GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-1197233282945943", "Star_Sports_Skyscraper");

Sports

Saturday November 21, 2009

Erratic Nicol still too good for Hawkes

By AFTAR SINGH

KUALA LUMPUR: Nicol David played an erratic game but still managed to get the better of 11th seed Jaclyn Hawkes of New Zealand in the second round of the Qatar Classic in Doha yesterday.

Nicol

World No. 1 Nicol’s game was littered with many unforced errors but she still prevailed 11-9, 11-6, 12-10 in 28 minutes.

Defending champion Nicol, who is gunning for her eighth Women’s International Squash Players Association title, will face seventh seed Laura Massaro of England in today’s quarter-finals.

Massaro had earlier defeated 16th seed and compatriot Tania Bailey 11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10.

“We haven’t played each other for a while, I knew it was going to be tough match. We both had to work hard in all the games,” Nicol was quoted on the website www.squashsite.co.uk.

“Jaclyn started to relax when she was down in the third, got a few points in and I had to bring my game up to make sure I closed it up.

“It’s good to win in three, you always spend the early rounds getting the head right and now I need to bring my game up for the next round.”

Fourth seed Jenny Duncalf of England, who defeated four-time world champion Nicol in the semi-finals of the Carol Weymuller Open in New York on Nov 7, needed just 19 minutes to oust 14th seed Rebecca Chiu of Hong Kong 11-3, 11-8, 11-6 to reach the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, two other Malaysians crashed out in the first round on Thursday.

National No. 2 woman player Delia Arnold lost 12-10, 9-11, 3-11, 7-11 to Camille Serme of France while in the men’s competition, Ong Beng Hee went down 5-11, 6-11, 11-9, 8-11 to Aamir Atlas Khan of Pakistan.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story

Sports Poll