Malaysian squash queen Nicol Ann David clinched her seventh consecutive Hong Kong Open title in style after defeating Egyptian 10th seed Raneem El Weleily in straight games in the final at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza on Sunday.
The top seed and world No 1 put a dazzling performance to outclass the two-time former world junior champion, El Weleily with the scores 11-5, 11-4 and 11-9 in just 30 minutes.
Nicol said that the early game in the match was quite difficult for her, as El Weleily played six nicks in a row that kept coming in nicely thus forcing her to keep running.
“Raneem can turn it on whenever she wants it. Like all the girls, she keeps the pressure up, and I need to be so much on my toes.
“Now, I’m going to go back to the training court, and see what I can improve and do better to keep ahead and do better next season,” she said as quoted by www.squashsite.co.uk.
In the men’s category, world No 4 James Willstrop of England had to muster all his strength to beat second seed cum world No 3 Karim Darwish of Egypt with the scores 11-5, 11-9 and 11-4 in 53 minutes.
With the win, Nicol pocketed HK dollar 79,560 (RM 32,319) and a trophy, while Willstrop took home HK dollar 184,275 (RM 74,789) and a trophy.
– Bernama
C. Khor
CJMY
