Francis Aims To Continue Where She Left Off
by Elliot Selby
July 7, 2011- The second half of the Australian Squash Circuit kicks off this week at the Victorian Open in Melbourne.
Melody Francis will be looking to make it three titles in a row after
securing back to back wins at the Millicent Open and South Australian
Open in June. The number one seed rose nine places to a career high
ranking of 44 in this month's list, however if the 22 year old is to go
on to take the title she will have to get past some tricky opposition.
As well as facing some tough competition from some young compatriots, there is a feast of international stars ready to pounce.
Number two seed is Samantha Cornett from Canada. Cornett won her first
title in May at the Torneo Internacional in Guatemala and the tall and
powerful 20 year old is making moves up the ranking. But she could face
a hard opening match against City of Perth Open champion, Korea's Ahn
Eun Chan.
The most dangerous player in Francis' way could possibly be number 8
seed Deon Saffrey. The Welsh number one is ranked a lowly 89, way below
where she should be, after only playing five tournaments in the last
year. However, she has proved she is in good form by lifting her second
title earlier this year at the Delaware State Open, beating Cornett in
the final.
There is also further danger in the face of Scotland's Lisa Aitken, a
potential second round opponent for Saffrey and the Hong Kong duo of
Elise Ng and Liu Tsz-Ling who are set to face off in the quarter
finals.
There are three further tournaments in the Australian Circuit, the
Tasmanian Open, Hitachi Queensland Open and the New South Wales Open
and the competition here only gets tougher.
Francis will be skipping the Tasmanian Open, but it will still feature
all the contenders from the Victorian Open plus Kiwi's Kylie Lindsay,
the top seed at all three tournaments and fast rising Amanda
Landers-Murphy. The second seed will be Czech number two Olga Ertlova.
Francis will return for the Hitachi Queensland Open and New South Wales
Open along with almost all the challengers from the Tasmanian Open. The
draws will be strengthened even further by the presence of world number
41 Korean number one Song Sun-Mi and South African Siyoli Waters.
With such high class fields in all four tournaments, there are numerous
potential winners from all over the globe. If Francis can fend them all
off, then her star will definitely rise even higher this year.