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British Open Will Be Tough As Ever, Says Nicol

April 22, 2008
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_sports.php?id=328471
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KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 (Bernama) -- Reigning world number one women's squash player, Nicol Ann David is all set to bounce back at the prestigious British Open this May.

"I've been training very hard and I'm hoping for the best. I just want to make sure that I can stay on track starting from the first round," said the Penang lass on her preparations for the upcoming British Open squash championship in Liverpool, England from May 6 to 12.

England squash and sports management company, InternationalSPORTgroup has announced that the 2008 Dunlop British Open Squash Championship will be staged in Liverpool, as part of the city's European Capital of Culture 2008 portfolio of events.

The British Open squash championship which was first staged in 1922, is the world's most important, prestigious and longest-established squash championship, and considered as the sports blue ribbon event and the "Wimbledon of Squash".

"The competition will be as strong as always. Everyone will be participating except for Tania Bailey. She pulled out due to injury. All the other top players will be there, everybody's gunning for the honour," said Nicol when met by Bernama recently.

"So far, the preparations have been good. Immediately after the Kuala Lumpur Open (in March), I went back to Amsterdam to continue my training there. I am training very hard with Liz (Irving).

"I just had my exhibition match in Victoria and Vancouver in Canada with Sarah Fitzgerald... that was a good thing to do before going to the British Open," she added.

In the British Open championship, Nicol, once again drawn as the top seed, will be facing a qualifier in Round 1 on May 9, and she will be meeting either New Zealand's Shelly Kitchen or Vanessa Atkinson of the Netherlands in the quarter-finals on May 10.

In last year's championship, Australia's ace Rachael Grinham denied Nicol a hattrick in the finals of the British Open at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.

-- BERNAMA

1 comments:

NicolDavidOnline.com said...

Tough or not, she'll crack it!