Squash: Top player's eye has been on Olympics

Natalie Grainger (L) and Kiwi Shelley Kitchen put the spotlight on the significance of the New Zealand Squash Open. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Top seed Natalie Grainger could be forgiven for having her mind elsewhere as she prepares for the New Zealand women's open starting in Mt Maunganui tomorrow.

The British-born, South African-raised, United States-domiciled Grainger is world No 2 and a big chance to win the $82,000 Open, which has drawn seven of the world's top 10 players.

But Grainger, 32, is also president of the women's international squash players association and has been a key figure in its bid to win an Olympic place on the 2016 programme. Seven sports - rugby sevens, roller sports, karate, baseball, softball and golf the others - are vying for two spots. The International Olympic Committee's executive makes its recommendation to the full assembly in Berlin this week with the final confirmation to come in Copenhagen in October.

Grainger is an understandably passionate advocate of squash's case and has been heavily involved in the bid for six to eight months.

She can reel off a pile of reasons why it should be included but as for picking up any vibes, she's in the dark.

"It's a closed vote, a secret ballot and people can vote where they go, with no outside pressure," Grainger said yesterday. "My hope is people will look at squash and say 'they've been trying to get in for years and years, and they deserve it'.

"I'm so nervous, and having been so heavily involved in this process, it'll just be such a gut shot not to get in."

The women's game is dominated by Malaysian Nicol David with a cluster in pursuit, including Grainger, Jenny Duncalf and Alison Waters of England and Australians Rachel and Natalie Grinham.

When Grainger ended David's 56-game winning streak last February it was "one of my sweetest victories". "Nicol's been No 1 and pretty unstoppable for the last couple of years. I took a few beatings off her last year but each time I tried to learn something."

Grainger and New Zealand's leading player, Shelley Kitchen, played an exhibition match in world No 10 Kitchen's home town Kaitaia on Monday, which helped her get an idea of the significance of the New Zealand event, which is one of the top six in terms of prizemoney on the world circuit.

The New Zealand men's classic starts tomorrow too, with Auckland's world No 40 Kashif Shuja the top seed.

Hamilton's Joelle King faces a pivotal match in her young squash career today. King, 20, took only 15 minutes to overwhelm national junior representative Lana Harrison (Auckland) in straight games 11-5, 11-1, 11-0 on the glass court in the opening round of qualifying matches yesterday.

She now meets world number 31 Donna Urquhart this afternoon with the winner to advance to the main draw starting tomorrow.

* NZ Open draw

First round:

1-Natalie Grainger (US) v Jaclyn Hawkes (NZ), 6-Madeline Perry (Ireland) v Kasey Brown (Australia), 3-Rachel Grinham (Australia) v qualifier, 5-Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egypt) v qualifier, Annie Au (Hong Kong) v 7-Shelley Kitchen (NZ), qualifier v 4-Jenny Duncalf (England), qualifier v 8-Isabelle Stoehr (France), Rebecca Chiu (Hong Kong) v 2-Natalie Grinham (Netherlands).