PSA/WISPA TOUR EVENT NEWS
RESULTS: CIMB KL Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Women’s Final:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [7] Madeline Perry (IRL) 11-6, 11-6, 11-2 (34m)Men’s Final:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [2] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) 11-9, 11-9, 11-3 (52m)David & Darwish Conquer In KL
Favourites Nicol David and Karim Darwish emerged triumphant in today’s CIMB KL Open Squash Championships finals in Berjaya Times Square in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
It was a glorious home success in the women’s WISPA World Tour Gold event in which Nicol David, the world number one from Penang, was celebrating her eighth successive appearance in the final.
The defending champion was facing surprise opponent Madeline Perry, the seventh seed from Ireland whose semi-final success over Hong Kong’s Annie Au took the world No6 into the 20th Tour final of her career.
But David, spurred on by her loyal home crowd, was too strong for Perry – and romped through to an 11-6, 11-6, 11-2 victory.
The win marks David’s seventh KL Open title since 2000 – and the 51st Tour title of her career.
By contrast, the final of the men’s PSA World Tour International 50 event featured the top two seeds – Darwish and fellow Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy, the second seed.
El Shorbagy, the 20-year-old world No9, was marking only his fifth appearance in a PSA Tour final, while his more experienced fellow countryman Darwish, the 29-year-old former world number one, was celebrating his 33rd.
But El Shorbagy made the top seed fight for 52 minutes before world No3 Darwish, last year’s runner-up, eventually prevailed 11-9, 11-9, 11-3 to celebrate the 20th Tour title of his career.