Defending Champion David excited for Women’s
World Championship on Home Soil
 Current
World Champion Nicol David will return to her native
Malaysia for the forthcoming PSA Women’s World Champs - and the
eight-time winner expects the atmosphere to be electric when the
tournament begins at the National Squash Centre, Kuala Lumpur on
25th April.
 The
32-year-old from Penang, who is revered as a national icon in
her home country, has dominated the World Champs in recent
years, lifting the coveted title in eight of the last ten
tournaments to overtake Australia’s Sarah Fitz-Gerald at the top
of the all-time winners list.
Despite her World Championship successes, David has been unable
to claim the iconic title in front of her own fans, bowing out
at the semi-final stage in Kuala Lumpur in 2004 and Penang in
2013, but David is anticipating the partisan support from her
home crowd to give her a boost as she aims for glory.
"It’s certainly exciting to be back in Kuala
Lumpur competing again after quite some time and also playing
the Worlds here again for the first time since 2004 will bring
back many fond memories," said David.
"I’ll make the most of this opportunity playing in Malaysia and
I'm pretty sure the atmosphere will be full of energy in the
stadium. It would be a huge bonus of course [to win the title in
front of her own fans] but my main goal is to just enjoy this
moment to play in Malaysia, while gunning for the challenge at
hand."
 David
has endured a mixed 2015/16 season, with a tenth successive Hong
Kong Open title - 11 including the 2005 World Open in Hong Kon,
David's first - balancing out the disappointment of seeing her
unprecedented nine-year reign at the summit of the World
Rankings come to an end last September, when she was dethroned
by Egypt’s Raneem El Welily.
She has since lost further ground on the top spot, which is now
held by England’s Laura Massaro, after falling to World #5 in
the April World Rankings.
While David concedes that it has been a challenging period, she
insists that the experiences have only served to help her focus
on how to get to the next level in her game.
"The season for me has certainly
been an adjustment," she admitted.
 "Winning
in Hong Kong was such an achievement for me because I could
still bring all of these elements together throughout the
tournament.
As this process is still ongoing, I've been making the most of
my tournaments to work on my consistency with the adjustments. I
have certainly had my own struggles over the past two years and
it reflects on my performances and my ranking.
"However, through these experiences I'm growing as a person and
I’m aiming to take these steps towards my next level of squash."
As she gears up to challenge for a record ninth World
Championship crown, which contains a record $185,000 purse,
David also revealed just what it takes to be crowned the World
Champion.
 "Every
one of those eight World Championship titles has a special
significance in what I had to overcome in life to be able to win
each title," David explained.
"It comes with a lot of hard work, pain, struggles, sacrifice,
and having to dig deep right into my core to find something more
powerful than myself to do what I did throughout those years at
the top.
I couldn’t have done a lot of it without the amazing support I
have with [coach] Liz Irving heading my support team, and my
family and friends always being by my side through my ups and
downs to show me the way forward."
The PSA Women’s World Championship takes place
from 23-30 April and sees David seeded to meet against British
Open champion Nour El Sherbini, who has won the last four
meetings between the pair, in the quarter-finals.
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PSA Women's World Champs 2015(16)
