WISPA Unveil Live Scoreboard At Back-to-Back Asian Gold Events

The world's leading women squash players will be action in two back-to-back WISPA World Tour Gold championships in Asia over the next two weeks - at which the players' association will also launch its new Live Scoreboard.

Malaysia's world No1 Nicol David will be top seed at both the CIMB Malaysian Open, from 25-28 July, followed by the CIMB Singapore Masters, from 1-4 August.

Malaysian Open qualifying gets underway today at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil. All eyes will be on local star Nicol David, who will be defending the title she won for the second time last year in her fourth successive final.

The 23-year-old from Penang will be looking forward to being in action in the later stages of the event on an all-glass court erected at KL's Curve Shopping Mall - as part of a Squash Malaysia initiative to bring major events directly to the general public.

David is expected to meet second seed Natalie Grinham in Saturday's final. It will be the pair's first meeting since the Australian beat her rival in the Seoul Open climax in South Korea in April, bringing to an end David's 51-match unbeaten run.

CIMB, the Kuala Lumpur headquartered bank will also be title sponsoring the new Singapore Masters event to be played at the Kallang Squash Centre. The new event, hosted by Singapore SRA, brings the top WISPA stars back to Singapore for the first time for three years.

The CIMB Malaysian and Singapore events mark the start of the new WISPA Live Scoreboard which will see scores of matches in play updated instantly on the WISPA website www.wispa.net - enabling enthusiasts around the world to be completely up to date with matches in play from many WISPA World Tour events, point by point.

On the eve of the two events, England's Jenny Duncalf has been elevated to No8 seed following the last-minute withdrawal of Vanessa Atkinson, the former World Open champion from the Netherlands, who has been forced out by a shoulder injury.