British Open 2015: Malaysia's Delia Arnold beats Ireland's Aisling Blake
Bernama
Mei 12, 2015 12:22 MYT
Mei 12, 2015 12:22 MYT
Delia (pic) went down in the first two sets before fighting her way brilliantly to secure a 3-2 victory. - AFP filepic
National number three women's squash player, Delia Arnold received an early scare before advancing into the main draw of the British Open 2015 held at the University of Hull, England.
Delia, 29, went down in the first two sets before fighting her way brilliantly to secure a 3-2 victory (8-11, 6-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5) against Aisling Blake of Ireland in the final qualifying round, played early Tuesday.
The Kuala Lumpur-born player, however, will face an uphill task against fifth seed, Alison Waters of England in the opening encounter, later today, as quoted in the tournament website www.allambritishopensquash.com.
Delia had defeated Tamika Saxby of Australia 3-0 in the first qualifying round on Sunday.
Malaysian squash queen and world number one player, Datuk Nicol David who is gunning for her sixth British Open title, will kick off her title defence against Welsh qualifier, Tesni Evans, early Wednesday.
For the record, the 31-year-old Penangite has won the tournament five times -- 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014 -- and emerged runner-up in 2007 and 2013.
The country's sole representative in the men's category, Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan has made it to the main draw after winning two preliminary matches.
However, he will face a Herculean task against defending champion and world number three player, Gregory Gaultier of France, also early Wednesday.