Sarah Cardwell joined the Tour in 2008 and lifted her first ever career Tour title in January 2012 on home-soil at the Australia Day Challenge where she bested Liu Tsz-Ling in the final.

Cardwell achieved a runner-up finish at the New South Wales Open the following year and narrowly missed out on the WA Open and Mackay Open titles in 2014.

Melbourne-born Cardwell met Tsz-Ling in the final of the South Australian Open in May 2015 but was beaten to the title in her home country. Cardwell continued to reach finals and later on in the year progressed through to the final of the Mackay Open where she was beaten by Vanessa Chu.

Back-to-back titles soon followed for the Australian as she lifted both the Queensland Open and Malaysian Tour Squash VIII titles, beating Lisa Camilleri and Teh Min Jie respectively. Two more runner-up finishes at the City of Perth Squash Challenge Open and China Squash Challenge Cup in 2016 saw Cardwell break into the world’s top 50 for the first time in her career.

2017 brought another final appearance for Australian Cardwell as she finished runner-up at the Delaware Women’s Open, where she was beaten in straight games by Kanzy Emad El Defrawy. She followed that with semi-final appearances at the Winnipeg Winter Club Women’s Open and the Victorian Open in 2017, before also making the last four of the Edinburgh Sports Club Open a year later.

Cardwell had a good run of form in 2018, reaching the quarter-finals in all bar two events she made the main draw. Three consecutive last four appearances, at the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder Golden Open, Squashgym International Squash Classic and South Australian Open, were followed by a runner-up finish at the City of Greater Bendigo International.

She also made the final of the Roberts & Morrow North Coast Open, along with another last four result at the Squash Melbourne Open. Cardwell then made the final in Melbourne and Bendigo a year later, along with a third runner-up finish in 2019 at the Sandgate Squash MS Open.

Following a year where she failed to reach the last eight in any events in 2020, Cardwell bounced back strongly, reaching the final of the Sandgate Open in her first appearance of 2021, losing out to Tamika Hunt in the final. She then made the semis of the Volkswagen Australian Open as well. Cardwell’s last appearance of the year came at the Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Open, where she made the final, losing out to Jessica Turnbull.