Rising star Delia ready to take over from Sharon

Delia Arnold has slowly but surely moved up the squash world rankings. And she’s not done yet.

The national No. 3 began the year at 48th spot in the world rankings. Now, more than 10 months later, she is up at the 34th spot.

That has whetted her appetite and the 22-year-old is bent on breaking into the top-30by the end of the year.

Delia’s best achievement to date came in August when she stunned world No. 14 Rebecca Chiu in the final to bag the NSC Satellite No. 2 title.

The Malaysian was then packed off to London for a 10-week training stint under coach Peter Genever.

The training paid off when she won both her qualifying matches to make the main draw of the World Open in Manchester last month.

She, however, lost to New Zealand’s Shelley Kitchen in the first round.

Delia, who returned from London recently, said she had im­proved her game and confidence under Genever.

“I will return to London in January for another two months of training. I hope to further improve my world rankings,” she said.

Delia is also determined to take over the national No. 2 spot from veteran Sharon Wee, who is the world No. 24.

“This has been an excellent year for me and I am confident of becoming the second ranked national woman player by the end of next year,” said Delia, whose next assignment is the Hong Kong Open, which starts tomorrow.

“I will be competing in Hong Kong for the first time and I will have to get past the qualifying rounds.

“I will go all out to win a place in the main draw to further improve my rankings,” added Delia, who will also feature in World Team Championships in Egypt next month.