A week to forget for Nicol
NICOL David ended a miserable week with a third straight defeat to bring her campaign at the World Series Finals, a tournament she won twice before, in Dubai to a close on Thursday.
The former World No 1, who had no chance of reaching the semi-finals when she stepped on court for her final Group B match, succumbed 6-11, 11-4, 11-8 to England’s Sarah-Jane Perry.
The victory was not enough for Sarah-Jane to claim a place in the last-four after World No 1 Nour El Sherbini of Egypt defeated defending champion Laura Massaro, who was already assured of a place in the knockout stage, 611, 12-10, 11-2.
Following her loss to Nouran Gohar at the World Championship in April, Nicol has now lost an unprecedented four straight matches on the PSA Tour.
“I started strongly and I think that Sarah-Jane was trying to find her groove, so I really took advantage of the situation,” said World No 6 Nicol. “In the second, she found her depth more and I was trying to do too much, too soon and I made a few errors.
“I gave her a lot of confidence to get the lead and that gave her the boost to pick her shot. The third game was really close and she just played the big points really well. I had to dig deep, but fair play to her, she played really well today.”
Sarah-Jane now stands at 3-4 in career meetings with Nicol after registering her third consecutive win over the eight-time world champion, including at the British Open in March to reach the final.
In the semi-finals, Nour is to face French top seed Camille Serme, who defeated Egypt’s Raneem El Weleily 11-7, 7-11, 12-10 to remain the only unbeaten player in the women’s competition while Egyptian Nouran downed Alison Waters of England 11-7, 14-12 to set up a showdown with Laura.
Meanwhile, world junior champion Ng Eain Yow stunned top seed Peter Creed to reach the semi-finals of the New Zealand International Classic in Palmerston North yesterday.
Eain Yow’s 4-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-7, 117 win over the Welshman set up a last-four meeting with India’s Mahesh Mangaonkar as he eyes a second consecutive PSA Tour title after winning in Darwin last month.
Fourth seed Mangaonkar prevented an all-Malaysia semi-final by beating Syafiq Kamal 11-4, 9-11, 11-4, 11-4.
National junior Andrea Lee also reached the women’s semi-finals with an 11-3, 12-10, 11-6 win over teammate Aika Azamn in the quarter-finals and will face unseeded Lisa Aitken of Scotland for a place in the final.
Lisa knocked out top seed Amanda Landers-Murphy of New Zealand 7-11, 11-5, 11-13, 11-6, 11-6.
Earlier, fourth seed Andrea swept past New Zealand qualifier Ellie Jones 11-3, 11-7, 11-8 while Aika, the No 5 seed, ousted South Korean qualifier Eun Hwa-yeong 11-7, 11-7, 11-8.
Eighth seed Nazihah Hanis Razak, however, failed to get past the first round after a 11-6, 11-8, 114 loss to Lisa while Zoe Foo succumbed 11-4, 11-8, 12-10 to sixth seed Jemyca Aribado of the Philippines. Devinder Singh