Ford: Kennedy ‘Won’t Leave Any Stone Unturned’ to Get to Top

By RJ Mitchell

Georgina Kennedy may have jumped an astonishing 157 places in the PSA World Tour rankings in the last year but her coach Ben Ford believes there is still “a long way to go to reach her full potential”.

The 24-year-old’s meteoric rise has made her the game’s breakout star culminating in her capture of the Cleveland Classic in January which saw her beat World No.5 Sarah-Jane Perry for the second match in succession.

But Ford, who has masterminded Kennedy’s game since she was 11-years-old, reckons there is still room for improvement in her front court game and in her anticipation and reading of an opponent that will only make her impressive movement more electric.

The London based squash coach has already revised his targets for his charge to a top five ranking by the end of the season. While he also revealed that a golden challenge for glory at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this summer also occupies a preeminent place in Kennedy’s ambitions.

“Gina still has a long way to go to reach her full potential, which is great,” said Ford.

“Her short game still needs to improve, her composure when under pressure must improve but she has beaten SJ twice, Joelle King, Rowan Elaraby, Joshna Chinappa, Olivia Fiechter and Tesni Evans.

“Yet there is still a long way to go and most of the tournaments she has played in the last seven months she has, in my view, probably only played one good match. The other week she probably played well against Olivia Clyne, the week before she played well against Fiechter but in the other matches I would say she was average.

“For example, we had a conversation this week and it was along the lines of what Gina needs to do to beat [Nouran] Gohar and a lot of it is belief but she has to improve her short game by quite a bit, yet in general her game is improving all the time.

“Obviously we had targets set for Christmas which Gina has made and then we set new ones for up to the end of the season and hers were top 10 and my take on that was, it wasn’t adventurous enough. I was sure she would make it easily enough and I was looking at top eight and I think, now, that top five is definitely doable.

“But the Commonwealth Games is the big one and that has been her biggest target since she came back from Harvard and Gina has always said that Gold at the Commonwealths was a huge target for her.”

Yet such is the freshness of her assault on the upper echelons of the women’s game that Ford admits the prospect of facing new opponents is something that the grounded Kennedy still finds hugely motivating.

“Every occasion Gina faces someone new that’s what excites her. Gina was so excited to play [Olivia] Fiechter for the first time in Cleveland, she was excited to play Olivia Clyne for the first time and I know she would love to face Hania [El Hammamy] for the first time and that prospect really excites her.

“Hania is probably someone that Gina has most looked forward to playing and that is probably as they are reasonably similar in terms of their athleticism and physique and Gina believes it will be a good match-up.

“Hania will have the edge on experience but there is no reason why Gina can’t match her physically. So, it is an interesting match-up and we will see how that pans out if it happens. I would guess if it did transpire it would be on the glass which would favour Hania but whatever happens, win, or lose, it will only help Gina in the long run and she will learn from it, then we will go back over it on SquashTV, analyse it and plan for the long run.”

Despite Kennedy’s astonishing athleticism and lightning speed around the court, which underpins a high tempo, high press, high pressure game, some respected observers have raised concerns over her economy of movement.

Ford says the doubters are missing the point and the former World No.82 said: “I’ve seen people comment on Gina’s movement, but I have a different perspective on this. I would say that Gina definitely moves too fast on occasions but that is not down to bad movement that is down to her not reading the game well enough.

“That is why she struggled so much with SJ initially. SJ was holding her, using delay and deception and she just didn’t read it. But the more she played SJ, the more she could read her and the more comfortable Gina has got and I believe it will be the same with Gohar and [Nour] El Sherbini.

“It may be a shock to the system on the first few occasions, as we have seen in her encounters with Gohar, but she will get used to it. I understand that she is sometimes a little bit erratic but again that is more to do with her reading of a shot as normally she has gone the wrong way in the first place and needs to come back from that.

“Once her anticipation and reading of an opponent improves that will not be the case.”

Looking back over their 13-year coaching relationship Ford has no doubt in describing the Englishwoman as a coach’s dream and chillingly has warned the rest of the women’s elite that Kennedy will leave no stone unturned in her bid to get to the very top.

The 46-year-old said: “I think Gina was 11 years-old and she came over to me after she had been coached by a friend of mine who was moving away from squash coaching and he had marked my card that Gina was a talent with huge potential.

“From 11 she started coming over to Bexley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club once a week and it was clear from the start that she was a hard worker and willing to learn and really a coach’s dream.

“When Gina finished her A-Levels at 18 she took a year out to play on the tour but not really seriously, just playing a few tournaments over her break year. Then at 19 she went to Harvard for four years and worked with Mike Way, who coached Ali Farag, there.

“But we still worked together when she was at Harvard and when she came back at Christmas or in the summer we were on court every week and were in contact all the time. In fact when she was in the US, Gina would send me links to her matches so I could watch them back and analyse.

“She came back in March 2020 after finishing her degree at Harvard and we started working properly from then, allowing for lockdowns, but I’d say March 2021 was when Gina really started to put her full focus into squash.

“I have always thought Gina would make top 10 but not as quickly as it has happened, she only started playing PSA Tournaments from June last year so it has basically taken her seven months to make it to the top 10 which is impressive by any standards.

“I also wasn’t sure if she would be as consistent as she has been and that there would have been a few more bumps in the road and she has had the odd match she would have hoped to have played better in but generally it has been pretty plain sailing.

“I’ve worked with a lot of good players who were much better squash players than Gina but none of them have had the attitude that Gina has got. She has never been the most talented squash player but she wants to get better, wants to learn and if you ask her to do something she will do it.

“Gina also works incredibly hard even when I am not on court with her. For example we did a session the other morning and I came off to go on court with someone else but I noticed her bag was still there for the next 30minutes so she had gone to the gym and that was after she had just returned from America the day before.

“But that is the type of girl Gina is, she won’t leave any stone unturned.”