David was at the brilliant best as she shut out Duncalf 11-8, 11-4, 11-6 to ensure her name is added to the Heather McKay Trophy alongside some of the greatest players the game has ever seen.

The world number one took control from the first game when she jumped out to a 6-1 lead and although Duncalf fought back to level terms, she was always playing catch up and David closed out the opener with a drive deep into the back corner.

David, who is coached by Australia’s Liz Irving, opened another early lead in the second and this time Duncalf was unable to peg it back, the Malaysian wrapping the game up when she was awarded a stroke by the referees.

Duncalf had a better start to the third but at 4-4, David again broke clear and the end was inevitable, the world number one smashing a backhand cross court deep into the corner, leaving Duncalf swinging at air.

“You just know this Australian Open has so much history,” the 27-year-old from Penang said.

“With all those big names on that trophy, you just know you want to get that title as well and I’m really pleased to win it.

“I knew that today was going to be a tough final, she knows my game really well and we play each other a lot.

“I really had to stay consistent in there, I was moving well, I focussed well and I just stayed on my game.”

David said her good starts to the first two games had given her a big advantage.

“Knowing I was watching the ball well, I could move well and I had to give her no time to play her shots, because she is so dangerous when she has time,” David said.

“I was trying to keep the ball going and not make any errors.”

Duncalf conceded her slow start had cost her dearly.

“You’re always playing catch-up. Especially the first, it ended up being pretty close so those few points make a difference,” Duncalf said.

“She gets everything back, against Nicol you’ve almost got to play a run of winners because in the actual rallies she picks up most shots, which you’ve got to try and let not frustrate you.

“She’s a great mover and a great retriever which makes it quite difficult, but you’ve still got to be positive and take it in when you can.”

Nicol with men's champion, Ramy Ashour who stunned World No. 1, Nick Matthew in a spectacular display of squash.

Final:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) 11/8 11/6 11/5

Semi Finals:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [3] Rachael Grinham (AUS) 11/7 13/11 11/7
[2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) bt [4] Madeline Perry (IRL) 11/8 11/9 2/11 11/4

Quarter Finals:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [6] Annie Au (HKG) 11/0 11/2 4/0
[3] Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt [7] Donna Urquhart (AUS) 11/7 11/4 11/7
[4] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt [8] Joelle King (NZL) 13/11 2/11 12/10 11/9
[2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) bt [10] Natalie Grinham (NED) 11/4 12/10 8/11 11/8

2nd Round:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt Emily Whitlock (ENG) 11/9 11/7 11/5
[6] Annie Au (HKG) bt [14] Line Hansen (DEN) 14/12 11/4 9/11 11/9
[3] Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt [9] Low Wee Wern (MAS) 11/8 8/11 11/4 11/3
[7] Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt [13] Dipika Pallikal (IND) 11/6 7/11 11/6 11/8
[8] Joelle King (NZL) bt [12] Delia Arnold (MAS) 11/5 13/11 11/9
[4] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt [11] Joey Chan (HKG) 11/8 6/11 11/3 11/2
[10] Natalie Grinham (NED) bt [5] Kasey Brown (AUS) 11/9 7/11 12/10 11/9
[2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) bt [16] Gaby Huber (SWI) 11/5 11/3 11/1

1st Round:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt Samantha Davies (AUS) 11/3 11/6 11/2
Emily Whitlock (ENG) bt [15] Kylie Lindsay (NZL) 11/9 7/11 11/4 11/3
[6] Annie Au (HKG) bt [Q] Lisa Aitken (SCO) 11/5 11/1 11/3
[14] Line Hansen (DEN) bt Milou Van Der Heijden (NED) 8/11 11/9 11/8 11/9
[3] Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt Lucie Fialova (CZE) 11/6 11/5 11/2
[9] Low Wee Wern (MAS) bt [Q] Zoe Petrovansky (AUS) 11/4 11/6 11/5
[7] Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt [Q] Tamika Saxby (AUS) 11/7 11/1 11/3
[13] Dipika Pallikal (IND) bt [Q] Amanda Landers-Murphy (NZL) 11/4 11/8 11/2
[12] Delia Arnold (MAS) bt Olga Ertlova (CZE) 5/11 11/9 9/11 11/6 11/6
[8] Joelle King (NZL) bt Maggy Marshall (AUS) 11/6 11/3 11/2
[11] Joey Chan (HKG) bt Christine Nunn (AUS) 11/3 11/2 11/3
[4] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt Siti Munirah Jusoh (MAS) 11/5 11/2 11/3
[10] Natalie Grinham (NED) bt Melody Francis (AUS) 11/2 11/4 11/5
[5] Kasey Brown (AUS) bt [Q] Amanda Cranston (NZL) 11/2 11/7 11/3
[16] Gaby Huber (SWI) bt Sarah Cardwell (AUS) 11/8 8/11 11/5 11/1
[2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) bt [Q] Vanessa Pickerd (AUS) 11/5 11/3 11/3

The 27-year-old will be hot favourite to add the Australian Open to a trophy cabinet that already includes Commonwealth Games gold, five World Opens and three British Opens.

David, who will be coming to Canberra with her long time coach, former Australian great Liz Irving, hasn’t played in Australia since the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

In an ominous sign for her opponents, the last time she was in Canberra was in 1999, when she won the Australian Junior Championship.

Nicol with coach Liz Irving at the ING New York City Marathon '09

“I’m very excited to have this opportunity to play in this tournament for the first time, especially knowing the prestige the Australian Open has in the squash world and squash history,” David said. “I’m looking forward to giving it a good go there for this year’s Australian Open.”

David said having Irving alongside her would give her a big advantage.

“Liz has always been amongst the best Australian women squash players and played many Australian Opens,” she said.

“Having her with me will give me a lot of positive reinforcements coming into Canberra.”

“This Australian Open will be one of the highlights for me this year and I’m glad that Squash Australia has brought this event back for both the men and women.”

Joining David in the top quality field are six former champions, all of whom are ranked in the top 20 in the world.

Last year’s champion, Madeline Perry of Northern Ireland, will be back to defend her title, while Kasey Brown (2006 champion), Annie Au (2008) and Joelle King (2009) will also play.

The Grinham sisters with Tommy and baby Kieran

And in a significant coup, Toowoomba’s Grinham sisters Rachael and Natalie, will be playing the Australian Open together for the first time since Natalie won the title in 2004.

Rachael, who won the following year, said Natalie had made great progress since she came back to the game after giving birth to her first child last year.

“She’s made a pretty remarkable comeback,” Rachael said.

“A big factor of Natalie’s game is her movement, and she’s moving just as well now as when she was at her peak, and it’s not even a year after having the baby.”

The Australian Open will be held on the all-glass court at Canberra’s Royal Theatre from August 8-14.

The event will take place at the city’s renowned Australian Institute of Sport and will feature keynote addresses and presentations from a number of leading international coaches including Geoff Hunt and Liz Irving and the Australian High Performance Group including Head Coach Byron Davis and recently-appointed successful Commonwealth Games coach Anthony Ricketts.

“Australia has an outstanding top level history, with so many past stars – all having benefited from fine coaching,” said WSF CEO Andrew Shelley. “Now, some of these greats – Geoff Hunt and Liz Irving amongst others – are very successful international coaches themselves.

“They are coming together for the 10th WSF Squash Coaching Conference in Canberra.

“Inevitably, places will be limited, so it is vital that would-be participants sign up early to ensure taking advantage of the Canberra conference programme.”

Squash Australia Chief Executive Gary O’Donnell added: “The WSF Coaches Conference provides a wonderful opportunity for coaches to glean ideas and gain new understandings and we welcome coaches from across the globe.

“I look forward particularly to the sharing and comparing of styles of programs, whether it be one country versus another or coaching males as different to females. All of this is in the context of attending one of the premiere tournaments of the year, the Australian Open, where the world’s best players will once again showcase the very best the game has to offer.”

For booking details, visit http://www.squash.org.au/sqaus/development/WSF_Coaching_Conference.HTM

Liz and her protege Nicol David.

One of Australia’s greatest ever sporting teams was reunited on Saturday when Liz Irving was inducted into the Squash Australia Hall of Fame.

Irving was part of the Australian women’s team who won four consecutive World Championships from 1992 to 1998, alongside Michelle Martin and Sarah Fitz-Gerald. They were joined in the team by Robyn Lambourne in 1992 and Carol Owens in 1994 and 1998.

Martin and Fitz-Gerald have previously been inducted into the Hall of Fame and now Irving has joined her former teammates.

Irving, born in Brisbane on February 7, 1965, won nine titles on the women’s professional tour during a distinguished career, claiming her first tournament at the Irish Open in 1991 and her last in Malaysia in 1997.

That figure would have been far greater if she hadn’t had the “misfortune” of playing in the same era as Martin, whom she always seemed to come up against in major finals.

Irving finished runner-up to Martin at the 1993 World Open, the 1994 and 1995 British Opens and the Australian Opens of 1991, 1993 and 1994.

But when she and Martin played alongside each other in the Australian team they were almost unbeatable.

“We were just a really good group of players coming through,” Irving said.
“We pushed each other along. We had tremendous help, the Institute of Sport has just started up and Heather McKay had a great influence on all of us, as did Geoff Hunt. When you’re around such great people with a well organised training set up and you’re all pushing each other along—something was right. I think out of five or six of us that were all coming through, we all got to number one or two in the world.”

Irving also won the mixed doubles titles at the inaugural World Doubles Squash Championships in 1997 with Dan Jenson.

Since retiring as a player, Irving has settled in Amsterdam, where she coaches a number of top international women players, including world number one Nicol David of Malaysia.

Martin was also elevated to “Legend” status on Saturday, joining Heather McKay, Geoff Hunt and Ken Hiscoe as recipients of the highest honour in Australian squash.

Martin was one of the greatest players ever to have graced a squash court.

She won three consecutive World Opens from 1993-95, and clinched six straight British Opens titles from 1993-98 along with seven Australian Opens—in 1991, ’93, ’94, ’95, ’96, ’98 and ’99.

Martin also competed for Australia at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, winning two gold medals in the women’s singles and the mixed doubles.

Squash Stars' Kasey Brown is also recipient of the most promising player for 2010.

Taree’s Kasey Brown was named Senior Athlete of the Year while Tamika Saxby of Coffs Harbour won her second consecutive Junior Athlete of the Year award.

Brown had a spectacular 2010, entering the top 10 for the first time in a year that also included a Commonwealth Games gold medal, a world teams championship win and her 10th professional title.

Brown was Australia’s most decorated squash player in Delhi, winning gold in the mixed doubles with Cameron Pilley, bronze in women’s singles and bronze in women’s doubles with Donna Urquhart.

Following the Commonwealth Games, she joined Rachael Grinham, Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Donna Urquhart to win the Women’s World Teams Championship in New Zealand in December.

Saxby has had yet another outstanding year both in Australia and overseas, winning some prestigious junior tournaments and beginning to make her mark in the senior ranks.

During the year she improved her world senior ranking from 119 to 94, won the Scottish Junior Open, finished fourth in the British Junior Open, finished 10th in the World Junior Championships, and won the Girls 17 Years age group at the Australian Junior Championships.

Interview with Liz Irving and Kasey Brown here:

I was glad to be back here again to their lovely beaches and chilled out atmosphere. The moment I arrived on the island, I felt like I was on holiday. However, there was a lot of squash lined up and I was geared up to play outdoors at the new location.

Liz and I training at Camana Bay

Round 1

It was a new experience for me to play Jaclyn Hawkes this time around. Just before the start of our match, 4 friends of hers from New Zealand performed the ‘Haka’ while I stood there on court facing them—certainly a new form of warm up for me! I was flowing well for my first day on the glass court and Jaclyn was finding her way in the match. This gave me an opportunity to play my game to win 3-0.

Video: Nicol David faces the Haka in Cayman

Quarter Finals

I came out strongly in the first two games and Camille Serme kept the rallies in play really well. In the third game, both of us were trying to out position each other—there were some intense rallies. Towards the end, we had a monster rally that ended with a cross court drop from me to win the match in 3 games.

Semi Finals

Rachael Grinham was working the court well with some hard hitting shots while I kept to it with a similar pace in the first game. There was a mix of shots from the both of us and I could feel the crowd getting into the match just from their reactions after each rally. In the second and third games, I was moving and placing the ball much better. Rachael took the lead in the third game but I stuck in there to win in 3.

Finals

There was a moment in the match when all I could feel was the crowd closing in on the court—completely engrossed with the way we played. It was a clean game of squash with highly intense rallies. Jenny Duncalf was keeping steady in the first two games but at the end of each game, I played some winners that went my way to get the 2-0 lead. She made a couple of errors in the third game and I kept pushing through til the very end to win the match and title.

It was such a pleasure to play in the Cayman Islands in front of an enthusiastic crowd. I had a great tournament and look forward to joining the Malaysian team in Chennai for the Asian Championships next week.

At Stingray City after the tournament

Nicol the artist!

The SquashStars team was invited to an exclusive party at Equatorial Hotel, Kuala Lumpur last night for the unveiling of Nicol David’s personal website. Among those present were her coach Liz Irving, Squash Stars Samantha Teran and Aisling Blake and English player Lauren Briggs. Other familiar faces included the team from Malaysian Squash; Ronald Fauvel, Allan & Aaron Soyza and Low Wee Wern.

In her small speech and presentation to a group of 15 close friends and sponsors, Nicol excitedly spoke about how she collaborated with a designer friend in Amsterdam to create her long awaited website. It was definitely a proud moment for Nicol as she spoke about the different design elements incorporated and how she personally drew each and every one of the icons seen on her newly launched website.

Nicol also shared on her site, how she made it to become who she is today by breaking it down to 5 elements. In her own words, “A squash player is made up of different qualities. Power, Skill, Creativity, Mental Toughness, Drive and Passion. Some of us have a favourite but my aim is to bring everything to be at the same level with my Passion. This site will allow me to share with everyone what makes me a squash player and more…”

Everyone present were utterly impressed by the amazing photographs of Nicol taken by Amsterdam-based designer, Kris Franks. Nicol regaled how they waited for the light to stream into Kris’ apartment window for the photo shoot. What was even more impressive was the fact that Kris didn’t need to use a tripod to capture those amazing shots! Talk about steady hands!

Congratulations, Nicol—for adding another notch to your list of talents and achievements! We’re mighty proud of you and we hope to see more of your design work to come!

Click on the snapshot of Nicol’s web below to find out more about the queen of squash, in her own words!

Nicol sporting a cute jacket and black top, proudly displaying her work of art.

nicoldavid.com

Wern and I at training

Amsterdam welcomes a return visit by Low Wee Wern, a 19 year old Malaysian up and coming Squash Star joining us with our training here. Wern is also working with coach Liz Irving to prepare for the World Open that will be happening right here in Amsterdam.

Aisling, Samantha and myself have been preparing for the British Open which will be happening this week and then for the World Open back in Amsterdam after that. Everyone else has also been training well together and Wee Wern has fit in nicely during the last week and a half for training too. We even had some of the guys coming on court with us girls to keep us on our toes.

What a big happy family we are! Squash has a unique way of bringing players from the world over, creating a close-knit community that is rare to other sports.

A glass court at Dam Square, Amsterdam

To our surprise today, we heard that a glass court was placed in the middle of the busiest part of Amsterdam on Dam Square. This square is complimented by the Royal Palace in the backdrop while surrounded by other landmarks such as The Madame Tussauds and the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church). Rachael and Natalie Grinham were about to do an exhibition match to promote the World Open that would be happening in 2 weeks time. It is the perfect location to get the attention of the public to witness Squash at the very center of the city.

I’m very much looking forward to what’s in store in the weeks to come.

It has been very festive being back here in Amsterdam. The sun is out, and everything is happening outdoors. There was a floating barge open air concert on the Saturday evening that was the final day of the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam ( a summer festival of classical music in Amsterdam ) on the Prinzengracht canal. Unbelievable how they have set this entire floating platform to hold a piano, violinists and other musicians performing on there. Everyone tries to park their boats early during the day to save their spot til the evening.

On the Sunday, I found out that there was another open air concert with various artists performing in the Vondelpark right in the city. Since Samantha is here training in Amsterdam, we both decided this is the perfect time on our day off to check out the scene at the park on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. We saw an up coming Dutch jazz singer Leona then followed by Dutch Pop Idols Winner, Boris ( both singing English songs which is great! ) that kept the park alive and kicking. Such a pleasant atmosphere and a first time for the both of us. My coach Liz was in the neighbourhood and she joined in too.

Such a small town Amsterdam but it’s nice to be back!