Malaysia celebrated a unique squash gold double in the 15^th Asian Games today (Thursday) when world number one Nicol David defeated title-holder Rebecca Chiu in the women's final and Ong Beng Hee retained the men's crown after fighting back from a game down against compatriot Mohd Azlan Iskandar at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha, Qatar.

As expected, Nicol David exorcised her demons of the last Asian Games by triumphing in the women’s singles.  Four years ago, the Penangite suffered a devastating loss to Rebecca Chiu in the final in Korea which caused her to take a four-month break from the game to reassess her career in the sport.

But it was a whole different story this time as she brushed aside her rival from Hong Kong 9–0, 9–3, 9–3 in just 34 minutes.

Clad in a striking red and black outfit, the Malaysian 23-year-old was a picture of concentration and determination as she took to the court.  David stamped her authority on the game early on and raced into a 3–0 lead.  She made good use of the court to stretch that advantage to 5–0.  Try as she might, Chiu had no answer to the world champion's incessant pressure and the opening game ended with a 9–0 whitewash in just six minutes.

David began the second game in similar fashion, winning the first point by varying her pace.  Chiu finally broke the ice with a powerful shot to the right-hand corner of the court.  But David was soon on top again and, after a series of long rallies, stretched her lead to 4–1, before wrapping up the second game 9–3.

In the third, the world number one raced into a 3–0 lead.  The defending champion managed to win a few points after an impressive array of shots and evened the score at 3-3.  But David, the 1998 champion, returned with a series of clinical executions to confirm her status as the Asian Games' top player and seal the match with a 9–3 score in the final game.

Nicol David's gold marked the 200th for Malaysia in the history of the Asian Games!

After the game, David was keen to play down any talk of revenge:  "There is no thought of revenge.  It is more about wanting to win that medal.  She is a hard player to play and I had to keep her out of her comfort zone.

“It was a good match and I feel really ecstatic.  It was the last day of the last tournament of the year and there was so much pressure on both girls leading into the game.  It has been a great year and a great way to finish off by winning here.”

Chiu said:  “I played just normally.  Nicol overpowered me and put me under great pressure.  I think I should have been more patient.  I need to work hard to win against her.  I knew it before I started the match.  She is so much better than me.  Her speed and strength were superior, so I couldn’t perform to my full potential.  It was easier for her to get a point and very hard for me to respond.”

In the men's final that followed, Ong Beng Hee confirmed his status as the top player in the region when he beat the higher-ranked Iskandar 5-9, 9-1, 10-9, 9-5 in 73 minutes – appropriately the longest match of the tournament.

Beng Hee, for many years the top-ranked man in Malaysia, won the Asian Games gold medal four years ago in Korea.  But since then, the 26-year-old from Kuala Lumpur has twice lost to his 24-year-old fellow countryman – and Iskandar is currently ranked 13 in the world, five places above Beng Hee.

The pair have been playing each other for a very long time now.  At the Asian Championships in Chinese Taipei earlier in the year, Beng Hee beat Azlan 3/0.  Earlier that month Azlan had beaten Beng Hee in a closely-contested final of the Kuala Lumpur Open.  They may have differing styles of play, but they know each other's game well and their level of play is almost similar.  Unlike the women's match there was no clear favourite.

The first game was played at a medium pace with Azlan being the steadier of the two.  Beng Hee's game was laced with far too many errors and he promptly lost the game.   Beng Hee increased the pace in the second and top seed Iskandar started making the errors.  The third was more or less the same as second seed Beng Hee raced to an 8-5 lead.

Azlan forged a comeback to make it 8-8 but a couple of errors saw him lose 10-8.  The fourth was close until half way, when the title-holder smelled blood and attacked all the way to the crown for the second time in a row.

While Nicol David - whose title haul for the year is now eight and her unbeaten run stretched to 36 matches since July – will return to her home in Penang for Christmas, both Ong Beng Hee and Mohd Azlan Iskandar will race to Saudi Arabia to compete in the Saudi International in Al-Khobar.  The second richest PSA Tour event of the year gets underway on Saturday (16 December), with Iskandar seeded 10^th and Beng Hee 11^th.

Double Asian Games Gold Beckons For Malaysia

A first squash gold medal double is on the cards for Malaysia in the 15^th Asian Games in Qatar after world number one Nicol David cruised into the women's final following an emphatic victory in today's (Wednesday) semi-finals – and Mohd Azlan Iskandar and Ong Beng Hee set up the anticipated all-Malaysian men's final at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.

Top seed Nicol David and No2 seed Rebecca Chiu, the title-holder from Hong Kong , were too strong for their respective opponents in the women's semi-finals. 

"David's movement was so efficient and her shot selection so effective that it was a joy to watch," said ASF Technical Delegate Major Maniam after the 23-year-old from Penang's 9-0, 9-1, 9-0 victory over Hong Kong 's Christina Mak.

Chiu also played brilliantly to contain her opponent Sharon Wee, beating the 3/4 seed from Malaysia 9-6, 9-1, 9-3 to set up a repeat of the 1998 and 2002 women's finals.

By contrast, the men's semi-finals were more evenly-contested affairs:  The diminutive Saurav Ghosal, the 5/8 seed from India who secured an unexpected place in the medals after upsetting compatriot Ritwik Bhattacharya in the previous round, had the crowd entertained with his delightful front game and his awesome retrieving skills.

His opponent Ong Beng Hee picked up almost all of Saurav's attacking shots to the front - and at the same time threw in a few of his own to take a two-game lead.  Ghosal continued with the same sort of game in the third and slowly it began to produce results.  Beng Hee was either getting a little late to the ball or was tinning his returns – with the result that the Indian underdog took a well-deserved third game.

The fourth was looking good for Ghosal as he raced to a 4-1 lead with, yet again, delicate drop shots. The defending champion from Malaysia decided that he should keep Saurav away from the front and went back to playing a lot more lobs as he did in the first two games.  Rallies were now getting longer and Ghosal's legs getting wearier.  Beng Hee finished off well to win 9-1, 9-2, 6-9, 9-4 and earn himself a place in his second successive final.

The last semi-final of the day was also fought well by both players.  The beautiful touch of 3/4 seed Mansoor Zaman took the Pakistani to a 6-1 lead in the first game, a 6-1 lead in the second and a 7-2 lead in the third.  However, all three times he lost as top seed Mohd Azlan Iskandar determinedly stuck to his task, playing aggressive lengths and drops.

Ultimately it was Iskandar's consistency that made the difference as the world No13 battled to a 10-8, 9-6, 9-7 victory – and a place in his maiden Asian Games final.