Biography
Aisling is Irish and grew up in Sligo, which
is in the North West coast of Ireland. Her squash career started age eight,
playing with her brothers, and was coached by John Kielty at Sligo Tennis
Club.
She had a strong junior career, including winning the Belgian Junior Open and
Irish Nationals several times. Aisling also played for my country at all
age-group levels. She has based herself in Amsterdam since finishing a
business degree in 2004.
Winning the Zwolle Open in Holland, and reaching the semis of the Leinster and
Los Angeles Opens in 2008 were successes, but perhaps the best result of the
year was beating seeded Jaclyn Hawkes 3/2 in the first round of the Qatar
Classic.
Being part of the Liz Irving stable in Amsterdam and training with players such
as Nicol David has clearly been beneficial as 2009 saw her make appearances
inside the world top thirty, and did see her winning an NSC event in Malaysia
in August.
Blake enjoyed a mixed 2012, gaining excellent finishes in the Irish, Des
Pyramides, Macau and China Open’s, often as a qualifying entrant, but also suffered
disappointment in the Mexico and Atlantis Open’s, as well as failing to
progress from round one in the Monte Carlo Classic, in which she was seeded
fourth.
So far in 2013, the Irishwoman found good
form to reach the first round of the Greenwich Open as a qualifier, but fell
short in the Meadowood Pharmacy Open at the quarter-final stage. Since then it has been a mixed set of results
with 1st round defeats at the CIMB KL Open, Irish Open and Allam
British Open but a first Irish National title beating top seed Madeline Perry
in the final was a highlight.