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Donna Lobban Retires From Professional Squash
Former World No.13 Donna Lobban has announced that she has retired from professional squash.
The Australian first joined the Tour in 2005, and made her debut at the Buler Challenge Cup in Hong Kong the next February.
She took her first two wins in back-to-back weeks at the end of 2007, winning the NSC Super Satellite No3 and the NSC Satellite No.6 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Lobban then secured her first win on home soil at the Australia Day Challenge two years later, and followed that with a victory at the Top End Open later that year. She then broke into the world’s top 20 for the first time in April 2010, and reached a career high of World No.13 in May 2011, a position she would occupy in the rankings for a total of five months.
The biggest wins of her career came in 2017 and 2018, when Lobban won the Monte Carlo Squash Classic and the Bahl and Gaynor Cincinnati Cup, and her last victory on Tour came in 2020, when she defeated Julianne Courtice in the final of the Edinburgh Sports Club Open.
Her last appearance on Tour came on home soil at the City Tattersalls Club Australian Open, where she made the quarter finals of the Challenger 30 level tournament.
Internationally, Lobban was a key part of Australia’s team for many years, first featuring at the Women’s World Team Championship in 2008. She appeared at the Women’s World Teams six times, including being a part of the quartet that won the title in New Zealand in 2010.
Lobban also featured at the Commonwealth Games three times and won three medals. She won Gold in the Mixed Doubles with Cameron Pilley in 2018, along with a two Bronze Medals in the Women’s Doubles, which came in 2010 and 2018.
“This January I did not renew my PSA membership for the first time in 18 years. I definitely don’t like the word retirement – but I guess this is it!” Lobban said in a post on Instagram.
“I have been living my dream playing as a professional player on the PSA World Tour for longer than I would have ever thought possible, and to be honest I never wanted it to end! It has been everything I have put my heart and soul in to day-in and day-out for as long as I can remember, and as much as I have loved it, I know the reality is that I can’t do it forever at the level I want to.
“It takes an incredible amount of commitment, sacrifice and hard work to train to be amongst the best in the world, and I guess I’m feeling ready to commit myself to other things in life! I have a new job which I LOVE and am excited about.
“By far and away the biggest sacrifice for me has always been having to live away from my family and friends to do what I love, and I can’t thank my family enough for the support they have shown me throughout my selfish pursuit of this dream.
“I know the biggest thing I am going to miss not playing the tour is the friends I have made all over the world, I just hope I can still manage to see you from time to time even though it might not be as often, please keep in touch!
“To all the people that have contributed and helped me along the way, thank you from the bottom of my heart, it has meant the world.”
