Sarah-Jane Perry reflects on Black Ball success

By RJ Mitchell

For Sarah-Jane Perry, a reprise of her glory run at last December’s CIB Black Ball Open would be the best way to bring the curtain down on a testing 2021 and provide the perfect springboard into 2022.

By any stretch of the imagination, the Englishwoman’s title success in Cairo last year was of truly epic proportion.

In the semi-finals, Perry survived a ferocious 74-minute five-game battle with New Zealand’s Joelle King, in which she was forced to save a match ball in what was her second five-game encounter en route to the final.

In the title match, Perry then mounted another dramatic escape to come from two games down and save two championship balls to beat home favourite Hania El Hammamy in 75-see-sawing minutes.

Now, with an opening match against the winner of an encounter between her two compatriots Lucy Turmel and Georgina Kennedy, the England No.1 says she can’t wait to return to the scene of her greatest triumph.

Perry, who has returned to the top-5 in the world rankings for the first time since October 2020, said: “Obviously winning the Black Ball last year was a huge achievement for me and clearly I like playing on the court in Cairo and I have approached it as professionally as possible and left no stone unturned.

“Both Lucy and Gina are at their highest ranking this month and have been making good strides and it’s good to see these young English girls coming through and others too like Jasmine [Hutton] showing they can mix it in these big events.

“I’ve been watching what they are doing and keeping an eye on their results and I’m sure they will have a good match in the first round and I will be ready to face the winner in my first match.

“Really it’s been a bit of a mixed year and overall I will look back at it as a successful year in finishing at No.5 but I am always wanting more and I am not going to rest on that and no matter what happens next week I will look to take a rest with some family time and kick on in 2022.

“I have struggled with a niggle in the middle of the year but I still managed to play the Nationals, which I wasn’t sure of right up until the start, so winning it and playing some decent squash was a highlight.

“I obviously enjoy playing on that court in Manchester and of course making the final in the Manchester Open was definitely up there, too. But there were quite a few almost moments when I felt I wasn’t far off really accelerating and kicking on but was just held back by a couple of niggles.

“So, hopefully we have addressed these and 2022 can be just full-on acceleration.”

The 31-year-old has been feeling in better condition after intense training with her long-standing coach Rob Owen at the West Warwicks club.

With her last competitive outing coming in a quarter-final defeat at the US Open by eventual winner Nouran Gohar almost nine weeks ago, Perry says she has finally got over a series of niggling injuries and will head to Cairo in bullish mood.

The British National Champion explained: “I’ve been at home for a while and had a decent training block and really addressed these niggles which were curbing little bits of my training and I’ve been free to do what I needed over the last six weeks and that has been great.

“Particularly over the last two weeks, my specific tournament preparation for the Black Ball has got better and better.

“So I have done the training and been playing some decent squash and we will have to see how it goes.”

The 2020 CIB Black Ball champion continued: “With the 24-draw Gold or 32 draws in these slightly smaller draws they are always going to be tough and you are going to get someone who is good and you just have to be on your mettle.

“I have obviously got to navigate my first match successfully and then I have had some success against all these top girls and it is about trying to produce the game plans needed and then executing them.

“I like a challenge and you’ve got to put yourself up against the best in the world week-in, week-out and having had this training block I am really looking forward to testing myself in that regard.”

Looking forward to 2022, there is no doubt that a strong start at New York’s Tournament of Champions and a Commonwealth Games in her home city of Birmingham in the UK occupy a preeminent place in Perry’s sights.

“There is a big year coming up with the return of quite a few of the big tournaments which is fantastic and it is really looking like a full tour and that is great,” said Perry.

She continued: “ToC is one of those tournaments that has been sorely missed and all of the players are looking forward to going back to New York in January.

“It’s one I really enjoy playing in and I really want to finish this year on a high, start well at ToC and then it’s about kicking on to the Commonwealth Games which is a huge target for me.

“As I am involved behind the scenes a bit and have really seen it start to come together, even though it is seven months away, it is very much coming into view for me and that is all really exciting.”