time.  Later that year she won her first WISPA title in New York.

The 28-year-old seven times Dutch No. 1 has enjoyed an excellent run of form in 2004, winning six WISPA titles to date – the Kuala Lumpur Open, Qatar Airways Challenge, Irish Open, Malaysian Open, Brunei International and Mexican Open.

Now a recognised star in her homeland, Vanessa was unable to fully capitalise on Netherlands' hosting of the recent Women's World Team Championships in Amsterdam.  Seeded three, the Dutch team finished in sixth place, but attracted a good deal of national media attention for the sport.

The Dutch No. 1 took Owens to four games in last year’s World Open semi-finals. This time she is seeded three and scheduled to meet Linda Elriani in the quarterfinals before another semi-final with the World No1. It is safe to say she might be looking to improve a game or so on her Hong Kong performance and a point or two on her Nottingham performance.

Natalie Grainger, the WISPA President, is another player who will be looking for a step change in Kuala Lumpur after her failure to produce against Grinham the sort of forceful game that dealt so well with Jackman in the British open semi-finals.

Born in Manchester, England, and raised in South Africa, Grainger added another geographical location to her CV when she crossed the Atlantic to take up residence in the USA and subsequently switched allegiance to the country in 2002.

Four WISPA titles in 2002 from eight final appearances signaled a new-look for Grainger - who went on to gain one of the sport’s ultimate rewards when she topped the world rankings for one month in June last year.

After a notable upset over World No1 Carol Owens in the final of the Qatar Classic last December, the 27-yearold former South African champion ran into sickness and injury early in the new year which led her to take an eight month break to recharge her batteries. 

She returned at the Atlanta Masters and US Open in October and walked away with both titles, continuing her successful comeback by reaching the final of the British Open only to be stopped at the final hurdle by Rachael Grinham.

Rachael’s younger sister, Natalie Grinham, features in Grainger’s bottom half quarter of the field. She rested a sore elbow through the British Open. She is due to meet Pakistan’s Carla Khan and then Isabelle Stoehr of France before a quarterfinal against Grainger.

 While her sister has chosen to base herself in Cairo, Natalie elected for life after Toowoomba in Amsterdam. The distance between them has done nothing to reduce their effectiveness as a doubles partnership.

 One of the fastest players on the circuit, she scampers around the court to great effect, playing a more orthodox game than her sister, and is at present only one place below her career high world ranking of four, achieved earlier this year.

 Earlier this year Natalie scored a major success when she won the Dutch Open, managing stirring back to back wins over Vanessa Atkinson and Cassie Jackman in the semis and final respectively, also reaching the semi finals recently in Brunei and Bahrain before rejoining the Australian squad that won the World Team title in her adopted base of Netherlands.

There are no easy quarters in this field. Atkinson has Linda Elriani as well as the improving English youngsters Vicky Botwright and Jenny Duncalf to deal with on the way to a quarterfinal. Grainger starts off with her old South African team mate Annelize Naude in a quarter that also contains the unpredictable Stephanie Brind and the fast developing Laura Jane Lengthorn.

 The 32-year-old Elriani has been a WISPA member since 1990 and is currently the association’s Chairman.  It was in June this year that the well-known Linda Charman married French international Laurent Elriani to introduce a 'new' name into the WISPA ranks.

 She celebrated a career-best World No3 ranking in January 2000, but has lifted three WISPA trophies in the last 12 months. Winner of the 2003 Monte Carlo Classic title, Elriani went on to claim the Apawamis Open crown in January this year, then the Washington Summit trophy, also in the USA.

 In September she rescued England in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Team Championships in Amsterdam, fighting back from 0/2 down against Annelize Naude to win in five and take her country through to the semi-finals.

 During October she reached the final of the US Open, beating Vanessa Atkinson in the semis.

 Fiona Geaves has a hardworking start against Tania Bailey, a former World No4 who has struggled with fitness for a year or more but can still be formidable in the early part of tournaments. Then the experienced eight seed is scheduled to meet Jenny Tranfield, leading to Rebecca Macree.

 A double medallist in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, Geaves won her first WISPA title in Finland in 1990 and became British National champion in 1995.

 Her career enjoyed a significant rejuvenation some four years ago when she began to train at Wycliffe College, a school noted for its squash prowess, near her home in Gloucester. 

 This September, Fiona made her England comeback at the Women's World Team Championships in Amsterdam – and won her sixth successive match in the event to help England reach the final for the 12^th time

 More recently she was forced to pull out at the semi final stage of the Monte Carlo Classic, but although she had not quite recovered enough to reach her seeding position in the British Open she did retain her Over 35 title at the championship.

 In the bottom quarter Jackman gets a qualifier to start and then Shelley Kitchen of New Zealand, who gave her problems in the British Open, while David has to get past a qualifier and then probably Omneya Abdel Kawy, the young Egyptian who on her day can take the front court away from any player in the game.

 And if starting with a qualifier seems easy, it must be considered that the qualifying field in Kuala Lumpur includes the likes of New Zealand Champion Tamsyn Leevey, Welsh Champion Tegwen Malik, Malaysia’s Sharon Wee and Trisha Chua, Engy Kheirallah of Egypt, Australian team members Melissa Martin and Amelia Pittock, Canadian team member Runa Reta, Mexico’s Samantha Teran, Ireland’s Aisling Blake and England’s Alison Waters.