RESULTS: World Games, Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei
Men's semi-finals:
[1] Nick Matthew (GBR) bt [3] Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) 7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 13-11 (90m)
[2] James Willstrop (GBR) bt [5] Stewart Boswell (AUS) 5-7 ret. (10m)
Women's semi-finals:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [5] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) 11-4, 11-3, 11-6 (25m)
[2] Natalie Grinham (NED) bt [4] Alison Waters (GBR) 8-11, 0-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-6 (61m)
The top two seeds will meet in the men's and women's finals of the World Games Squash championships – but both pairs of finalists survived today's (Thursday) semi-finals in contrasting styles at the Chung Cheng Martial Arts Stadium in the Chinese Taipei city of Kaohsiung.
Staged under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games is the eighth edition of the multi-sport event which features sports not currently on the programme of the Olympic Games – in which over 4,000 athletes are competing in more than 30 sports.
Malaysia's Nicol David, who has been the women's world No1 in the sport for three years and is the defending World Games champion, won her fourth consecutive match in Kaohsiung in straight games in defeating fifth seed Omneya Abdel Kawy of Egypt 11-4, 11-3, 11-6 in just 25 minutes.
David has appeared dominant throughout the tournament, losing no more than seven points in any single game so far. The victory was David's 13th in a row over the world No7 from Cairo since March 2002.
The Malaysian will face Natalie Grinham of the Netherlands for the gold medal, after the Australian-born world No3 and second seed at the World Games pulled off an amazing comeback.
Grinham looked finished after falling two games down to fourth seed Alison Waters of Great Britain in the best-of-five match. The match favourite failed to score a single point in the second game – marking a shock first for Grinham in any match played since the women's 'PAR to 11 points per game' scoring system was introduced a year ago!
Londoner Waters – who is yet to beat Grinham in eight meetings since July 2006 – dropped the third game but continued her relentless charge in the fourth, building up a 5-3 lead before being a point away from match ball at 9-9.
But the 31-year-old Dutch star again fought back to clinch the fourth, then maintained the upper hand to carve out an extraordinary 8-11, 0-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-6 victory after 61 minutes.
Grinham, with eight successive Tour defeats to David, will be the underdog in the final – but it was the former Australian who prevailed the last time they met off the Tour, when Grinham defeated the 25-year-old from Penang in an 85-minute, five-game marathon en-route to winning a record three gold medals in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
The first men's semi-final produced the longest match of the tournament when favourite Nick Matthew, the world No5 from Great Britain, recovered from two games down – then saved a match ball in the decider – to beat third-seeded Malaysian Mohd Azlan Iskandar 7-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 13-11 in 90 minutes.
Matthew, the 28-year-old from Sheffield who was a beaten World Games semi-finalist four years ago in Duisburg, will now meet fellow Briton and fellow Yorkshireman James Willstrop – also a semi-finalist in 2005.
But Willstrop, the second seed from Leeds, could not have claimed his place in the final in more contrasting circumstances – when fifth-seeded opponent Stewart Boswell retired injured after just ten minutes, with the score standing at 7-5 in the Australian's favour.
The men's final is sure to be a close-fought affair – with the England team-mates pair having clashed 21 times in a variety of national and international clashes since 2001, with Matthew currently boasting a 12-9 head-to-head advantage.