Perry closes on world top-10 place

Sportswoman of the Month: When it comes to the business of choosing winners of monthly sporting awards there can be a natural enough inclination, no matter how imprudent it might be, to spread the honours around in an attempt to recognise as many sports and their leading participants as possible.

The judges for The Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sports Woman awards aren't that way inclined. The vow was made when the scheme began last year that if the same sportswoman excelled, above all others, each and every month then she would take each and every award, on merit.

Granted, it would make the big announcement at the overall awards ceremony at the end of the year a touch predictable.

But, as it turned out, we have had 15 different winners to date, our first the runner Azmera Gebrezgi in January of last year, the last jockey Nina Carberry, our March winner.

And so, by winning our April award Madeline Perry becomes the first sportswoman to win a second Irish Times/Mitsubishi award, one that should go quite nicely with the bronze medal she collected at the European Team Championships in Amsterdam last month.

The 28-year-old from Banbridge won the first of her awards in December when she rose to 14 in the world professional rankings, her highest position at that point, and took her seventh national squash title in eight years.

Even then there were few Irish sportsmen or women with a higher world ranking in their chosen individual sport, but Perry has since risen to 12th and, judging by her form so far this year, her dream of a place in the world's top 10 is well within reach.

In February she reached the final of the Vassar College tournament in New York, beating world top-20 players Fiona Geaves (England) and Isabelle Stoehr (France) along the way, before losing in five sets to world number five Natalie Grainger (USA).

A week later she won the Buler Squash Challenge Cup in Hong Kong, beating local favourite Rebecca Chiu in the final, and the following month she won her home tournament, taking the Irish Open title at Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club.

She barely had to time to catch her breath before she was off to Qatar where, again, she bettered her seeding, reaching the quarter-finals, only losing to world number four Nicol David (Malaysia).

Next stop was Amsterdam where Perry travelled with team-mates Aisling Blake, the young Sligo player who is now a professional in Holland, Laura Mylotte and Eleanor Lapthorne.

The team was seeded seventh for the tournament but 3-0 victories over France and Denmark in the qualifying group stage put them through to the semi-finals, where they lost to the nigh-on-invincible England team.

Ireland's first bronze finish in almost 20 years was clinched with a superb 3-0 win over Scotland in the third place play-off, with Perry, Blake and Mylotte dropping just one set between them.

It was an exceptional display by the team throughout the tournament, during which Blake and Mylotte won three of their five games.

Included in Perry's four victories were defeats of the French and Scottish number ones, while she gave England's leading player, Linda Elriani, as tough a match as she had all tournament.

So, 16 The Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sports Award winners so far - 14 plus Perry x 2.

We have a sneaky feeling it won't be her last.