MANCHESTER, England, CMC – Guyana’s squash ace Nicolette Fernandes has mixed feelings about her comeback year from a career-threatening knee injury.
England-based Fernandes returned from a two-year absence to the Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISPA) pro circuit this year and although she is happy to have secured a tournament win while climbing up the world rankings, she is not entirely happy with her 2009 campaign.
“It’s been good and bad, I wanted to be further on than I am right now but I think I have to be grateful,” Fernandes told CMC Sport yesterday. Fernandes posted her maiden WISPA tournament win at the Greek Open in Athens earlier this month to put the lid on her comeback season. “I have to be thankful with a title success, I never had one before (at the WISPA level) so in a way I have to be pleased,” she said. Fernandes, 26, had played solidly to secure a semi-final showing at the Santiago Open in Spain in November which earned her a top-100 world rating for the first time in two years.
After recording a few encouraging results on her return to the circuit in March, Fernandes had surged rapidly up the world rankings from 215 in March to 113 in April but it took her another eight months to crack the top-100..
“It’s a work in progress, when I first started back WISPA in March I was definitely off the pace a bit but as I played more, I’ve been getting closer to the level I was before, I still wanted to be further than I am now but I am playing a lot better than where I started,” she said.
Fernandes, who had surgery on her knee in April 2007, had fallen as low as 249th – in January this year – in the WISPA rankings because of her two-year inactivity.
For 2010, Fernandes will target repeating as Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games champion next summer in Puerto Rico before tackling the Commonwealth Games in India in October.
