The Hindu : Sport / Squash : Nicol David claims her sixth senior Asian crown

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Monday, Feb 18, 2008
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Nicol David claims her sixth senior Asian crown

S.R. Suryanarayan

Ong Beng Hee overcomes Mohammad Azlan for men’s title

— File photo

Nicol David.

KUWAIT: Malaysia’s Nicol David reached a milestone on Sunday when she bagged her sixth title in the Senior Asian squash championship. In the final, the World No. 1 Nicol defeated Rebecca Chiu of Hong Kong 9-5, 9-2, 9-2.

Later in the men’s final between two Malaysians, Ong Beng Hee beat Mohammad Azlan Iskandar 5-9, 8-10, 9-5, 9-0, 9-7.

The slow-paced match produced interesting rallies, some acrobatic returns and wonderful winners from both players.

Swift and smooth mover on the court, Nicol with the clever use of her wrists executed a delicate drop or hoodwinked the rival with a sharp boast.

Rebecca, who earned the passage to the final after India’s Joshna Chinappa conceded the semifinal match midway, matched strides with her famed rival but to a limited extent.

Once broke through to a handy lead, the rest was easy for Nicol who completed the job in 34 minutes.

Same court

Interestingly the final was played on the centre court, which appeared an unplayable surface only on Saturday causing so much despair to Joshna.

Officials said they were able to get the representatives of the German firm ASB to work on the court surface overnight and unbelievably things were set right post haste. Joshna will have much more to rue seeing the change.

An Indian also featured on the final day of the open events even if it was in the ‘Plate’ event, meant for those who lost in the first round of the main draw.

Surbhi Misra reached the final in the Plate matches but lost to Japanese Kozue Onizawa.

Still the Indian had the consolation of having done something, even if it did not fetch her a medal.

The results:

Men’s singles: Final: Ong Beng Hee (Mas) bt Mohd. Azlan Iskandar (Mas) 5-9, 8-10, 9-5, 9-0, 9-7.

S emifinals: Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt Shahid Zaman (Pak) 9-2, 9-4, 9-6; Ong Beng Hee bt Abdullah Kh. Al-Mezayen (Kuw) 9-3, 9-2, 9-5.

Women’s singles: Final: Nicol David (Mas) bt Rebecca Chiu (Hkg) 9-5, 9-2, 9-2.

Women singles: Plate final: Kozue Onizawa (Jpn) bt Surbhi Misra (Ind) 9-3, 9-0, 9-6.

Semifinals: Surbhi Misra bt Harita Om Prakash (Ind) 9-0, 9-1, 1-9, 9-5; Kozue Onizawa bt Wu Zhen Zhen (Chin) 9-2, 9-3, 9-3.

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