Squash: Fired-up Fitz-Gerald stands in way of Joyce hat-trick

LONDON - New Zealand's world No 1 women's player, Leilani Joyce, is being given little chance of winning her third-straight British Open title in Birmingham this week.

Top seed Joyce has three-times world champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the third seed, in her half of the draw. The 32-year-old Australian is charging up the rankings after returning from a knee injury, and many commentators are picking her to win.

Fitz-Gerald has beaten Joyce twice this year and has won seven successive titles since her last defeat on the tour - to Auckland-based Australian-turned-Kiwi Carol Owens in the World Open last November.

Joyce, who plays a qualifier in the first round at the National Indoor Arena tonight (NZT), said she had a good draw.

"You get your good draws and you get your excellent draws, and this is a good draw," she said. "Everyone has to play everybody to be No 1 so ... it's one of those things.

"Basically, I'm happy to be here, I'm happy to have another opportunity at having a crack at the British Open title. This year everyone is playing in the tournament that should be playing, no one has had to pull out through injury."

The Waikato player said her build-up had been similar to last year.

Reports that she had suffered whiplash in a car accident, and had serious blisters to hands and feet, were blown out of proportion, she said.

The British Open, which Joyce called the "Wimbledon of squash," is the one major title Fitz-Gerald has not won. "I've learned to love the game again, and I'm probably a little smarter," Fitz-Gerald said.

Joyce has been given a serve by a prominent British squash writer, Martin Bronstein, who has devalued her wins in 1999 and last year.

She had beaten "nervous" Englishwoman Cassie Campion in 1999 in Aberdeen, and a "fatigued" Sue Wright, of England, in Birmingham last year, he said.

"Joyce was an ebullient and thoroughly captivating winner in Aberdeen, a smile never far from her face and errors dismissed with a laugh," Bronstein wrote. "That seems to have disappeared of late, and with it her flair and determination." NZPA

"Neither Joyce or Owens ... have displayed the sort of consistency that makes Fitz-Gerald such a certainty. It would be good for the game if a couple of them gritted their teeth, left their nerves at home, and decided to win it or die in the attempt".

- NZPA