Season Review: Georgina Kennedy

After a difficult first half of the season, England’s Georgina Kennedy had to battle a season-disrupting illness to come back and reassert herself in the world’s top 10, reach another World Championships quarter final and earn a spot in the CIB PSA World Tour Finals. We caught up with the England No.1 to discuss her 2022/23 season:

GK – “Overall, I’m really happy with how it panned out in the end. Qualifying for the World Tour Finals was something that I didn’t really expect to happen given the way the first half of the season panned out, so I’m really proud of the way I was able to have a really good second half of the season.

“It’s weird because I’m probably going to finish this season at eight in the world, which is where I finished last season. So if you look at improvement on ranking, you would think I haven’t actually done anything or improved a lot, but I think my squash has actually come on a lot this year. I’m always looking to improve a lot of aspects of my game, but I just feel like tactically and technically I’m improving all the time. So it’s always difficult to analyse, but if I I feel like if me today played myself one year ago, it would be close but I would back the player I am now to win.”

Kennedy achieved a life-long dream of becoming a Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist in summer 2022 in Birmingham and admits that the success and the efforts of those championships took their toll on her as she headed into a new PSA season:

GK – “Winning the Commonwealth Games was a huge goal of mine and that moment makes me smile thinking back to it. I think what I’ve learned is that you have a lot of highs and lows in sport and obviously I was on a massive high to win that. Inevitably when you go up a hill I think you’re going to have to come down and for the first time I really experienced the other side of a big win. I didn’t handle it as best as I could, which resulted in months of being ill and my body just not being primed for performance. So it was definitely a learning curve on how to deal with a win like that.

“I just think it also added a lot of pressure too. I was the only one to put the pressure on myself, but I think with a big win like that, it’s easy to just look for the next one straight away and and that obviously wasn’t happening. My health just wasn’t great and I was pining to get back and prove myself again. So I think sometimes I have to step back and look at what I have achieved and be proud of that. As opposed to always wanting more which is perhaps why I’m playing at the top level because you’re never really satisfied. But it’s not really the healthiest attitude to have, I guess. Which is why it makes it even more impressive how the top girls play. They just back it up every single time, like after a huge win they’re playing the next week and they’re back in the finals. It is just incredible and I’m definitely inspired by their attitude and the way they can just back it up all the time.”

The World No.8 claimed a place in the quarter finals of the British Open in the later stages of the season and took the World Champion and eventual winner Nour El Sherbini to five games in front of a packed crowd in Birmingham. Despite the progress made in that match, Kennedy knows that to advance further she will need more performances like that:

GK – “I’ve never really tested the top three at all until El Sherbini and I had that match at the British Open, which was great for me and great for my confidence. I’m under no illusion that El Sherbini wasn’t at her best. I played her at the Worlds the month after and she was back then and it was a completely different story. But you have to take the opportunities when they come, which I wasn’t able to do in the end. 

“I think I said a few times afterwards. I had a 3-2, which should be great, but I didn’t beat her. I’ve had 3-2s with people ranking wise or whatever who I’m supposed to beat or I believe I’m better than and that wouldn’t make me think differently. As long as you get the win you get the win. So you know a lot of people can have a 3-2 against me, maybe on the losing side, and I wouldn’t think that I was going to lose next time. Anyone could have a bad day. Until I beat one of them [the top 3], I’m not necessarily thinking I got close because I don’t really think getting close matters and it’s been been a learning curve the whole season really.

“I think tactically I was pretty clear that day. It is weird that I had it at the Commonwealth Games as well, some days you just feel really good on there and you feel like you’re seeing the ball like a football and everything’s clicking. And at the end I don’t think I had that actual belief in the fifth game to take it, which like I said, it’s an opportunity missed because I didn’t play that fifth game well. But tactically and technically I was happy with the improvements that I was making. It’s just about being extra disciplined in those moments. So there’s a lot that I actually wasn’t happy with in that game. I think there were a lot of opportunities.”

Kennedy missed two months of the season at the turn of the year due to illness and spoke about what actually happened to her and how she was able to come back stronger:

GK – “When I was in my first year of university, 2016 or 2017, I got diagnosed with an inflammatory bowel disease called ulcerative colitis. So I’ve been on medication for it for years, but part of the disease means that it flares up at some points and this can be due to stress or due to the medication not working again. So it flared up after my first event of the season in Texas.

“I was bed-bound for quite a bit. I just couldn’t get it under control. So after a couple of months, I found new medication and that’s been working well. The problem is you don’t really know when it’s going to flare up again or what will cause it. I definitely think me not giving myself adequate time to rest after the Commonwealth Games played a part. My body was kind of screaming at me to rest and I didn’t and that probably played a big part of it.

“So I’m just trying to manage that and keep it under control, but when I can live a completely normal life is when the medication is working. I’m absolutely fine right now. So it’s just about trying to stop those flare ups before they happen.”

Kennedy is already excited to start the new PSA campaign and is determined to work on her weaknesses. Together with coach Ben Ford, the 26-year-old has been working more on her short game so she can mount a challenge on the world’s top five players:

GK – “This season was different because I was in the top 10 most of the time, whereas before I was just trying to climb up. So it was a different, completely different feeling. And I’m proud of the season that I’ve had, I think I haven’t had many losses to players ranked lower than me, which I’m proud of. But obviously, if I want to keep climbing the rankings, I’m going to have to start getting some wins over those who are ranked higher.

“Obviously people expect things from you, which is good. So it just means you have to have a different approach and the mentality of the top girls who are just so relentless in every single match is impressive because it’s difficult emotionally, it takes a lot out of you.

“And I feel like I’m maybe a bit too open with how I’m feeling, which is part of who I am. But maybe I need a bit more of a game face for next season.

“So Ben [Ford] and I are constantly working on my short game and different techniques, trying to find out what works best for me. I think, naturally, I’m quite an aggressive player. So I play a lot on instinct, which is good. It wins me a lot of points, but I think against the top players, it doesn’t work. So it’s kind of me trying to find that balance of being disciplined and using my physicality to tire people out and then playing my short game as opposed to playing on instinct a lot. That can result in me going short when under pressure, which against low ranked players you can get away with, but you can’t against the top players. It just exposes a lot of things when you play against the players who are that level above, so it’s just trying to find that balance get better. 

“Using height out of the back corners, I’ve got a tendency to just run on and hit a lot of balls hard, which again against some players it works, but you get unstuck against a lot of players. I’m just constantly trying to use my physicality to my own benefit as opposed to getting onto the ball too late or too early and rushing and stuff like that. Ben and I are constantly working on a lot of things, which is good.”

The Englishwoman claimed a place in her first World Championships quarter final in Chicago this season after a strong win over Rowan Elaraby. She was then beaten again by eventual champion Nour El Sherbini but Kennedy was very pleased with her championships:

GK – “I was really happy with my performance at the Worlds in Chicago. The whole tournament, I felt really good. When I played [Emily] Whitlock in the first round, I felt comfortable with my technique and tactically I felt very aware which makes everything a lot simpler. I thought I was really clinical and I thought my shot selection was good. So I was really pleased with that week. Obviously El Sherbini brought me back down to earth pretty quickly in the next round, but that’s what she does.”

The 26-year-old claimed two event wins this season, at the Carol Weymuller Open and the Cleveland Classic, and she admits that retaining her title in Cleveland is one of her favourite moments of the season.

GK – “You remember the wins. I guess defending my title in Cleveland was huge for me. I absolutely love it there and I stay with the best family ever. So it was so nice to be back there. I just felt so comfortable and very happy the whole time, and then to be able to defend that title was huge for me. It was my first Silver event win.

“I’d say it was a bit of a bit of a weird tournament because Amanda [Sobhy] and [Nour] El Tayeb both got injured, which obviously opened up the draw a lot. So it was gutting for them but then it was me and Olivia Clyne in the final. It was a huge opportunity for both of us, she was playing incredibly well in that American tour specifically, she had a lot of incredible wins and it was a really tough game. She made it very hard, so I was really proud because at that point, obviously the pressure would have been on me to win and you don’t want to miss an opportunity like that because you don’t know when you’re going to be in the final of a Silver event again. I was just so happy that I was able to come through a really tough match.

“I think I reached the highest ranking of seven this season, which is great. But you have to set yourself targets whether they’re reachable or not. Last season I wanted to set myself the target of top five and it didn’t pan out that way, but I’m still going to try and climb so I think five is a good target to have. 

“Ranked at seven or eight is a good representation of my level because I’ve beaten a lot of the players below that. But above that, I’ve maybe had one win but I’m not consistent enough at all to deserve to be in the top five. I hope that I can start to change that story, I’ll do my best. But this season I didn’t deserve it, next season hopefully I can try.”

Watch the best of Kennedy in action over on SQUASHTV.