SQUASH: Nicol completes a perfect 10

World No 1s Nicol David (right) and Amr Shabana pose with their trophies after winning the Hong Kong Open women’s and men’s titles respectively.

JUST like former Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, squash queen Nicol David has her own perfect 10 to savour after completing a remarkable season by winning the Hong Kong Open title yesterday.

Nicol needed to pull out all stops in what was her in sternest challenge yet in the tournament before subduing Australia's Rachael Grinham 14-12, 11-13, 11-8, 11-8 in the 53-minute final.

The win allowed the Malaysian World No 1 to end her 2008 Wispa Tour season undefeated in all 10 tournaments she played while extending her unbeaten run since her last defeat at the 2007 World Open to 53 matches.

But Nicol, who only dropped one game before the final, was far from assured of completing a hat-trick of Hong Kong Open titles as a determined Rachael kept the crowd gathered at the glass court at Victoria Harbour on tenterhooks.

The Australian World No 4 should have taken the opening game when she led 10-6 but instead allowed Nicol to draw level and again squandered game point at 12-11.
Rachael again held game point in the second game when she led 10-8 only for Nicol to score three points in a row to hold game point of her own. But the Australian prevented the second game from going the way of the first by reeling off the next three points to draw level at one-game all.

World champion Nicol led from start to finish in the third game but found herself battling point for point with Rachael in the fourth until the game was tied at 6-6.

Nicol then set up four match points at 10-6 and although Rachael saved two of those, a return which flew out of court gave Nicol a season's ending that could not have been better scripted.

"I guess Hong Kong is my lucky charm especially as it's here that I won my first World Open and it's always very nice to have a lot of Malaysians come here to support me," said Nicol on the www.squashsite.co.uk website.

"Rachael was confident in the four corners of the court today (yesterday) and from the start I knew I was going to have to work very hard.

"When she's on a roll like that, the rallies get longer so you've got to break her between points and find a window to slip yourself in," added Nicol, who improved her record against Rachael to 21-7 all time.

Men's World No 1 Amr Shabana of Egpyt bagged only his second PSA Tour title this year by finishing strongly in his 76-minute 11-9, 13-15, 8-11, 11-2, 11-3 win over Gregory Gaultier of France.