NICOL David edged closer to winning the Macau Open for the first time in only her second appearance at the WSA Tour tournament after beating Jenny Duncalf in the semi-finals yesterday.
The top seeded Nicol won 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 against her former junior rival from England in pursuit of a 77th WSA Tour title and the sixth in 2014.
In the final, Nicol will face Egypt’s World No 3 Raneem El Weleily, who swept former world champion Rachael Grinham of Australia off the court with an 11-3, 11-4, 11-3 win.
Nicol defeated Raneem to win the US Open in Philadelphia last week which avenged the Egyptian’s shock win over the seven-time world champion at the Malaysian Open in September.
In the head-to-head between Nicol and Raneem, the former leads 14-3 and has not lost a match outside Malaysia against anyone since May 2013.
Nicol began the semi-final with a 37-2 head-to-head record against Jenny since their junior days and the English player, once ranked second in the world, had not beaten the World No 1 for five years.
Jenny, now ranked 16th, took a game off Nicol when they last met at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games quarter-finals in August but the Malaysian was not in a charitable mood this time.
Ong Beng Hee, however, could not match Nicol’s run to the final when he exited the men’s semi-finals after an 11-8, 12-10, 11-8 defeat by second seed Omar Mosaad of Egypt.
Seeking to reach his second PSA Tour final of the year, seventh seed Beng Hee seemingly paid the price for a marathon 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 10-12, 11-5 win over fourth seed Marwan El Shorbagy of Egypt in Friday’s quarter-finals. By Devinder Singh