Perry became the first Irishwoman to win the Australian Open Squash Tournament when she beat England’s Alison Waters in a magnificent five-game final in Canberra. Perry saved two match balls in the fifth game to win the biggest tournament of her career 11-5, 12-10, 6-11, 4-11, 13-11 on the all-glass court at Canberra’s Royal Theatre.
SINI Squash Star Madeline Perry training at SINI with Head Physio Phil Glasgow.
The final was a wonderful advertisement for women’s squash, with the match swinging first one way then the other until fourth seeded Perry closed it out on a controversial no-let call, which caused Waters to throw her racket in disgust and Perry to throw hers in elation. The title also crowned a superb comeback for the 33-year-old from Belfast, who was hospitalised with severe head injuries after she was mugged in Italy three years ago, with doctors unsure whether she would ever play squash again.
Perry was dynamic from the start and caught Waters on the back foot with her court movement and precision. But the Englishwoman stormed back to dominate the next two and level the match. The deciding game went point for point – Waters had match balls at 10-9 and 11-10, which Perry saved. Perry then got to 12-11 and closed out the match when she put in a drop shot and the referees ruled that Waters would not have reached the ball.
“Getting to the final was a big achievement, but winning it was huge for me,” Perry said.
“I won the first two but I wasn’t feeling amazing, I felt a lot of tension in my body and then she really upped the pace in the third and fourth and I couldn’t respond. The fifth was pretty even all the way through, you could see both of us were getting a bit tired and not doing that much. But I stuck in there and took my match ball when it came.”
Perry said she was probably playing the best squash of her career and her win over Jenny Duncalf in the semi-finals was as good as she had ever played.
