CAIRO—Malaysian World No.1 Nicol David collected her 8th World Championship Squash Title at the Wadi Degla Women’s World Squash Championship 2014 in Cairo on Saturday Dec 20, beating Egyptian World No.3 Raneem El Welily in a tough closely fought match.
Welily was 2 games to 1 up, and had 4-match points to take the Championship in the 4th game but David survived each one and then pushed two points clear to take the important 4th game 14-12. David went on to win the 5th game 11-5 to win the Championship 5-11, 11-8, 7-11, 14-12, 11-5, the 78th Tour title for the 31 year old Malaysian Star.
David had another hard 5-game match in the Semi-finals against Egyptian, Omneya Abdel Kawy. After David had won the first game 11-9, Kawy hit back taking two consecutive games 11-9, 11-8 before David took control winning the next two games 11-5, 11-5 to move into the Final.
David picked up her first World Open Championship title in 2005 and has been in the driving seat virtually ever since.
But is time gradually catching up with the Champion? She was surprisingly beaten in the Semi-final of the World Open in 2013 by Egyptian Nour El Sherbini. Certainly the Semi-final and Final in this tournament were tough 60+ minute matches for her, both against Egyptian girls.
Egyptian squash is certainly on the rise with good young players coming through challenging at the top level and likely to take over more top positions soon. But this tournament was in front of Egyptian local supporters and after 3 and 4-tough games in her Semi-final and Final matches respectively, David still had the fitness, skill and mental determination to take the last game(s) 11-5. David is still top of the world and is likely to stay there for a while longer.
