It’s a little-known fact outside South Africa’s squash circles that just less than eight years ago the country was represented by the world’s number one women’s squash player.
Johannesburg-raised Natalie Grainger was 25 at the time and at the top of her game. But she was more recognised by her adopted country, the United States.
Having left South Africa at the age of 19 to play professionally abroad, Grainger went from outstanding junior talent to struggling professional on the international circuit.
Her initial foray into the world of international squash was inauspicious.
‘I got my arse kicked,” says Grainger, in an accent that betrays her roots and isn’t as affected as some American adoptees.
It precipitated a more focused and, by her own admission, ‘professional” approach and Grainger spent the next six years steadily clawing her way up the rankings and travelling the international circuit.
When the big day finally arrived it couldn’t have come at a worse time for Grainger, who remembers the moment her coach called her, ironically while she was visiting South Africa.
Mixed emotions
‘I got there [to number one] and it felt great, but my emotions were mixed,” she says. ‘Squash was so far from my thoughts at that point, because I was in such a bad place, physically and emotionally.”
That’s because Grainger was going through a divorce from her first husband and coping with the death of younger brother Keith, who succumbed to cancer in his third year of study at the University of Cape Town.
It’s also the reason she is in South Africa, paying tribute to her brother at the annual Keith Grainger UCT Open in Cape Town.
It’s obviously a tournament close to her heart and she has big plans for it, working closely with the organisers to take it to a new level in coming years.
Grainger is adamant that South Africa should be a bigger player on the world squash stage and she’s in a position to help facilitate that change.
For the past eight years Grainger has been president of the international women’s squash body, Wispa, and she believes that the country could be doing much more to develop the game.
‘In terms of where squash is in South Africa, we have facilities, we have players, we have some money. What more do you need? There’s even real will, with a lot of people wanting change. What’s the missing ingredient ?” asks Grainger.
The former world number one believes that a starting point would be for quality international tournaments to be staged in South Africa and, before we all baulk at that prospect pleading a lack of funds, sponsorship and government support, Grainger issues a cautionary note.
International event
She says the lowest tier international squash event — a Tour 4 event — would cost local organisers $4 000 in prize money and that alone would qualify it as an international event upon registration.
There are other costs in the form of the registration fee and the actual organising of the tournament, but if one does one’s maths, something in the region of R50 000 to R80 000 should be doable for a sport that has a big following in South Africa.
‘Of course it’s doable”, says Grainger.
That’s why she plans to register the UCT event in the next few years, source the requisite sponsorship, attract international players and show local squash authorities that it can be done.
‘It would be a start and it would allow local players to earn world-ranking points without leaving the country. It would also allow us to have events that are at the right level for developing players in South Africa.”
Grainger says international players would see the tournament as an opportunity to earn world-ranking points for themselves, thereby exposing developing South African players to some quality opposition.
‘It’s a no-brainer,” she says, before citing the example of Malaysia, which is represented by the current world number one, Nicol David, and which has gone the route of developing an international event and throwing its weight behind its flag-bearer on the international stage.
‘We are far more structured than Malaysian squash ever was and yet we’re not hosting one international tournament and we are scraping the barrel, in terms of figuring out how to support our elite players,” says Grainger.
‘The main issues are organisation and vision,” she says, pointing out that she has offered her services and time to local squash authorities, particularly as she’s often in South Africa visiting her parents in Johannesburg.
Even though she’s now an adopted American, living in Greenwich, Connecticut, just outside New York City, Grainger remains a South African at heart.
While she is at the head of international women’s squash, it gives local squash authorities a great opportunity to leverage that connection and tap into the wealth of knowledge she offers, as well as her experience as a former world number one.
‘My heart is always here and I’m South African,” says Grainger.
‘I don’t think you ever lose that.”