Counting on Nicol
HOPE: Malaysia need World No 5 at her best to stand a chance in world team meet
MALAYSIA’S fortunes at the Women’s World Team Championship which begins in Paris today rests on Nicol David rediscovering the form which brought her eight world titles.
Nicol has an admirable record at the world team event, having won 30 matches in a row since her last defeat to Australian Rachael Grinham in 2004.
But Nicol arrives at the tournament without the World No 1 ranking for the first time in a decade with Malaysia facing a tall order to emulate their 2014 run to the final.
To add to Malaysia’s problems, Low Wee Wern has pulled out following a recurrence of a knee injury and replaced by Rachel Arnold.
Two-time national champion Delia Arnold is the only other surviving member from the squad of two years ago with national junior S. Sivasangari set to make her tournament debut along with Rachel.
World No 5 Nicol said Malaysia’s — seeded third behind Egypt and holders England — first aim is to advance past the group stage before working towards the semi-finals.
“It was a huge milestone for us as a Malaysian team (to reach the 2014 final) and we were truly overjoyed to achieve our best-ever result,” Nicol said on the tournament website wsfwomensteams.com. “I was so proud to be part of a team that were fully committed and gave it everything to achieve this silver medal.
“This tournament is always unpredictable because it is a completely different set up compared to playing on the professional tour.
“This makes it very exciting when this tournament comes around and for the Malaysian team, we’ll hope to work towards our seeding. Everything else will be a bonus.”
The championship will see the women revert to playing on a 19inch tin compared to the 17-inch on the PSA Tour, which has seen Nicol struggle to adapt in a year in which she has not reached a PSA Tour final.
“There have been changes in the women’s game externally with the scoring, tin change, players’ participation and technology of equipment that has created different styles of play into women’s squash today,” said Nicol. “It has encouraged a following of younger players to join the tour so we will see many new faces in France.”
Malaysia face Netherlands today before taking on sixth seeds Australia tomorrow in a tie which should decide which team finish top of Group C before wrapping up the preliminary round against Austria on Wednesday.
The encounter with Australia could pit Nicol against fellow former world champion Rachael with the tie then resting on the outcome of World No 15 Delia’s battle against 21st-ranked Donna Urquhart at second-string.
The team finishing on top of Group C will face either France or Hong Kong in the quarter-finals with England awaiting the winners in the semi-finals.
Pahang’s boys and girls teams the teams played to a 1-1 draw after 50 minutes but Pahang kept a cool head to win the shootout 3-1.
Coach Mohamad Sabri Mohamad said his girls could have sealed the tie in regular time.
“We won and I am very happy for
after winning the MHC-1Mas-Milo-KPM National Under-14 Tournament yesterday. everyone because it is our first final and title. However, we wasted too many chances and it just put everyone under a lot of pressure. Thankfully we won.
“These players will now go home and continue to train and hopefully,
some of them will make the team for the Under-16 tournament next,” said Sabri.
Pahang 1 Johor 1 (Pahang won shootout 5-4); Kuala Lumpur 1
Perak 3
Sabah 0;
Malacca 0.
Pahang 1 Malacca 1 (Pahang won shootout 3-1);
Penang 0 Perak 0 (Penang won shootout 3-1);
Johor 1 Singapore 0. By Fabian Peter