NICOL David faces a challenging start to the season after being handed a tough draw for the Kuala Lumpur Open on Mar 4-7.
This year's KL Open, to be held at the Berjaya Times Square from the quarter-finals onwards, has attracted the world's top nine women's players.
World No 1 Nicol will have to be on her guard from the start when she opens against the experienced Madeline Perry, the World No 9 from Ireland.
Although the Malaysian has won all 10 of their meetings on the Wispa Tour, 31-year-old Madeline could pose an early threat after reaching the World Open semi-finals last year before falling to eventual champion Nicol.
A win would pit Nicol against World No 5 Jenny Duncalf of England, who has also yet to win in nine previous meetings against the three-time world champion but can be expected to put up a fight.
Seeded to meet Nicol in the semi-finals is 2007 world champion Rachael Grinham of Australia, who did not have the best of starts to the season when she lost in the semi-finals of the Burning River Classic in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday, where the World No 3 was the top seed.
The final could see Nicol in another instalment of her rivalry with World No 2 Natalie Grainger of the Netherlands, who will be looking to prevent Nicol from winning her 13th consecutive Wispa title.
National No 2 Sharon Wee was handed a wildcard and plays Jenny in the first round, which will also see American World No 4 Natalie Grainger, who rarely travels to play in Asia, making only her second appearance in the KL Open and her first since 2006.
Defending champion Ong Beng Hee is seeded second in the men's draw and opens against a qualifier while third seed Azlan Iskandar faces Omar Mosaad of Egypt.
With Beng Hee and Azlan in opposite halves, a repeat of last year's final could be on the cards but Azlan would have to get past top seed Peter Barker in the semi-finals.
Beng Hee could run into trouble even earlier with Stewart Boswell of Australia, who opens against National No 3 Nafiizwan Adnan in the first round, lurking in the quarter-finals and Adrian Grant of England in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's Shelley Kitchen is the headline attraction at two low-key KL Open tune-up events in Bukit Jalil this month, having entered the NSC Tour 8 No 1 and NSC Tour 12 No 1 tournaments.
Nicol dealt tough draw for Kuala Lumpur Open
Labels: Latest News, Malaysian Squash News, Squash Malaysia, What's New
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12 comments:
Great and good work. Congratulations!!!!
March 4th to 7th. I want to be there! Can I know if we need tickets to watch the matches? If so how much?
Hi!
The tickets for the qualifying rounds at Bukit Jalil are free. But those held at Times Square need tickets. The quarters and semis, if I remember correctly, cost rm15-rm20, whereas tickets for the finals cost rm30.
Hope you can make it!
Thanks for the info. Where to get the tickets?
Tickets are usually purchased on the day itself, but you can also book it by calling the SRAM. But from experience, squash games are not that much of a sell-out, so the important part is not buying the ticket early but arriving and entering early to get a good seat.
If you're lucky, you might even get to sit with Nicol's parents, but note that Datuk Nicol is easier to approach for a photo/autograph during the earlier rounds.
Any idea which day you could be arriving?
Should be arriving on Friday March 6th in the afternoon say around 3. If that's a good time.
3 is good for the semis :)
Cos i'm guessing that nicol's match would start at earliest 6pm for the semis.
Rmb to take lots of photos to share with us! You can send it to us via [website at azuanzahdi dot com], upload it to our Facebook Fan Page or even post it up on your own blog. We would always love to hear about your experience, wether good or bad!
Alright I'll try my best. =)
Thanks a lot :)
how many time that nicol won kl open?
5 times. The last times were in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
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