New Zealand may soon have another contender for the world women's No 1 throne if the rise of Shelley Kitchen continues.
Kitchen, 24, produced the best result of her seven-year professional career when she won the Hyder Squash Open in New York yesterday, 8-10, 6-9, 9-0, 9-1, 9-3 over top seedFiona Geaves of England.
New Zealand's No 1 player hoped her outstanding comeback victory over the world No 7 would mark a breakthrough into the elite level.
Her own world ranking has hovered in the late teens but is now likely to climb from 14 into the top 10.
"Ranking-wise, I get heaps more points than my average for this," Kitchen said. "Hopefully it will bump my ranking up a few more places.
"I won a couple of tournaments about three years ago [Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in 2001] but they didn't have many high-ranked players in them. So this is by far my best tournament result."
Prizemoney from the US$15,000 ($24,626) tournament will help English-based Kitchen fulfil the international schedule she wants this year.
She is seeded third at an equivalent tournament in Salt Lake City this week, followed by a tournament in Las Vegas.
Fitness was important in New York. It had improved from her four international tournaments this year where she failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals.
"All my matches before the final had been won in three but they were all quite tough," Kitchen said.
"I was leading in the first two games [of the final] but I couldn't quite finish the last point.
"I think she [Geaves] tired after that, though, and I won the last three quite comfortably.
"Fiona has had some good wins in the last six months and she's a tough competitor. So is [semifinal opponent] Jenny Tranfield. So to beat them back-to-back is a great confidence boost."
Kitchen, has represented New Zealand for the past six years but lived in the shadows of former world No 1 players Leilani Rorani and Carol Owens.
She said she hoped yesterday's win would push her closer to their lofty achievements.
