Defending Champion David Excited for Women’s World Championship on Home Soil by Sean Reuthe photo squashpics.com
April 21, 2016
- Current World Champion Nicol David will return to her native Malaysia
for the forthcoming PSA Women’s World Championship - and the eight-time
winner expects the atmosphere to be electric when the prestigious
tournament begins at the National Squash Centre, Kuala Lumpur on Monday
April 25.
The 32-year-old from Penang, who is revered as a
national icon in her home country, has dominated the World Championship
in recent years, lifting the coveted title in eight of the last ten
tournaments to overtake Australia’s Sarah Fitz-Gerald at the top of the
all-time winners list.
Despite her myriad of World
Championship successes, David has been unable to claim the iconic title
in front of her own fans as of yet, bowing out at the semi-final stage
in Kuala Lumpur in 2004 and Penang in 2013, but the former World No.1
is anticipating the partizan support from her home crowd to give her a
boost as she aims for glory.
"It’s certainly exciting to be
back in Kuala Lumpur competing again after quite some time and also
playing the Worlds here again for the first time since 2004 will bring
back many fond memories," said David.
"I’ll make the most
of this opportunity playing in Malaysia and I'm pretty sure the
atmosphere will be full of energy in the stadium. It would be a huge
bonus of course [to win the title in front of her own fans] but my main
goal is to just enjoy this moment to play in Malaysia, while gunning
for the challenge at hand."
David has endured a mixed
2015/16 season, with a tenth successive Hong Kong Open title balancing
out the disappointment of seeing her unprecedented nine-year reign at
the summit of the World Rankings come to an end last September, when
she was dethroned by Egypt’s Raneem El Welily.
She has since
lost further ground on the top spot, which is now held by England’s
Laura Massaro, after falling to World No.5 in the April World Rankings.
While David concedes that it has been a challenging period, she insists
that the experiences have only served to help her focus on how to get
to the next level in her game.
"The season for me has certainly been an adjustment," she admitted.
"Winning
in Hong Kong was such an achievement for me because I could still bring
all of these elements together throughout the tournament. As this
process is still ongoing, I've been making the most of my tournaments
to work on my consistency with the adjustments. I have certainly had my
own struggles over the past two years and it reflects on my
performances and my ranking.
"However, through these experiences I'm growing as a person and I’m aiming to take these steps towards my next level of squash."
As
she gears up to challenge for a record ninth World Championship crown,
which contains a record $185,000 purse, David also revealed just what
it takes to be crowned the World Champion.
"Every one of
those eight World Championship titles has a special significance in
what I had to overcome in life to be able to win each title," David
explained.
"It comes with a lot of hard work, pain,
struggles, sacrifice, and having to dig deep right into my core to find
something more powerful than myself to do what I did throughout those
years at the top. I couldn’t have done a lot of it without the amazing
support I have with [coach] Liz Irving heading my support team, and my
family and friends always being by my side through my ups and downs to
show me the way forward."
The PSA Women’s World Championship
takes place between Monday April 25 – Saturday April 30 and sees David
seeded against British Open champion Nour El Sherbini, who has won the
last four meetings between the pair, in the quarter-final.
All
matches will be played at the National Squash Centre, Bukit Jalil where
admittance to the event is free of charge. For more information and
details, visit the tournament website: http://psawwckualalumpur.com/
