caption fullname coach retired event updated birth_place racquet highest_ranking worldopenresult plays birth_date residence image article_title name turnedpro date_of_highest_ranking
vanessa atkinson during 2009 women 's world open vanessa louise atkinson liz irving 2011 women 's singles 7 january 2010 newcastle , england karakal no. 1 '' ' w -lrb- 2004 -rrb- right handed 10 march 1976 leeds , england vanessa atkinson.jpg vanessa atkinson
 vanessa atkinson 1995 december , 2005
vanessa atkinson

vanessa louise atkinson -lrb- born 10 march 1976 in newcastle , england -rrb- is a former professional squash player from the netherlands , who won the world open in 2004 and reached the world no. 1 ranking in december 2005 .
atkinson was born in england , but her family moved to the netherlands when she was still a child .
she began playing squash as a youngster in dordrecht .
she now resides in harrogate , yorkshire , with her partner james willstrop , himself a professional squash player .
atkinson 's biggest win came in 2004 when she won the world open title in kuala lumpur by defeating fellow compatriote natalie grinham -lrb- at that time still representing australia -rrb- with a score of 9 -- 1 , 9 -- 1 , 9 -- 5 in the final .
atkinson also has won major tournaments in qatar , new york , monte carlo , malaysia and ireland .
atkinson retired from professional play in may 2011 .
