"WE HAVE DIFFERENT JOURNEYS"- SIVASANGARI 

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 (Bernama) -- National women’s squash player S. Sivasangari will be looking to put all distractions aside as she bids to continue her recent outstanding form and emulate legendary compatriot Nicol David by winning the upcoming World Championships in Cairo between May 9-18.

Sivasangari, who recently reached a career-high ranking of World No.11, produced the squash of her life to lift the Gold-level London Squash Classic trophy at Alexandra Palace last month which happen to be the biggest prize of her professional career to date. 

However, with these recent successes have come the inevitable comparisons to eight-time World Champion and former World No.1 Nicol who is widely regarded as the greatest women’s player in the history of the sport.

"...but definitely after the London Classic there’s a lot of pressure, and that’s why I’m working with Jesse Engelbrecht to put all of my distractions aside. Basically, pressure is a distraction. You can only can control what you’re in control of. And it’s tough sometimes when I’m compared with Nicol.

“Nicol actually came up to me and said, ‘Everyone is unique’. She has a different path, and Nicol has achieved what she has achieved. I’m a new, different person. It was great to hear from her. 

"To be honest, for Nicol to have eight World Championships, I don’t know how she did it; it’s insane. El Sherbini is on that track now, which is again incredible. For me, even to dream of winning one World Championship is something that I really want to work towards, it’s definitely in my dreams and a goal that I want to achieve in the future," she said according to Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour statement. 

Sivasangari’s success at the London Classic was yet another incredible milestone on her journey back from a serious car accident in 2022 resulted in fractures to both Sivasangari’s neck and face and led to months of wearing cumbersome collars, that could have not only brought a premature end to her squash career but also left her with potentially life-changing injuries. 

She said it would be a dream come true to win the World Championship for every squash player but to have her name on the trophy would be huge and amazing.

PSA World Tour inform that Sivasangari ave been named as the PSA World Tour Players of the Month for March/April, after she received 65 per cent of the votes to take the award in a poll on the PSA World Tour’s Instagram page, with Satomi Watanabe and Nouran Gohar the other nominees.

The award caps off a remarkable spell for Malaysian No.1 Sivasangari, who toppled World No.1 Nour El Sherbini from Egypt, World No.4 Nele Gilis from Belgium and World No.3 Hania El Hammamy from Egypt on the way to clinching the London Classic – her maiden Gold-level title last month.

-- BERNAMA