KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — Malaysia’s squash queen Datuk Nicol David moved closer to defending the gold medal by progressing to the last four at the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland, today.

The 33-year-old Penangite who is vying for her fourth succesive gold medal, however, received stiff competition from Nele Gilis of Belgium before securing a 11-9, 12-10 and 11-7 win in the quarter-finals, according to the World Games official website, www.theworldgames2017.com.

Nicol is slated to take on Joey Chan in the semi-finals on Thursday after the Hong Kong player defeated Coline Aumard of France in a five-set thriller; winning in 7-11, 5-11, 11-1, 11-4 and 11-8.

The three-time World Games gold medallist started her campaign by beating Irina Beliaeva of Russia 11-4, 11-3, 11-3 in just 14 minutes before making short work of Mexico’s Samantha Teran 11-3, 11-6, 11-8 on Tuesday to book a spot in the last-eight.

For the record, Nicol has won the gold medal in three straight editions of the quadrennial games — Duisburg, Germany (2005), Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2009) and Cali, Colombia in 2013.

Meanwhile, Rachel Arnold, another Malaysian in the women’s singles event, was shown the exit by Great Britain’s Millie Tomlinson in the second round after a 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 8-11 and 13-15 defeat.

Earlier, Rachel had opened her campaign with a 12-10, 11-13, 11-8, 11-6 win over Anna Serme of the Czech Republic.

Malaysia’s campaign in the men’s category ended in the second round when Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan and Ivan Yuen were defeated by their opponents.

Mohd Nafiizwan, who received a first round bye, lost to Peru’s Diego Elias 11-7, 8-11, 11-3 and 11-5, while Ivan Yuen was beaten 11-4, 2-11, 8-11 and 5-11 by Colombia’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez.

Ivan had earlier beaten Tuomi Matias of Finland 11-6, 13-11 and 11-8 in his opening match. — Bernama