Fitz-Gerald In Australian Open Comeback

Australia's five-times World Squash Champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald will make a one-off comeback on the WISPA World Tour when she competes in the Australian Open in Adelaide later this month.

Unbeaten over the previous eighteen months, Fitz-Gerald announced her retirement from the Women's International Squash Players' Association tour in February, three months after clinching her record fifth World title in Qatar. The triumph marked the 61st WISPA title of her career and the 12th of the year, including the Commonwealth Games gold medal and her second British Open title.

"My national title is very important to me and as long as I am capable of playing, I'll always want to compete in the Australian Open," said the three-times champion from Melbourne. "This year I'll have tough competition from Natalie Grinham and other Australian youngsters, but I'm really looking forward to it."

The 34-year-old unranked squash star, still unbeaten since August 2001, has been nominated as top seed for the event from 24-27 July - ahead of Queenslander Natalie Grinham, ranked eight in the world.

"Normally non-WISPA players would have to go through the qualifiers," said WISPA Director Andrew Shelley. "But the board made a special ruling, just for her national title this year only, that only players in the top four in the world would have been seeded ahead of Sarah - as it helps all the other players in the draw not having Sarah totally out of position in the qualification."

1st round draw:

[1] Sarah Fitz-Gerald (AUS) v Qualifier

[6] Kasey Brown (AUS) v Qualifier

[3] Heidi Mather (AUS) v Qualifier

[8] Line Hansen (DEN) v Danielle Davis (AUS)

[5] Dianne Desira (AUS) v Aisling Blake (IRL)

[4] Amelia Pittock (AUS) v Qualifier

[7] Karen Kronemeyer (NED) v Lisa Camilleri (AUS)

[2] Natalie Grinham (AUS) v Mami Nishio (JPN)