Eight-time world champion Nicol David has announced she will retire at the end of the current squash season.
‘One has to be willing to break out of the comfort zone to be a great player’. Former national squash player Ong Beng Hee said his ex-teammate Nicol David did that when she took the bold move to be based in Amsterdam, Holland in 2003 to take her game to a whole new level.
Nicol Ann David currently ranked world number 6 has won it all in her career. Beginning in August 2006, David was the world number one for a record-breaking 108 consecutive months, finally ceding the ranking in September 2015 to Raneem El Weleily. David is the first squash player to have won the World Junior title twice; in 1999 and 2001.
She has won the World Open title a record 8 times in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, as well as the British Open title in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014. In 2008, she made history by winning every single match in the complete calender year. In July 2016, she reached her 151st successive month in the top 10, breaking the record in both men’s and women’s categories.
“My mind and body have battled it out to stay at the very top for such a long time that I feel that I only have this last big push left,” David said.
As a youngster, mathematics was David’s best subject at school; she dreamed of one day becoming an engineer.
David will begin her bid for a ninth world title when the competition gets underway in Chicago on Saturday. Her final tournament will either be the British Open in May or June’s World Tour Finals if she qualifies.
She has previously won five British Open titles, two Commonwealth Games gold medals, five Asian Games gold medals and three World Games gold medals.
The Malaysian, 35, is one of the most successful players of all time In a poll conducted in 2018 by the Professional Squash Association (PSA), David was voted by fans as the greatest squash player of all time in the women’s category.
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