from November 2004

There are now some fantastic young players coming out of Egypt, and not just men. The proof being that they are currently World Junior Team Champions.

There are also six different nations represented in the top ten alone - Australia, England, Holland, America, Malaysia and Egypt. Years ago it was more or less only Australian and English players dominating the upper echelons.

Women's Tour on the Up
I think because squash is played in so many countries, with very different and interesting cultures, the attitude towards women's squash has changed and improved. We now have more tournaments seperated from the men, so people and promoters obviously want to see us play in our own right.

We have tournaments in different countries and cities than the PSA, which is encouraging for our sport and also shows what a brilliant job is being done by the WISPA office.

With this in mind, the total prize fund for the WISPA tour annually has also been increasing steadily every single year, this year reaching and exceeding the $1,000,000 mark! Obviously a huge milestone to achieve, especially since the total prize fund was only £199,445 in the year I first started.

Closing Ranks
Recently, since the retirement of Michelle Martin and Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the tournaments are definitely not dominated by one player. Nowadays at every tournament there would be a new champion. It's never been quite as open, and it's really down to who performs well that week, or who is having a good spell at the right time.

Even the first rounds at tournaments are far more closely contested, even in 32 draws, with seeds being knocked out more regularly, showing the strength in women's squash is increasing and improving, which I think is a result of players being more professional in every aspect of their lives.

The Big Issue
Another big issue for squash over the years is obviously getting into the Olympics.

I'm sure I'm not the only player who got extremely fed up having to try to explain to people why squash wasn't in the Olympics earlier this year, and also watching hours of the Athens Games on TV and feeling pretty sick with envy knowing damn well that we deserve to be there too!

The one big footstep in the right direction - but only for us Commonwealth countries - was in 1998 with getting squash into the Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur and then again in 2002 in Manchester. It was a truly fantastic experience to be part of such a huge sporting event and to feel part of a "team England", where there were probably as many as 60 different sports or disciplines with athletes competing their guts out in the hope of getting a medal proudly hung round their necks!

I just hope that in 2012 squash will be in the Olympics - even though I will be FAR too old to even think about competing in them myself. It would be such a HUGE breakthrough for squash in all aspects - future tournaments and sponsors, growth of the game at every level, coaching, coverage on TV, newspapers and the internet, and of course increased funding in a lot of countries too. I'll be keeping everything crossed that will happen for all our future players and champions.

Looking Back
Finally, looking back over the years, one thing for sure is that I wouldn't change the last 14 for anything. Travelling the world and playing a sport professionally is a character-building, incredibly fulfilling, immensely fun and challenging experience and I feel extremely lucky to have been able to follow my childhood dream.

Linda Elriani

Photos by Fritz Borchert, WISPA and Framboise Gommendy