David revenge advances record bid

Nicol David's bid to win the World Open a record sixth time carried her to a notable revenge and to the semi-finals in her adopted home country of The Netherlands on Friday. The Amsterdam-based Malaysian overcame Kasey Brown, the sixth-seeded Australian who beat her in the US Open in Philadelphia in August, by 11-7, 12-10, 11-4 in a match which, David said, felt like a five-setter - or "possibly a six-setter." The champion's humour was directed at the longevity and fierceness of the rallies, which taxed both of them physically and tactically, and which built up to a pivotal second game. These rallies often saw Brown use her ability to recover quickly to the central T position to apply increasing pressure to David, who responded with typical nimbleness and some telling volley drops. It was Brown however who reached game ball first, at 10-9. It produced the longest rally of the match, a brutal body-jerking sequence of more than 80 strokes, which Brown several times looked like winning. But David contained everything that was thrown at her, and found ways to counter-attack too. She was eventually rewarded when Brown tried a slightly ambitious backhand half-volley drop shot and put it into the tin. The third game saw David accelerate away to victory from 5-4, taking six points in a sequence and generating loud applause from the crowd which regarded her as the next best thing to a Dutch player. "Kasey was really fighting, so you know if you let your guard down she's going to take it," said David, who said she thought the women's game was improving all the time as players tried to close the gap on her. "There's always a challenge but every time you step up your game these girl are still coming at you," she said. "But I look forward to every challenge." David next has a repeat of the 2009 final in Amsterdam against Natalie Grinham, who prevented an all-Malaysian semi-final by beating Low Wee Wern 11-7, 11-7, 11-5, despite sustaining a cut to her nose which required a ten minute injury time out early in the third game. The former Australian turned Dutch international returned to the court knowing that if the bandage fell off and the bleeding restarted she would have to forfeit that game and, if it were repeated, the match. But Grinham won, as she had against the fourth-seeded Madeline Perry, because of the high quality of her front court game, and once again overcome the distraction of arriving with a pram carrying baby son Kieran and having to return to it afterwards. The other semi-final will be between Samantha Teran, the first Mexican ever to reach a World Open semi-final, and Jenny Duncalf, the second seed from England. Earlier the men's champion, Nick Matthew, the only Englishman ever to have won the title, took an important step forward to retaining it when he reached the semi-finals by beating Peter Barker, a fellow member of England's world team championship winning squad of 2007. The top-seeded Yorkshireman's 6-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 success followed his victory over the rising top ten Egyptian, Mohamed El Shorbagy, and earned him a meeting with Karim Darwish, the third-seeded former world number one from Egypt. Darwish came through with an 11-9, 11-7, 11-1 over David Palmer, the 35-year-old twice former World Open champion from Australia, who was playing his last match before retirement.