| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
AMSTERDAM: Nicol David suggested she has returned quickly to her best form after her British Open shock, taking only 23 minutes to reach the World Open quarter-finals on Thursday.
The record-breaking world number one from Malaysia won 11-3, 11-5, 11-0 against Camille Serme, the 20-year-old Frenchwoman who herself set a record by becoming European junior champion three times.
This express train success carried David into the World Open last eight in defence of her title - a stage she notably failed to reach 12 days ago in Manchester when she was upset by Madeline Perry.
The Irish heroine who has recovered from a horrific mugging could earn another meeting with David, as Perry beat Rebecca Chiu, the former Asian Games gold medallist from Hong Kong, in straight games to reach the quarter-finals in the same half.
"I really feel I brought my game up, and I was very pleased with that match," said a smiling David. "She's a strong contender I had to make sure I kept getting better and better."
David certainly did that, taking the initiative from the start, and working the ball to the back corners with pace and variety and making her energetic opponent scamper to get to the ball.
The world number one showed in the process that she has evolved into a much more orthodox attacking player from the one who used to play much more around her opponents, relying on an ability to harry and contain and with her exceptional speed of foot.
David won the first five points of the first game, five of the first six of the second, and never lost serve in an eleven-point sprint to the finish in the third game.
Serme worked hard and kept going right to the end despite the landslide against her. But apart from a very brief spell when she came back from 1-6 to 4-6 in the second game, she never looked like getting into it.
David won many of her points tight along the backhand wall, and was rarely on the wrong end of the rallies, scoring well both when playing short and hitting long.
Asked if she felt the pressure of expectations in her adopted home city, David replied: "There's always pressure. Everyone has pressure on them. It's whether you want to take on board or not.
"It's whether you want to go out and do your best or do it another way. I just go out there a do the best I can."
She next plays Jenny Duncalf, the fifth seeded British national champion who was her opponent in last year's British Open final in Liverpool and who won 11-9, 11-9, 11-8 against Egypt's Engy Kheirullah.
The other half looks more and more likely to produced a semi-final between the two Grinham sisters, who contested the World Open final in 2007 in Madrid.
Rachael, the elder, and a former world champion had to make a great recovery to win 7-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-3 against Vanessa Atkinson, the former Dutch number one who now lives in England.
Grinham's success earned her a quarter-final with Omneya Abdel Kawy, her old sparring partner from the days when she used to be based near Cairo.
Her younger sister Natalie Grinham, the second seed who now represents The Netherlands, will play Laura Massaro, the England international, in the last quarter, after a dashing 11-4, 11-8, 11-8 win over Kasey Brown, the Australian national champion. - AFP/de
|
