Rachael Grinham

Rachael Margaret Grinham (born 22 January 1977 in Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Australian former professional squash player.

Grinham was the winner of the World Junior title in 1993 aged 16, she had an opportunity to defend in 1995, but was beaten by Jade Wilson from New Zealand in the final.

Around that time she was also part of the Australian Institute of Sport squad.

Since joining the WISPA World Tour during 1994, her array of strokes and strong temperament initially took her steadily towards the top 20, a barrier she finally breached in the middle of 1997.

She won her first tournament in 1998 when she was 22 years old, beating Tracey Shenton for the Open Toulouse Central in France.

She also lost to Tracey Shenton in the same year at the Isostar-Beverwijk tournament, Netherlands.

At the Commonwealth Games in 1998 her partnership with Robyn Cooper brought them a silver medal in the Women's Doubles.

Rachael had a good year in 1999 winning the Swiss Open, Germering Open and Indian Open beating Claire Waddell, Sabine Schoene and Claire Nitch respectively.

She ended the year ranked No. 18 on the WISPA Tour.

Rachael finished 2000 by climbing 6 places in the ranking up to No. 12 in the world.

She won two tournaments, Milo National Open beating the future world No. 1 Nicol David and successfully defended her Indian Open title by beating Salma Shabana, the sister of the male current world No. 1 Amr Shabana.

She climbed 4 places in 2001 to No. 8 in the world.

A family final finally first happened at a WISPA World Tour event in Malaysia in February 2001 when she beat sister Natalie for the Kuala Lumpur title.

Later that year, she beat Nicol David for the DMC title.

The first half of 2002 did not go well for Rachael until she beat England's Tania Bailey for the Singapore Open.

One month later she took the Credit Suisse Privilege Ladies Open, one of the finest squash tournaments in the world beating Natalie Grainger.

Rachael and Natalie had won a women's doubles bronze medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

She climbed to No. 6 in the world by the end of the year.

At the beginning of 2003, she claimed the Vassar College Class of 1932 beating Vicky Botwright.

She reached two finals in Helioplis Open and Hurghada International in Egypt but lost both to former world No. 1 and retired player, Carol Owens.

Arguably, 2003 British Open was the turning point for the 29-year-old, who pulled off a semi-final upset over the top seed, Carol Owens, then the World No. 1, before beating Cassie Jackman in the final to claim the title for the first time.

She ended the year ranked No. 3 in the world.

She reached the World No. 1 ranking in August 2004 and held it for 16 consecutive months.

2004 was far the best year in Rachael's career.

She has based herself in Cairo for a few years and it had proved to be a great place to hone her game.

She may be slight in stature, but there is no doubting her tenaciousness, which saw her become world number one in August 2004.

She started the year by claiming the Kuwait Open, the richest squash event in the world, by beating top seed Cassie Jackman.

Later on, she beat Cassie Jackman again, then the World No. 1, for the Texas Open title.

Three months later, she claimed the Hurghada International in Egypt which she lost last year beating the local favourite, Omneya Abdel Kawy.

She reached the final of Brunei International but lost to Vanessa Atkinson.

After a series of successful tournament wins, Rachael became the world No. 1 in August after dethroning Cassie Jackman.

She continued her run by beating Cassie Jackman again for the Bahrain Classic Title.

She retained her British Open title by beating Natalie Grainger.

She lost again to Vanessa Atkinson in the final of the Qatar Classic Open.

At the World Doubles Squash Championships, Rachael won the women's doubles title in 2004 (partnering Natalie), and the mixed doubles title in 2004 (partnering David Palmer).

She ended the year ranked No. 1.

She held on the top ranking at the beginning of the year.

In April, she failed to defend her Texas Open title where she lost to Vanessa Atkinson.

Later this month, she won her first Qatar Challenge beating Natalie Grainger.

She won the World Open in 2007, and the British Open in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2009.