Skip to main content

Excited but cautious

WORLD OPEN: Nicol to take it one match at a time despite home advantage

EVERYTHING seems to point towards an eighth title for Nicol David when the Women's World Championship begins in her own backyard today.

After finding no takers last year, the WSA Tour found a saviour for the 2013 edition of the tournament when Penang decided to take on the responsibility of hosting the prestigious event.
The drive to hold the tournament at the Spice Arena in Bayan Baru is to provide Nicol a chance to defend the world title in front of her home fans.

Factor in Nicol's unbeaten run of 39 matches since last May, winning two tournaments this year without dropping a game and the invincible aura she displays on court, and the outcome might as well be a foregone conclusion.

But Nicol is not one to take things for granted, not when expectations weigh heavily on her, to the extent that the World No 1 even skipped a WSA Tour event in Chicago to focus her energies on this week.

"So far after two tournaments in the United States, I managed to get in two-and-a-half weeks of full training in Amsterdam," said Nicol, 30, yesterday before taking her turn to practice on the glass court at Spice Arena with coach Liz Irving.

"For me it's all about planning and preparing and having the time to train is one of the big priorities before coming here," added Nicol in explaining her decision to skip the Windy City Open earlier this month, won by World No 2 Laura Massaro.

"I have to be careful not to rush and overload on the tournaments.
"There are many big events coming up with the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, World Teams and Asian Championships.

"That is why I have to be quite specific about my schedule and find the time to train."
When Nicol takes to the court today, just after the opening ceremony which the organisers say "will blow minds away", memories of winning her second world junior title in Bukit Dumbar 13 years ago will come flooding back.

Nicol also won the Penang Open in 2006 and the Asian Championship in 2011 in her other successes in her home state.

"That was fantastic," she said of her 2001 win. "It was my second world junior title and I was very emotional.

"To win it in Penang was special and now to have the World Championship here 13 years later is a remarkable feat."

As ever, Nicol would make no bold predictions, preferring to focus on her opening match against England's Emma Beddoes, the 2013 Penang Women's Open winner.

"I am only anticipating the first round. I get in after the opening ceremony and I'm excited to be playing," said Nicol, who beat Emma in straight games at the 2009 Carol Weymuller Open and 2010 Qatar Classic in their only previous meetings.

The 16 first round ties are split into two days with the top-half swinging into action today.

The competition begins with fourth seed Alison Waters taking on India's Joshna Chinappa at 1pm while Australian Rachael Grinham, the only other player in the field aside from Nicol to have won the world title in 2007, meets Nicolette Fernandes of Guyana.

Nicol David

Read more: SQUASH: Excited but cautious - Other - New Straits Times

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uber Cub: Malaysian squad Can Spring A Surprise - Ahmad Shabery

KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) -- Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek remains confident that the national Uber Cup squad can spring a surprise when Malaysia hosts the Thomas and Uber Cup finals at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from May 9-16. He said despite not being the favourite, the women's team was able to surprise everyone by winning the gold medal at the Laos SEA Games. "I am confident they (Uber Cup team) will be able to produce a similar surprise. Not only are they capable of reaching the semi-final, they can go further," he told reporters after having lunch with national shuttlers here Thursday. National badminton Team manager Datuk Syed Abu Bakar Abdullah who echoed the minister's confidence said: "In Laos, nobody expected the women's team to win the world, so why not the Uber Cup? All they need to do is try their very best." Women's team captain Wong Pei Tty said she and her team-mates have set a target of r...
1 comment
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more

Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’

Saya setuju. We are working on more coaches! “ @ManOlimpik : Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’ http://t.co/7D7wmHWaNy ” — Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) June 10, 2014 The benchmark. Can our junior athletes train as hard as Malaysia's world No.1 badminton player, Lee Chong Wei? “IT IS okay lah. The training is not too bad lah. I will try lah … Wah, so hard lah today.” These are some of the common statements I hear from our juniors nowadays. It is not only in badminton. It is the easy-going, laid-back attitude and lack of competitiveness at grassroots level that we have problems producing quality players. I have travelled quite a bit. After ending my decade-long career with the national team, I went to play in the league in Europe. It’s different there. The European athletes know what they want. And they do it with real focus. Even the young ones possess admirable self-control and show a high level of commitment. During my time in the ...
12 comments
Read more