Natalie Marie Grinham (born 16 March 1978 in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) is an Australian former professional squash player. During her career, she has won three

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

gold medals, and finished runner-up at both the World Open and the British Open. She reached her highest career ranking in 2007 when she became the World No. 2. She represented Australia in international squash competitions up to 2006. She is married to the Dutch squash player Tommy Berden, and took up Dutch citizenship in February 2008. Both Tommy and Natalie became the first husband and wife team to win a joint championship in squash after winning the respective trophies at the inaugural edition of the Tranzparanz Open in June 2006 which was held in Almere, Netherlands. Natalie's older sister Rachael Grinham is also one of the world's former leading professional squash players.

Squash career

Grinham's most significant tournament victory to date came at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where she represented Australia. She defeated World No. 1

Nicol David Malay titles#Datuk, Datuk Nicol Ann David (born August 26, 1983) is a Malaysian retired professional squash (sport), squash player. She was the world number one for a record-breaking 108 consecutive months, ceding the ranking in September 2015 ...

in the semi-finals, before going on to beat her sister Rachael in the women's singles final 2–9, 9–6, 9–1, 9–6 to claim the gold medal. She then went on to claim two more gold medals in the doubles competitions – partnering Rachael in the women's doubles, and Joe Kneipp in the mixed doubles. Natalie and Rachael had previously won a women's doubles bronze medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The sisters also won the women's doubles title at the 2004 World Doubles Squash Championships. Grinham has finished runner-up at the World Open three times. In 2004, she lost in the final to Vanessa Atkinson 9–1, 9–1, 9–5; in 2006 she lost to Nicol David 1–9, 9–7, 3–9, 9–5, 9–2; and in 2007 she lost to sister Rachael 9–4, 10–8, 9–2. She was runner-up at the British Open in 2005, losing in the final to Nicol David 9–6, 9–7, 9–6. Grinham is married to the Dutch squash player Tommy Berden and has lived in the Netherlands since 1999. She became a Dutch citizen in February 2008. She last represented Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Under the

World Squash Federation World Squash, formerly World Squash Federation, is the Sport governing body, international federation for the indoor racket sport of Squash (sport), squash. It is recognised by the International Olympic Committee. It is also a member of the Glob ...

's current rules, players must wait for three years before becoming eligible to represent a different country. Accordingly, she has represented the Netherlands from 2009 onwards. Grinham gave birth to her first child in May 2010. She however made a quick comeback to the game winning the Women's Atwater Cup in Canada, upsetting third seed Joelle King in the final of the WISPA World Tour Silver 20 event in March 2011, less than a year after the birth of her son.

World Open

Finals: 4 (0 title, 4 runner-up)

Major
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
final appearances

British Open: 1 finals (0 title, 1 runner-up)

Hong Kong Open: 1 final (0 title, 1 runner-up)

Qatar Classic: 2 finals (0 title, 2 runner-up)

Malaysian Open: 1 final (0 title, 1 runner-up)

Rivalries

Natalie vs. Nicol David

Natalie Grinham and

have a long rivalry history. They have met 30 times during their careers, with Nicol leading their overall head-to-head series 23–7. Nicol is Natalie's most frequent opponent on tour. 16 of their matches have been in tournament finals, including two in the World Open tournament. The World Open 2006 final between Natalie and Nicol is dubbed to be one of the greatest in the Women's World Open history.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grinham, Natalie 1978 births Living people Dutch female squash players Australian female squash players Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists in squash Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in squash Squash players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games World Games silver medalists for Australia Sportspeople from Toowoomba World Games medalists in squash Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Sportswomen from Queensland Australian emigrants Immigrants to the Netherlands Naturalised citizens of the Netherlands Medalists at the 2009 World Games Medalists at the 2013 World Games 21st-century Australian sportswomen 21st-century Dutch sportswomen