Biography
Irish Number one
Madeline Perry, at the age of 37, would be considered by most people to be a
veteran on the tour. Although it seems that she has other ideas, reaching a career
high of number three in 2011 and lifting her biggest tournament title, the
Australian Open.
Perry broke into the
top 30 in 2001, and won the first of her eleven WSA World Tour titles in 2002
at the Proctor Memorial. She doubled her
tally in two months later in the Mega Italia Open before a two year stretch
without a title, which ended in Hong Kong in 2005 as she claimed the Buler
Challenge Cup. In the same year, she
also won the first of four Irish Open titles in her native homeland.
Madeline saw out 2005
with a string of results above her seeding.
This carried on into the new year and enabled the Irishwoman to break
into the world top ten, almost eight years after playing her first WSA
event.
Since then she has
been a regular fixture at the top end of the women’s game, though a serious
head injury in 2007 caused from a mugging in Italy saw her ranking place dip
back into the ‘teens’ for most of the season.
She claimed back her top ten place in December of 2008 and has continued
to move up the rankings since then, dispelling all thoughts of retirement.
Madeline reached the
quarter finals of the World Open in 2009, and the Australian Open the following
year. 2011 saw the experienced player finish runner-up in the KL Open, before
winning the Singapore Masters event later that summer.
Semi-final placings in the Tournament of
Champions and Cleveland Classic were a good start to 2013. Perry followed this
with a quarter final place at the CIMB KL Open and then her 10th and
11th WSA titles at the Cannon Kirk Irish Open and Texas Open. The
second half of 2013 was mixed for Perry with some first round losses at the
Malaysian Open and China Open but a quarter final appearance at the US Open.
2014 started well for
Madeline as she beat Raneem El Welily to reach the Tournament of Champions
quarter final. She then reached the British National Finals for the first time
in her career. Madeline lost out in five games to Raneem in the World
Championship quarter final in March and reached the Texas Open semi-final in
April. Most recently she suffered a disappointing first round exit from the British Open at the hands of Nicolette Fernandes.