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Sarah-Jane(SJ) Perry

Elite Athlete

Squash

My Story

Sport: Squash
Date of Birth: 15th May 1990
Place of Birth: Birmingham, England
Residence: Kenilworth, England
Height: 1.83m/6ft
Handed: Right
Turned Pro: August 2011
Coach: Steve Townsend
Racket: Prince Exo3 Rebel
String: Prince
Shoes: Adidas Adipower Stabil
Clubs: Kenilworth, University of Birmingham, Mullhouse
Product Support: Body Helix, Sigvaris Compression
Number of WSA Tour Titles: 7

Sarah-Jane (SJ) has been playing squash since the age of 5, when her dad first took her and twin brother Tom to Four Oaks Squash Club where he was a member of the team. At the age of 8 the family moved from Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham, UK to the small town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire. SJ continued to play squash, as well as tennis, at Kenilworth Lawn Tennis and Squash Club. When she started secondary school, SJ got introduced to other sports and played on most teams including Field Hockey, Rounders, Netball and Athletics. When she was 11 SJ began to enter a few tournaments for both squash and tennis but took to squash after being asked to play for Warwickshire in the under 13 intercounty championships (she finished 3rd out of 4 in the Warwickshire championships U13!!). Around this time, Steve Townsend became the new coach at Kenilworth and has gone on to become one of the main driving forces behind SJ's squash development to date. However, SJ continued to play hockey, also representing the county and began to make some major strides in Athletics. Her and event was Discus and she progressed from a beginner to placing 3rd at the National U14 Championships in less than 18 months, which began to place time pressures on training as well as competing as weekends. Although SJ continued to compete for a couple more years in Athletics, she decided squash was what she enjoyed most and therefore that usually came first.

It was at Under 15 level that SJ started to show some potential, knocking out one of the top seeds to reach the Semi Final of the British Championships. Her progress continued and at 15 she started to take training more seriously and began attending National Squads in Manchester. After reaching the British Under 17 Final, Quarter Finals of the prestigious British Junior Open and British U19 final at the age of 16, she was rewarded with her first invitation to represent England, at the 2007 European Junior Individual Championships in Herentaals, Belgium. She lost out to eventual winner Camille Serme in the Quarter Finals and again the following year but this time in the Semi Finals. She was part of the England team that travelled to the World Junior Championships in Hong Kong in 2008, defying the seedings to make the Quarter Finals before being outdone (again!) by Camille Serme.

In 2008, SJ made the decision to continue with her education and began studying at the University of Warwick. This would allow her to get her degree without changing her coach and support team. She knew that the combination of sport and study would be easy but she proved her dedication when she won her first national title, taking the British U19 crown at the 3rd attempt and went on to follow this up with the European Junior Individual title a month before her 19th birthday.

6 months later, she underwent arthroscopic surgery on her knee to treat the Patella Tendonopathy she had been suffering with for several years. After this, Sarah-Jane struggled to regain any fitness during the remainder of her time at University, continuing to play but not able to compete at the level she desired. During her time at University however, she reached to British Universities finals, losing to Vanessa Atkinson on both occassions, as well as receiving Warwick Sportswoman of the Year twice and BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Sportswoman of the Year.

Just priort to her final university exams, SJ made the biggest decision of her life to date; she turned down a graduade role at retail giants Tesco in favour of becoming a full time squash player. She has made big strides since this decision and is now working closely with her coach Steve Townsend and as part of the England Squash set up to make impressions on the WSA tour. In her first 12 months on tour she won 2 tour titles and made 2 more finals as well as capturing the British U23 title and increasing her world ranking to 45.

Now in her 2nd year on the tour, Sarah-Jane won back to back tournaments in New York and Mexico, qualified for the World Open and has won her 5th WSA tour title, after taking the Delaware State Open in February 2013.

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