By Kiev Chesney
International squash sensation Nicolette Fernandes will be making a courageous return to the game tonight at the Georgetown Club to compete in the men’s category of the Guyana Squash Association’s Senior National Championships.
After peaking at 27th on the WISPA world rankings, Fernandes was sidelined with a mal-tracking patella – a knee injury caused by the lateral movement of the patella which in turn causes pain during bent activities – and she is now seeded at 226th in the rankings.
Carl Ince, Fernandes’s coach, said that this will be Nicolette’s first real test to see if she is ready to get back to international competition.
“She [Nicolette] came back home to do rehabilitation for her knee injury and I must say that her training has been going quite well. However, this will be her first real test because although I have had her play some of the men before, this is her first competition and I will be judging based on her performance in this competition because usually you tend to give your best effort in a competition.”
Ince also said that he feels that the only way for him to get a fair idea of where Fernandes’s game is at present is if she competes against the men as the ladies may not be challenging enough for her.
“If she plays in the women’s category it would not be a test at all for her because her game is a few notches above the others. However if she competes against the men I can get a fair idea of her game since the men here will have just about the same skill as her world circuit opponents.”
Although Nicolette has a good chance of winning the men’s title, Ince said that he is more concerned with how her knees will hold up to her going out and giving a 100 percent effort.
Ince said that as long as her knees stand up to the test in the GSA Senior National Championships, all that will be left is for them to do agility work and other fine-tuning before she gets back to her international campaign.
When Stabroek Sport caught up with Nicolette yesterday during one of her training sessions she said, “Firstly I want to make it clear that me competing with the men is only because I am trying to get as much competitive experience as possible and I am in no way trying to make a statement of a woman’s ability to compete amongst men or anything like that.”
She also said that she was extremely grateful to the GSA for facilitating her cause as it was an important part of her training to hopefully make a return to the world circuit.
