No national team place, no problem for Nazihah

Nazihah Hanis Abdul Razak (pic) has been out of the national squash team since last year, but that does not matter to her.

The Perak lass is still playing with the big guns.

She has been training with the Higher Learning Institute team at the Universiti Malaya since last year.

The 23-year-old Nazihah, who is pursuing a degree in health science at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi, was in fact supposed to feature in the second World University Squash Championships in Shanghai, China, next month.

Unluckily for her, the meet has been postponed to a later date.

Nazihah said she was not disheartened at no longer being in the national team as she is still able to compete in the PSA tournaments organised in Malaysia.

“I am also busy with my university studies from morning to late afternoon and it is difficult for me to juggle time for studies and also national-level squash.

“I only train at night at Universiti Malaya as I want to represent Malaysia in the World University Championships,” said Nazihah, who won the mixed team gold and individual bronze at the World University Championships at Universiti Malaya in 2016.

“I focus more on studies now as I need paper qualification. Furthermore, there are many other national women players in the national team to represent Malaysia in tournaments.

“I am just happy to get the chance to play in domestic tournaments to keep myself active in squash,” said Nazihah, who turned professional in 2014 and is now ranked 225th in the world.

Her best rankings was 91 in March, 2017 but she failed to maintain her rankings in the last three years.

Last year, she played in three PSA tournaments and her best outing was only the quarter-finals of the Chongqing International Classic.