Atkinson Crowned WISPA Player of the Year

After crowning a sensational year on court by winning the KL Women's World Open title last week in Malaysia, Netherlands squash star Vanessa Atkinson has now been voted the first 'WISPA Player of the Year' in a poll amongst members of the Women's International Squash Players' Association.

The 28-year-old world No3 from The Hague was celebrating the eighth appearance in a WISPA World Tour final this year when she crushed Australia's world No1 Rachael Grinham in 22 minutes for the loss of only four points in the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur.

But she maintained her 100% record by going on to claim her eighth - and biggest - title of the year in grand style when she despatched Rachael's sister Natalie Grinham, the world No5, in straight games in the final.

Egypt's Raneem El Weleily, the 15-year-old from Alexandria who is already 37 in the women's world rankings, is voted 'WISPA Young Player of the Year', and England's Alison Waters received the WISPA membership accolade as 'Most Improved Player of the Year'. Waters, 20, from London, was outside the world top 100 at the beginning of 2002 - but reached a career-high 23 position this year after a series of excellent results on the World Tour which included a victory over ninth seed Omneya Abdel Kawy in this month's World Open.

All three players will receive prizes of a return flight between two points on the Qatar Airways network during next year.

"All the members work hard to improve and to achieve success, and these awards, kindly supported by Qatar Airways, our partner airline, recognise a few players who have shone out this year," WISPA Executive Director Andrew Shelley explained. "However, Rachael Grinham ran Vanessa Atkinson close, and in the 'Most Improved' category Annelize Naude and Madeline Perry (from Netherlands and Ireland, respectively) were two players whose excellent year was recognised without quite winning overall. As for 'Young Player', Belgium's Charlie de Rycke was another Rising Star who was well supported."