I have not written a participant profile in fairly some time and, in gentle of the unbelievable season she’s had, I assumed it might be a good suggestion to jot down one up on Gina Kennedy.
I like writing content material on squash professionals as a result of I all the time study a ton, and, Gina is from England (like me) which is an added bonus!
A little bit of background to begin with, Gina Kennedy (in accordance with the PSA web site) is 166cm tall, weighs 57kg, and is barely 24 years previous, so she’s acquired loads of time to progress her recreation and keep on climbing the rankings.
Regardless of not being as tall as a few of her opponents on the PSA world tour, Gina is famend for her impeccable velocity and her capacity to grind out actually lengthy, robust, grueling rallies and matches.
She’s a kind of gamers that appears to get to each shot again it doesn’t matter what her opponent throws at her. This model of play might be each bodily and mentally troublesome to face as you have to work very laborious for each single level.
The success of Gina’s enjoying speaks for itself, within the house of only one yr, Gina Kennedy has risen from World No.167 to World No.10.
That is a fully insane achievement.
To be extra exact, out of 55 video games, Gina received 50 of them, she additionally reached 11 finals and gained 9 titles all throughout the final 12 months.
In a current interview with England Squash, Gina stated:
“I owe my rating to Ben (Ford). It feels wonderful to be amongst the highest gamers, and having two English ladies within the high 10 for the primary time since Laura Massaro retired, places England Squash again on the map. I can’t fairly imagine it. It was wonderful to have my photograph on the brand new rankings, I by no means thought I’d get there!”
Picture from Gina’s Twitter
Gina solely lately returned to skilled squash in June 2021, after taking a four-year break to check at Harvard College.
As quickly as she returned, she was on hearth. Gina received seven of her first 9 tournaments, together with the Berkhamsted Linksap Open, TWC Squash Squared Open, and the Springfield Scottish Squash Open. She additionally made it to the ultimate of the Squash On Fireplace Open in that interval.
The following step in Gina’s squash journey, on high of making an attempt to assert some extra prestigious titles, could be to achieve the highest 5 and that is going to be very robust. The usual of squash within the ladies’s high 5 is completely unimaginable.
In response to the ‘Head to Head’ function on the PSA web site, Gina has solely performed Nour El Sherbini (World No.1) as soon as and misplaced 3-0, she’s misplaced to Nouran Gohar on all 3 events they’ve performed, and she or he hasn’t but performed Hania El Hammamy or Amanda Sobhy.
It is necessary to notice that I do not actually suppose this proves something about Gina’s customary of play. She hasn’t actually had the possibility to play these high 4 gamers sufficient to offer a stronger indication of her capacity to push them.
Nonetheless, two matches that actually put Gina on my radar had been each in opposition to World No.5, Sarah-Jane Perry. Perry is an extremely good participant and Gina has overwhelmed her each instances they’ve clashed which proves that she’s acquired what it takes to push the very high ranges of ladies’s squash.
Because the season goes on and Gina begins to push the later phases of larger tournaments, she’ll have extra possibilities to take the win in opposition to these high gamers.
I am actually excited to see how far she will be able to get if she stays on the unimaginable trajectory she’s been on over the previous yr. It’s totally clear that her studying curve is steep and she or he’s acquired the drive and focus to maintain on pushing!
I’ve achieved loads of participant profiles on youthful up-and-coming gamers and it is develop into fairly clear that the subsequent technology of squash goes to be superior.
I usually describe youthful gamers like Gina Kennedy, Hania El Hammamy, Mostafa Asal, and Diego Elias as up-and-comers, however, the truth that they’re all pushing the incumbent squash goliaths corresponding to Ali Farag, Mohamed El Shorbagy, Nour El Tayeb, and Nouran Gohar, exhibits that they are now not up-and-comers.
They’ve already established their identify and popularity at a really early stage of their profession. There’s a lot extra that is nonetheless to return!
