Cornett goes toe to toe with squash star

The player introductions for the Commonwealth Games squash match between Samantha Cornett of Dunrobin and Nicol David of Malaysia were rather lopsided.

Cornett, the three-time Canadian champion who is ranked 33rd in the world, received a proper, tip-of-the-iceberg treatment before the round-of-16 singles match in Gold Coast, Australia.

In contrast, there were a lot of bases to touch for David, the 34-year-old who has won eight world open and two world junior championships, is the two-time defending Commonwealth Games champion, has won 81 professional tournaments titles …

As the announcer spoke, a fully respectful Cornett said to herself: “Yeah, yeah, yeah … I’ve heard this before.”

Despite the long and deserved introduction for her opponent, it may have had a positive effect on Cornett.

“It can be intimidating, but it also lets you play freely. There was no weight on my shoulders,” Cornett said in a telephone interview.

For the first half of the match, it looked as if Cornett might produce a major upset, but then she was tamed by the master.

David required 41 minutes to reach the women’s singles quarterfinals with a 20-18, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3 victory. Cornett dropped into the classic plate (consolation) quarter-finals, where she’ll face India’s Dipika Pallika Karthik.

“It was a battle. She took a lot out of me in that first game. But I was stoked how I fought in the first game,” Cornett said about the longest game in her career.

Cornett had game points at 109, 11-10, 14-13, 16-15, 17-16 and 1817, but couldn’t manufacture the elusive winner in the 17-minute opener. However, she charged into a 4-0 lead in the second game and battled some more to win 11-8, evening the match.

The third and fourth games lasted a combined 14 minutes as David’s consistency, talent and experience wore down Cornett.

“Definitely one of her strengths is she keeps going and makes no errors,” Cornett said. “I made errors and gave up positions (on the court). My conditioning felt good, but my brain was the first thing to show signs of fatigue.”

In other Commonwealth Games action Friday, Canada played its inaugural basketball games. The women’s team rolled past England 80-54, while Australia outscored the Canadian men in every quarter for a convincing 95-55 triumph.

Merissah Russell of the Capital Courts Academy made a solid international senior debut. She registered two points, four rebounds, two steals and one assist. Carleton University’s Catherine Traer had two points and two rebounds.

Carleton guard Munis Tutu scored four points, adding six assists and four rebounds in the men’s game. Jean-Emmanuel Pierre-Charles of the University of Ottawa counted six points and five rebounds, while Arnprior’s Mike Shoveller of Queen’s University had one rebound.

In track cycling individual pursuit qualifying races, Derek Gee of Osgoode and Ariane Bonhomme of Gatineau finished 16th in the men’s 4,000 metres and women’s 3,000 metres. They didn’t advance to the medal races.

Ottawa’s Eli Wall finished fourth in his men’s 100-metre breaststroke heat and fifth in his semifinal. He tied for 10th overall.