Donna Lobban and Rex Hedrick lead 13-strong Aussie contingent competing at the 2022 Australian Open

A contingent of 13 Australian players will take to the court in Sydney tomorrow, facing strong international competition to claim the prestigious 2022 City Tattersalls Club Australian Open title.

In the women’s draw, 2018 Commonwealth Games Mixed Doubles champion Donna Lobban and Sarah Cardwell are the top-seeded Aussies, at no.5 and no.8 respectively. Defending Australian Open champion Rachael Grinham, Jessica Turnbull, Alex Haydon, Erin Classen, Sophie Fadaely and Sze Yu Lee are the other Australians playing in the women’s tournament.

The winner of the 2020 Australian Open, Rhys Dowling will also chase back-to-back honours alongside Joseph White, Nicholas Calvert, Oscar Curtis and Rex Hedrick, who is Australia's highest seed in the men’s draw at no.8.

Hedrick has had a fairly long career on the PSA Tour, his maiden PSA World Tour title dating back to the Australia Day Challenge 2012. After taking a break for a couple of years, which coincidentally aligned with the COVID-19 disrupted seasons, he got back to playing at elite level over the last 12 months.

“I’ve managed to play some tournaments again and have been feeling like I’ve played well in them. I had some decent results,” he admitted.

Those ‘decent’ results include an impressive performance at the Australian National Championships earlier this year, where the soon-to-be 34-year-old won his third national title and confirmed his resurgence on the squash court, after a period where his commitment to the sport had been wavering.

“I think I've been pretty consistent over a long period of time,” Hedrick explained. “I was burnt out and carrying some underlying injuries for a while and I honestly thought that I wouldn't come back to it a few years ago.

“Although in terms of playing competitively again, the lockdowns actually freshened up the body and allowed me to put a good block of training in and return to the level I'd been playing at in the past,” he said.

Hedrick won the Australian Open title in 2018, but he doesn’t have good memories of his last campaign, when he didn’t even make it to the court after tearing his hamstring a week before the event and having to withdraw. This time he’s free from injury and his preparation has been solid enough to leave him hopeful for a good result.

“I've been around for a while now, so It's not about trying to reinvent the wheel. Just making sure that I train correctly in the lead-up, so that I am moving well and feeling sharp out there,” he said.

“It’s been a month or so since my last PSA event, which has given me time to put another little training block in.

“I had a couple of good exhibition hit-outs with Adrian Waller in Melbourne which was good to get a feel for the quality and intensity that will be at the event.”

Current world no. 32 Waller is the number two seed in the draw and one of the favourites for the men’s title after showcasing his good form at the Canberra Open. The English player took the PSA Challenger 20 title in the nation’s capital without dropping a single game.

Hedrick is looking forward to that level of competition and is keen to participate in one of the biggest Australian Open in years, with the Graded and Junior events taking place alongside the main tournament and registering more than 250 entries.

“It’s always great to play in Australia, particularly when there's a big crowd.

“Some of my best memories have been on home soil, and the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games stands out in particular,” he said.

The 2022 City Tattersalls Club Australian Open, the biggest edition of the tournament in over a decade, starts on Wednesday, 26 October at the Sydney University Sport and Fitness Centre. All the action from Round 1 matches played on court #1 and court #3 will be streamed live on the PSA Squash Youtube channel from 1pm onwards. The full draw is available on the PSA website.