Don't write off Sue for fourth title

The odds are stacked against Sue Wright adding to her haul of three National Championship titles this week.

The 30-year-old has been forced to restrict the number of tournaments she enters as she recovers from viral pneumonia. Also, a new seedings system for the Nationals, which left her only sixth in the pecking order, has further weakened her chances.

However, few would back against Wright following her remarkable performance at October's British Open in Birmingham. She stormed through seven rounds as a qualifier there only to run out of steam in the final, where she was beaten by the then world No1 Leilani Joyce, from New Zealand.

Many had expected the three-times champion to be seeded first for the Nationals, which start on Thursday in Manchester, after Cassie Campion was forced out by a back injury, but the Squash Rackets Association have, for the first time, based their seedings on world rankings. Wright said: "Initially I was hurt, but now I have had time to think about it I just want to show the seedings are wrong.

"I have no idea why they have done it this way. At least the only pressure on me will be what I create myself."

Wright - National champion in 1992, 1997 and 1998 - has been in the past four finals, all against Campion. She will take some comfort from her run at the British Open, which came after a chest infection developed into viral pneumonia in March 1999 and prevented her from playing again that year.