Jenny Duncalf

England
Born: 10 Nov 1982
Birthplace: Haarlem, Holland
Residence: Harrogate
Marital status: Single
Highest World Ranking: 2 (December 2010)
WISPA Tour Titles: 7
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 12

Nationals' appearances: 7
Best result: Champion 2007, 2009

Better organised and more consistent, Duncalf has been in the best form of her life, rising to a career-high World No.2 two just before Christmas. In the process she beat the great Nicol David twice in a row, the first person to do that for nearly four years, suggesting Duncalf has added tighter focus to fine movement and skilful shot-making.

Once this was the player who left credit cards behind and lost her passport while travelling. Now she has developed a strength of mind which can help her achieve anything, including atonement for the 2008 Nationals when the demands of being top-seeded titleholder proved narrowly too much.

Last year she joked that she would like to emulate coach Paul Carter by frightening opponents with her fitness. Now she is starting to do that, having spent much of last year at a career-high World No.5 and playing a sequence of fine matches suggesting she is edging nearer the top.

After winning the Irish Open, reaching the Malaysian Open final, and taking Nicol David to four games in the Singapore Masters semi-final, Waters produced an even stronger four-game performance against David in a World Open semi-final she often dominated.

Waters has done well in Manchester too. In 2005 she was the first unseeded player to reach the final of the British National Championships, and in 2008 she won the title. She is good enough to win it back.
 

Alison Waters

England
Born: 19 March 1984
Birthplace: London,
Residence: London
Marital status: Single
Highest World Ranking: 5 (Dec 2008)
WISPA Tour Finals Won: 2
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 9

Nationals' appearances: 6
Best result: Champion 2008

Madeline Perry

Ireland
Born: 11 Feb 1977
Birthplace: Northern Ireland
Residence: Halifax
Marital status: Single
Highest World Ranking: 6 (April 2006)
WISPA Tour Titles: 6
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 16

Nationals' appearances: 5
Best result: semi-finalist 2007, 2009

The former World No.6 ended Nicol David's British Open defence whilst reaching the semi-finals in Manchester five months ago, scored a fine win over Shelley Kitchen while reaching the 2008 World Open semi-finals here, and produced a fine win over Vicky Botwright to reach the same stage at the British Nationals at the same venue a year ago.

So there's not much doubt that the Halifax-based Irish woman feels at home in Manchester!

She is a great fighter who had to recover from a mysterious head injury sustained whilst out walking in Milan, the cause of which remains unknown, after which doctors warned her that she might never again play to the same level. How brilliantly she has disproved that.

Laura Massaro finished last year strongly by winning the Monte Carlo Classic, showing that she is a fixture in the world's top ten.

She has also dropped her hyphenated surname and adopted that of the influential sports psychologist Danny Massaro whom she married in July 2007. That was also the year she made her England debut. Since then her confidence, consistency and strength have all improved, as she has now helped win three European Team titles and became England's only winner in the 2008 World Team final. Not long before, she reached the top ten for the first time and the final of the British Nationals for the first time.

Another first is certainly within reach of her well-constructed, orderly game.

Laura Massaro

England
Born: 2 Nov 1983
Birthplace: Great Yarmouth,
Residence: Preston
Marital status: Married
Highest World Ranking: 8 (July 2008)
WISPA Tour Finals Won: 6
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 12

Nationals' appearances: 7
Best result: Runner-up 2008

Tania Bailey

England
Born: 02 Oct 1979
Birthplace: Stamford
Residence: Stamford
Marital status: Single
Highest World Ranking: 4 (March 2003)
WISPA Tour Titles: 5
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 14

Nationals' appearances: 10
Best result: Champion 2006

Only persistent injury problems have prevented the former World Junior Champion from reaching the very top. They started with a car crash when she was 21 and have continued at regular intervals ever since, most recently causing her to miss the final tournament of the 2009 WISPA World Tour.

Although she still languishes near the bottom of the World's top 20, Bailey is capable of beating anyone once her fitness is again at good levels. She has impressive volleying ability and great experience, having won her first professional title back in 1999 and the British National title four years ago.

Lauren Briggs reached the World’s top 20 for the first time after winning her fifth WISPA World Tour title in Kuala Lumpur in March, beating in the final both the local player Sharon Wee and the Malaysian crowd.

She succeeds on the WISPA Tour despite combining it with coaching three times a week at the RAC club in London. She also does twice a day fitness training, prompting her to judge that “my biggest achievement is still enjoying it, even after all these years.”

She has also been completing further education studies, and furthering her plans to develop her own company – but don't get the impression that Briggs is an enthusiastic part-timer. She almost upset the seedings in the 2008 World Open here, and could certainly do so at the Nationals.

Lauren Briggs

England
Born: 08 Aug 1979
Birthplace: Stanford Le Hope
Residence: Chingford
Marital status: Single
Highest World Ranking: 18 (Dec 2008)
WISPA Tour Titles: 5
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 8

Nationals' appearances: 4
Best result: Quarter-finalist 2008

Dominique Lloyd-Walter

England
Born: 17 June 1981
Birthplace: Harrow
Residence: Guildford
Marital status: Single
Highest World Ranking: 18 (Nov 2006)
WISPA Tour Titles: 6
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 6

Nationals' appearances: 9
Best result: Quarter-finalist 2005, 06, 07, 08

It says much for the twice former British Junior Champion that she has reached five finals on the WISPA World Tour and won all five. Her strong-mindedness is also evidenced by coping with her persistent fear of flying, which, she admits “is not ideal when I am on a plane every couple of weeks”, but which she endures for the sake of competing on the women’s Tour.

Last year she qualified as a personal trainer through a home learning course, which means that, while working towards a place in the World's top 16, she will also be developing her fitness expertise with others.

Sarah Kippax became the first English woman for almost ten years to win three WISPA Tour titles in a row when she captured the Swedish Open, the Swiss Open, and the Malmo Open in 2008, which helped carry her into the world's top 30 for the first time.

Asked to comment on suggestions that her stunning appearance made her the Anna Kournikova of squash, she said “I'll certainly take it as a compliment. I think us squash girls are a pretty good looking group of athletes.”

She has such all-round talents that she might easily have been lost to squash: she was good enough to represent Cheshire at netball, hockey, football, and cross-country as well as her chosen profession.

Sarah Kippax

England
Born: 10th May 1983
Birthplace: Chester
Residence: Chester
Marital status: Single
Highest World Ranking: 23 (July 2009)
WISPA Tour Titles: 7
WISPA Tour Finals Played: 12

Nationals' appearances: 5
Best result: Quarter-finalist 2008, 2009