CAIRO: NICOL David battled hard on Thursday to reach her 11th semi-final in the World Championship in Cairo as Low Wee Wern spurned a chance to join the top seed in the next stage.
World champion Laura Massaro’s title defence was ended in bitter-sweet fashion by her friend and teammate when she lost in four up-and-down games to Alison Waters in the quarter-finals.
Alison was a 12-14, 11-2, 11-7, 11-9 winner over the player who caused a sensation by snatching the world individual title in Penang nine months ago.
Laura’s defeat means that Nicol is odds-on for her eighth world title after the Malaysian star beat Camille Serme, the sixth-seeded Frenchwoman, 11-9, 11-7, 13-11.
Nicol, the first player ever to top the world rankings for 100 consecutive months, was not always at her best but played well enough by the end to harbour strong hopes of regaining the title today.
If the 31-year-old World No 1 succeeds in that she will not only extend her all-time record of world titles to eight but become the first player ever to lose and regain the world crown in the same year.
“It was a high intensity match,” said Nicol of the 45-minute tussle. “I don’t think we stopped for air at all, because it was all go. And I had to find a lot more in that third game.”
There was always a feeling that Nicol’s exceptional movement would offer an escape if she were to slip into trouble, though it might have been a different kind of match had Camille capitalised on a 9-6 lead in the first game.
That happened at a stage where Nicol was not at her most accurate with her driving and having to work hard physically to stay on terms.
But Nicol got back to 9-9 with the help of some speedy retrieving, whereupon Camille put a backhand sidewall boast down and then a backhand volley into the tin as well, conceding a game in which she had led much of the time.
Nicol applied more pressure in the second game, volleying as often as possible to take time away from Camille, and from 3-3 onwards made better progress.
The third game saw Camille brilliantly save four match points without ever quite getting her nose in front.
It ended with the Frenchwoman placing a drop shot into the tin, but despite that she received fulsome praise afterwards from Nicol.
Nicol played Omneya Abdel Kawy late yesterday in a repeat of the 2010 world final at Sharm El-Sheikh which the Malaysian won in straight games.
The 10th-seeded Egyptian, possibly the most gifted touch player in the women’s game, revelled in cool conditions which encouraged strokes into the front court.
After trailing 0-5 in the first game, Omneya drop-shotted and cross-courted her way to a 12-10, 11-3, 11-4 victory over Wee Wern, the seventh-seeded Malaysian No 2.
Meanwhile, the fifth-seeded Alison beat second-seeded Laura by attacking with a little more variety, by seeing one or two close calls go her way after trailing 7-9 in the fourth game, and by riding the extra self-belief gained from her part in the world team success.
Alison played Raneem el Weleily, the third-seeded Egyptian who reached her fourth world semi-final with an 11-7, 11-9, 11-13, 11-5 victory over her younger compatriot Nour El Tayeb, late yesterday. AFP