The 20-year-old squash sensation will be entering the Pittsburgh Invitational from January 29 to February 02.

Fernandes has been training here for the past month for the event under national coach Carl Ince and is excited about the event and feels comfortable since she has been training in familiar territory.

“I’m excited about this,” she told Chronicle Sport. “I’d love to do this for every tournament, so that I can train from home because it puts me in a better place. I’m more relaxed,” said the bright-eyed former Bishops’ High School student.

Born in a very sporty family and being the first Guyanese female to play professionally, she dreams of training on home soil before every event but it is not so.

She said that there is really no high level of competition here for her, so training abroad is a must.

“I can name a few guys down here who can give me a run, but I need to be around people playing at the highest level, like club and national players.

Mr Ince is a great coach but again I need more of a constant challenge.”

Fernandes is the second Caribbean player to be part of WISPA, Jamaican Marleen West being the first.

She trains thrice daily, going through drills, solo work and either road or court runs and gym training, which she alternates, depending on the conditions at the Georgetown Club Court.

From Pittsburgh, the multi-talented athlete will move on to Manchester, England, where she will continue her training under Ince with some assistance from English National coach David Pearson.

Her aim this year is to improve on her world rankings.

“I want to get my rankings. At the end of the year I want my ability to reflect my rankings.

Last year everything was new to me. I was overwhelmed to be playing professionally, but I lacked experience.

Not wanting to sound arrogant or anything, but people say those women are out of my league, they are not! They just have the experience over me,” she said, having just completed another session of training.

As of January 2004, Fernandes is ranked 110th in the world, having entered her first professional year at the bottom of the table at 136th.

Fernandes has described the year 2002-2003 as ‘humbling’.

“It was the most challenging year so far in my career because I was dominating in Guyana and the Caribbean and it was a lot different, because I couldn’t win. It ‘kinda’ burst my bubble,” she lamented.

I also gained a lot from my coach; he gave me new skills-professionalism, because I had to be perfect on and off the court.”