Yesterday she reached a fresh summit in her squash career recording a gutsy five-game win over England's Alison Waters in the Australian Open final.

In was an emotional victory which she labelled the best of her life, and another inspirational chapter in a career which was almost fatally cut short three years ago. Perry was violently mugged after leaving a restaurant in Italy, and left fighting for her life with with a fractured skull and a severe brain injury.

Doctors warned she may never play squash again, but Perry fought her way back on court and regained a spot in the women's top-10 world rankings.

''It occured right at the top of my career when I was No6 in the world,'' Perry said.

''I knocked my head badly, broke my temporal bone and had bleeding on the brain so I'm pretty lucky to be alive.

''I wasn't even sure I'd be able to get back, I took about a year to get back to playing. To get right back up there again, it's brilliant.''

For more on this story, including details of Perry's path to the final, world ranking, and more of her reacton to her win, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.