ROCKY ROAD AHEA AD FOR NICOL AT BRITISH OPEN

PETALING JAYA: Five-time winner Nicol David faces a tough fight to survive in the British Open in Hull, England, from May 15-20.

Nicol, seeded ninth for the prestigious tournament, will face Egyptian Mariam Metwally in the first round.

If she clears her opening hurdle, Nicol should play sixth seed Camille Serme of France, the 2015 champion.

Nicol lost to Serme in her last two encounters - at the Hong Kong Open quarter-finals last year and at the Tournament of Champions (TOC) in New York early this year.

If Nicol pulls through, she has a chance to make up for her Gold Coast Commonwealth Games disappointment.

She can expect to take on either the newly-crowned Commonwealth Games champion Joelle King of New Zealand or Tesni Evans of Wales if she makes it to the last eight.

In Gold Coast, Nicol lost to King in the semi-finals of the women’s singles and her hopes of bringing home a medal was crushed with the defeat to Evans in the playoff for the bronze.

Nicol is seeking a confidence boost in her game over the coming weeks as she looks forward to defending her Asian Games singles title in Indonesia in August.

She is the only Malaysian in the main draw as the others will have to play their way through the qualifying rounds.

Nicol last won the British Open crown in 2014 beating Laura Massaro of England. She has not reached the final since then. Nafiizwan Adnan, who made history as the first Malaysian men’s medallist at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games with his bronze in the men’s singles, did not make the main draw and has to play in the qualifying rounds.