Nicol on track at El Gouna
No 9 Nicol David will face India’s Joshna Chinappa in the second round of the El Gouna International Squash Open in Egypt today.
Nicol, seeded eighth, settled into the tournament at the El Gouna Squash Complex with a hard-earned 12-10, 11-2, 9-11, 11-2 win over Egyptian qualifier Zeina Mickawy in 32 minutes yesterday.
Joshna, who is the 16th seed, was also forced to dig deep before downing Egyptian wild card Rowan Elaraby 8-11, 11-8, 14-12, 114 in 39 minutes.
Nicol was pleased with her performance against Zeina. It was the first time the duo had faced off.
“A strong start for me with the talented Zeina Mickawy today to win 3-1,” said the 34-year-old in her Instagram account.
“It was my first time playing Zeina and kept my grounds to win. On to the next round at El Gouna Squash (Open).”
Nicol, who won gold at the 2010 Delhi and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, suffered a disappointing outing at the recent Gold Coast Games by her high standards.
She left the Commonwealth Games empty handed having gone down to Kiwi Joelle King in the semi-finals and losing to Wales’ Tesni Evans in the bronze playoff.
Also competing in the women’s event at El Gouna is Malaysian qualifier S. Sivasangari who will play Egypt’s second seed Raneem El Welily today.
Nafiizwan Adnan, who had also qualified for the main draw, lost to Egyptian Mohamaed El Shorbagy 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 in the opening round of the men’s main draw on Friday.