Just Champion for Cassie
Cassie Campion came up with the greatest win of her career, to take the World Open title with a 44 minute, 9/6 9/7 9/7 victory over hot favourite Michelle Martin.

When the girl from Norfolk became the woman from Yorkshire and then beat world No.1 Michelle Martin in three straight to become World Champion, there was no hesitation in our international panel naming Cassie Campion Player of the Month. 
Martin Bronstein profiles the player who finally claimed a major title.

Campion catches up with Joyce ...
Normal service was resumed in the semis as Michelle Martin shrugged off a tough quarter-final to dispose of England's Natalie Grainger 3-0 and claim her place in the World Open final. This will be Martin's 31st consecutive final appearance on the WISPA tour. Her opponent will be Cassie Campion, who has been improving as the tournament progresses and scored a comfortable 3-0 win over Leilani Joyce, overturning recent history between the two. She will face a hard task in the final though, as Martin bids to take the world title she failed to take last year despite having 8 match balls against the currently injured reigning champion Sarah Fitz-Gerlad. 

Martin struggles into Semis
Tania Bailey's giant-killing run in the World Open finally came to an end, when she went down 3-0 to second seed Leilani Joyce in the quarter-finals. Cassie Campion needed just 24 minutes to book her semi-final place, and Natalie Grainger had a similarly comfortable quarter-final, dropping just 3 points. Hot favourite Michelle Martin was stretched to the limit by compatriot Carol Owens though, needing 78 minutes to come back from 0-1 and 2-1 down to clinch her semi-final spot.

Bailey giant-kills again
England's Tania Bailey pulled off her second upset in the Women's World Squash Championships Thursday with a 10-9, 9-1, 10-9 win over 7th seeded Sabine Schoene of Germany. Bailey is seeded 21st. Her first round victim was Claire Nitch of South Africa. She advances to play second seed Leilani Joyce of New Zealand. All eight of the matches were decided in straight sets. 

March of the seeds (bar one!)
The first round of the World Women's Open Squash Championships was an inexorable march of the seeds. The only one to be defeated by a lower ranked player was 13th seeded Claire Nitch of South Africa who fell to 21st ranked Tania Bailey of England. Otherwise the four top seeds gave up only a total of 24 points and not a single game among them. Top seed Michelle Martin won 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; second Leilani Joyce 9-0, 9-5, 9-0, third Natalie Grainger 10-9, 9-5, 9-3; and fourth Cassie Campion, 9-1, 9-0, 9-0.

FITZ-GERALD'S WITHDRAWAL GIVES MARTIN WORLD TITLE BOOST 18-Oct-99

The withdrawal of Australia's defending champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald from the Women's World Open Squash Championships in Seattle, USA, from 20-24 October, has given world No1 compatriot Michelle Martin the best chance of reclaiming the title she last won in 1995.

Fitz-Gerald, who beat Martin in the World Open final in Germany last November to secure the title for the third successive year, has been out of action since undergoing surgery on her left knee in May. The world No2, who is now planning a return to the WISPA World Tour in the new year, said: "I am very disappointed not to be defending my title in Seattle, but will be following the event closely while training at home in Melbourne."

Sydney-based Martin, who has won the title three times in six World Open final appearances since 1992, is enjoying a sensational period in her career. Unbeaten since the 1998 final, the 32-year-old recently claimed the 50th WISPA World Tour title of her career, and in New York on Friday won her seventh title of the year in her 30th successive tour final.

New Zealand's world No3 Leilani Joyce is seeded to meet Martin in the final at Seattle's Downtown Athletic Club on Sunday (24 October). The 25-year-old from Hamilton has already faced the Australian in three finals this year, but has never before progressed beyond the last eight of the World Open.

England's bid for success in Seattle will be led by world No4 and former South African Natalie Grainger, who last year reached the quarter-finals for the first time. Compatriot Cassie Campion, the world No5 from Norfolk who has twice reached the final, is making a return to the event after missing the 1998 championship due to an ankle injury.

Local interest will be led by the Seattle-based sisters Latasha and Shabana Khan, ranked 19 and 27, respectively, in the world. Placed in opposite halves of the World Open draw, the pair met in last week's Carol Weymuller Open in New York - where 31-year-old Shabana upset the form book by beating the higher-ranked Latasha, 26, in the first round.

Take the SquashPics tour

Final
Cassie Campion bt Michelle Martin
9-6, 9-7, 9-7

Semi-Finals
Cassie Campion bt Leilani Joyce
9-6, 9-6, 9-3
Michelle Martin bt Natalie Grainger
9-7, 9-0, 9-6

Quarter-Finals
Leilani Joyce bt Tania Bailey 
9-2 9-4 9-4
Cassie Campion bt Suzanne Horner 
9-4, 9-0, 9-1
Michelle Martin bt Carol Owens 
6-9, 10-9, 5-9, 9-3, 9-3
Natalie Grainger bt Linda Charman 
9-1, 9-1, 9-1

Second-round
Michelle Martin bt Stephanie Brind
9-6, 9-5, 9-2
Carol Owens bt Liz Irving
9-2, 9-1, 9-1
Natalie Grainger bt Rebecca Macree
9-5, 9-1, 9-3
LindaCharman bt Rachel Grinham
9-5, 9-6, 9-2
Suzanne Horner bt Fiona Geaves
10-9, 9-6, 9-6
Cassie Campion bt Vanessa Atkinson
9-2, 9-1, 9-6
Tania Bailey bt Sabine Schoene
10-9, 9-1, 10-9
Leilani Joyce bt Jenny Tranfield
9-3, 9-1, 9-5

1st Round
Michelle Martin (Aus) bt Melanie Jans (Can)
9-0, 9-0, 9-1
Stephanie Brind (Eng) bt Pamela Nimmo (Sco)
9-4, 5-9, 9-1, 9-4
Carol Owens (Aus) bt Maha Zein (Egy)
9-0, 9-4, 9-0
Liz Irving (Aus) bt Shabana Khan (USA)
9-2, 9-2, 9-6
Natalie Grainger (Eng) bt Kym Keevil (Aus)
10-9, 9-5, 9-3
Rebecca Macree (Eng) bt Janie Thacker (Eng)
9-6, 6-9, 8-10, 9-1, 9-6
Linda Charman (Eng) bt Tegwen Malik (Wal)
9-5, 10-8, 9-4
Rachel Grinham (Aus) bt Marnie Bailey (Can)
7-9, 9-6, 9-3, 8-10, 9-2
Fiona Geaves (Eng) bt Salma Shabana (Egy)
9-1, 9-3, 9-2
Suzanne Horner (Eng) bt Vicky Botwright (Eng)
9-7, 9-3, 7-9, 9-3
Vanessa Atkinson (Ned) bt Shelley Kitchen (Nzl) 9-2, 9-0,9-5
Cassie Campion (Eng) bt Kate Major (Aus)
9-1, 9-0, 9-0
Sabine Schoene (Ger) bt Latasha Khan (USA)
9-1, 5-9, 9-3, 4-9, 9-4
Tania Bailey (Eng) bt Claire Nitch (RSA)
9-10, 9-7, 9-6, 9-1
Jenny Tranfield (Eng) bt Melissa Vacca (Aus)
9-0, 9-0, 9-3

JUST CHAMPION FOR CASSIE
When the girl from Norfolk became the woman from Yorkshire and then beat world No.1 Michelle Martin in three straight to become World Champion, there was no hesitation in our international panel naming Cassie Campion Player of the Month for November 1999.

Martin Bronstein profiles the player who finally claimed a major title.

On October 24 1999 in Seattle, in the State of Washington, Cassie Campion became world champion, a title that, at times, seemed beyond her very considerable talents.

The former world junior champion, then Cassie Jackman, became only the second English player to win the title, 10 years after Martine Le Moignan won it in Holland.

It was a victory and a title that seemed tantalisingly close for so long, but the fates put her into the same time frame as Michelle Martin and Sarah Fitz-Gerald, surely two of the best players in the history of the women's game. While she had notched up victories over both of them, when it came to the big ones, the British Open and the World Open, the two Aussies raised their games and were simply too much for one player to overcome. 

For the last five years Cassie had been world number three and the inevitable questions were being asked: when is she going to stop being the bridesmaid?

In the literal sense, that happened in July this year when she married David Campion and immediately changed her name. And perhaps this change of status played a small part in her losing the 'bridesmaid' tag in squash.

Cassie was a natural hitter of the ball from the time she first took up a racket. "She could hit the ball beautifully," remembers Alex Cowie, the coach who took her to the junior world title. Perhaps this ability to thump the ball was her downfall - she relied on the big shot and it often ended with the sound of tin. Husband David sums it up well:

"Cassie would always have me sitting on the edge of my seat; she'd hit a cracking shot and then she'd hit another cracking shot into the tin. She'd be leading 5-0 and then it would be 5 all and she would lose it. It was a tactical thing rather than a technical thing."

Cassie had the capability of blasting most of the players off the court but could not come up with the big game against the two Aussies. People close to her privately professed frustration at her inability to move up that notch into a mental game.

Marriage to David finally opened the gate to straight talk. Coach David Pearson, who has worked with her for five years, said the full frankness occurred after her performance in Cairo at the Al Ahram International.

"After Egypt she was talked to quite harshly by David and me. We said 'What are you doing? You've got all the ability, you are the most experienced player on the circuit with Michelle and Sarah and you are not fulfilling your potential.' She'd never been spoken to like that before; you always went round the houses with her," Pearson recalls.

Husband David remembers that Cassie herself was very upset after her Cairo performance because she had taken two games from Leilani Joyce 9-0, 9-0 and still lost.

Cassie took the dressing down to heart and Campion says there was an immediate change in her game.

"She was playing tactically and not relying on the big shots to win. She's hitting fewer errors and trying to work the ball more rather than trying to finish the rally. For some reason it has suddenly all clicked," he commented.

In the weeks between Cairo and Seattle, Cassie moved up that notch and, playing in the Yorkshire leagues, was beating strong male players. In Seattle there was another change in her approach. For the first time ever she asked Pearson to have a ten minute chat before she played, to talk about her aims and what she had to do.

"She had never done that before. And between games she was looking me in the eye. She was totally focused," Pearson claims.

"I concentrated on my length and forgot about going for the winners," Cassie agrees. "My short shots weren't rolling nicks, but they were good enough to produce errors or get my opponent out of position. I realise now that's how you win and that's how I should have been playing for some time now," she admits candidly.

In the semi-final she took Joyce apart in three before taking another 3/0 over Martin to win the title.
"I think they were the best two matches of my life," Cassie says. " I won all my matches 3/0 and that was good for me. That's how I like to go through a tournament."

Suddenly she was playing a tactical game, thinking about each shot rather than 'hitting the ball all over the place' (Pearson's words). In the first game she led 5-0 and Martin fought back to 5 all. Instead of losing her head Cassie pushed through.

"We had talked about that situation and David Pearson said that if Michelle caught up I should just keep playing my game, and it worked," Cassie recalls.

Her change of game came as a bit of a shock to Pearson.

"I was surprised that it happened so soon. It was like suddenly watching a more mature person. She continued to pressure Michelle and it went point for point until 7 all and it was Michelle who started to clip the tin. All three games went like that," Pearson says.

The other plus factor for the new World Champion was that she felt as fit as she has ever been and, although the final was hard squash, she was not tired at the end.

"I was prepared to stay on court for however long it took; I knew I was fit enough," she claims.

In recent years Pearson has concentrated on her movement and tactics but in the last year they have been working on holding her shots. She used this to great effect against Martin, who had to stop and then get into motion again.

It seems that finally Cassie Jackman/Campion has reached the plateau of champions. (This is not a new scenario; Sarah Fitz-Gerald had a ten year gap between winning the world junior title and her first senior Open.) 

Cassie maintains that she has turned the corner, that she has seen the light and the days of error-strewn matches are over. 

She spoke to me from the US Open and frankly admitted that it was difficult to get up for this tournament after her big win.

"To be honest, I would rather have flown home to enjoy the victory. All the girls are feeling that way. This is our third tournament in a row. I've got to play Owens and, if I win, I play Joyce in the semis and then probably Michelle in the final. I'd rather be at home," she said. 

Despite this attack of homesickness, the new world champion despatched Owens, Joyce and, for the second time in seven days, beat Michelle Martin, taking a 3/1 decision to become US Open Champion.

"I think she will have new confidence. It was good that Cassie beat Michelle when she was world champion and world number one rather than waiting until she was old and past her peak. My job now is to make her into a great champion."

Cassie Campion will arrive back in Yorkshire with her new-found confidence (and a cheque for $11,500) as well as the title. She will have a whole month to prepare for the British Open and unless something goes disastrously wrong, the girl from Norfolk will be the hot favourite to add that title to her bulging trophy case. Maybe it will save everybody a lot of bother if Mrs Campion sticks an 'h' into her married name. She certainly deserves it.