One of the Best...Ever!
by Nick-at-Will

August 25, 2013 - While on the brink (only two weeks to go) of the most important International Olympic Committee vote for squash ever - that of whether or not squash becomes an Olympic sport in 2020, we thought you'd be interested in this one little statistic regarding one of the best female squash-players in the world...ever!

There are currently 247 active members on the WSA (Women's Professional Squash Association, formally WISPA) world tour. Of course we all know who the current #1 female squash-player in the world is...Nicol David of Malaysia, (training in Amsterdam and turning 30 on August 26th) who's held that position now for over seven years!

Nicol David backing the 2020 Olympic bid


However...did you know that of the 247 active female professional squash-players in the world still active, there's only one other who can boast being a former world #1! Do you know who she is? Can you guess? Well...if you don't know the answer to that question...here she is!

Rachael Grinham - August 2004 World #1

Rachael, the petite 5' 2" player is from Australia. Now at age 36, she is ranked #16 in the world - and is the second-oldest player on tour, (as is Madeline Perry of Ireland) behind 40 year-old Latasha Khan of the United States, currently ranked #30.

From the WSA web site...

"A well-known name on the WSA World Tour, Rachael Grinham is a long-established figure at the top of the women’s game.  She won her first WSA World Tour title, the Toulouse open back in 1998, and has since gone on to add a further 31 titles to her haul.

Rachael spent exactly a decade inside the world’s Top 10, falling out in September 2012 for the first time since August 2002.  She spent a 16-month stretch as world #1 during the 2004-2005 seasons and in 2007 she reached five consecutive WSA World Tour finals, claiming four of them.  The last of which was the holy grail of squash events, the World Open, in which she defeated her sister Natalie in Madrid, Spain.  She has won four out of five British Open finals and over the past ten years has won an average of 2.3 titles per year.

Rachael missed a portion of the 2010 season through injury, but managed to keep her spot in the top five, before slipping to six a the end of 2011.  Despite boasting an enviable array of accolades, the highly decorated and experienced player dropped out of the WSA top ten for the first time in ten years in the September 2012 rankings. She consolidated her loss with a Malaysian Open first round defeat at the hands of Omneya Abdel Kawy. Further first round exits in the Carol Weymuller, US and China Open’s has seen the Australian’s ranking dip into the teens, but a quarter-final finish in the Hong Kong Open showed signs that Grinham can still compete at the top level.

2013 has shown Grinham’s resilience, after a semi-final finish at the Tournament of Champions, where she was beaten by younger sister Natalie, followed by a first round appearance in the Cleveland Classic. The next few tournaments have seen a mixed set of results for the former number one with a first round loss at the CIMB KL Open, second round finish at the Allam British Open, quarter final at the Texas Open and winning her 32nd title at the Victorian Open in July."

What a squash career...and still going pretty strong for a gal who's been competing at the professional level since 1994, then world-ranked at #64. And yes...that's 19 years! How many professional athletes can say that! We know you'll make it to 20 Rachael! Good luck!





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