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Nicol David triumphs

Source: PTI
July 09, 2006 23:21 IST
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World champion and top seed Nicol David of Malaysia quelled the challenge of defending champion Rachael Grinham of Australia 3-1 in the final to win the Qatar Airways Challenge WISPA World Squash championship at Falaknama Palace in Hyderabad on Sunday night.

The Malaysian's ability to do right things at right time helped her tame the Aussie with a superb 4-9, 9-5, 9-0, 9-0 win.

Knowing her opponent's games well, Rachael tried to put pressure on Nicol and on two occasions protested the referee's calls in the first game.

However, as was seen in her earlier matches, Nicol David took some time to settle down and made a couple of initial errors and the Aussie rose to a 4-0 to 6-2 lead but not without exerting herself before winning the game in 22 minutes.

The victory meant sweet revenge for Nicol, who lost to Rachael in the finals of the last edition in Doha, Qatar.

Nicol, who has not lost to Rachael in their last four meetings, including the British Open final win in 2005, was technically more sound than her rival and her plan to stay at back court and then going around Rachael for her returns worked well.

In fact, Nicol trailed 3-5 in the second game but made use of every opportunity and got better and better to level the scores and then scored six points on the trot for the game.

Nicol displayed deceptive tactics and excellence in stroke play as the match progressed and gave no room for her senior rival to get back into the game.

Having found her rhythm and regained confidence, the 23-year-old Nicol had so much time to look at the opponent and decide when to finish as she wont on to take the next two games also.

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