Player Shelley Kitchen Country NZL Ranking Last Ranking Highest Ranking 6 ( Sep 2008 ) DATE OF BIRTH 2nd Dec 1979 PLACE OF BIRTH KAITAIA, NORTHLAND, NZ LIVES AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND RACKET HARROW SHOES ASICS CLOTHING ASICS HANDED RIGHT HANDED AGE BEGAN PLAYING 10 CLUB BASED AT BROWNS BAY, AUCKLAND & PONTEFRACT, ENGLAND TIMES PLAYED FOR COUNTRY SENIOR 3 JUNIOR 2 BEST RESULTS SO FAR 2004 WORLD OPEN QUARTER FINALIST, 2006 WOMEN'S WORLD DOUBLES CHAMPION, 2006 COMMONWEALTH GAMES SILVER (DOUBLES) AND BRONZE (SINGLES) AMBITIONS TO BECOME WORLD NUMBER ONE HOBBIES READING NOVELS PHOTO ACTION OTHER Shelley is originally from the small Far North township of Kaitaia, New Zealand. It was there Shelley started playing competitive squash as a ten year old. Through her junior years, Shelley won every New Zealand junior title on offer, as well as numerous Australian and Oceania titles. At age 20, Shelley turned professional, and has competed on the WISPA international circuit since. To date Shelley has achieved a career high world ranking of 11, and has won five international titles. Shelley was a member of the 2002 and 2004 New Zealand Women’s teams that both placed third at the World Teams Championships. In 2006 Shelley won the Women’s World Doubles title with partner Tamsyn Leevey and also a silver (women’s doubles) and bronze medal (singles) at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Shelley is the current New Zealand Champion. And showing fine form on the WISPA Tour during 2007 she beat third seed Rachael Grinham to reach the last eight of the Kuwait Open & repeated the feat later the same month at the Seoul Open to secure another quarter final finish. Although she suffered a surprise defeat to Kasey Brown in her home Central Open she bounced back to take the NZ North Shore title before going on to win the Australian Open, beating Kasey Brown in the final. Strong & athletic Shelley is clearly on the up, as evidenced by her reaching world number 10 slot for the first time in August 2007. If more evidence of her steadily improving form were needed, it was supplied when she stunningly beat favourite Nicol David in the last 16 of the World Open in October 2007. Although she went out to Natalie Grainger in the following round the momentum took her up to a career high of seven in the rankings at the start of 2008, helped by winning the Harrow Greenwich Open in January, where she beat Alison Waters in the final. Although subsequently beaten by Laura Lengthorn-Massaro in both the CIMB KL Open and Texas Open and suffering a surprise loss to Kasey Brown in the first round of the Seoul Open she has become a real threat to all the top players. Her ranking improved to a career best of six in September 2008, helped by a quarter final slot in the CIMB Malaysian Open. But the next three events (Singapore Masters, World Open and Qatar Classic all saw last 16 exits, and all at the hands of the same opponent – Madeline Perry. She did however reach the final of the Carol Weymuller Open before another surprise early exit, the last 32 stage in Hong Kong, to Egyptian Raneen El Weleily. This set of results dropped her back to ten in the WISPA rankings at the end of the year, but during 2009 she did win three NSC titles in Malaysia and especially pleasingly reached the semi finals of her home event, the New Zealand Open. At this point she and partner Anthony Ricketts announced that she was pregnant and so would not be competing for the rest of the year.