Nicol Ann David (Datuk)
At the number two spot is a person who is no stranger to all of us, Nicol Ann David. Currently ranked world number one by WISPA, she is the first Asian sportswoman to have achieved this ranking, the first Malaysian and Asian ever to be crowned as the world number one in sports. Having obtained this crowning glory at the young age of 23, she has been holding this ranking for a consecutive 54 months now and with 57 matches won.
She began to shine during the very early years of her life by being the first squash player to have won the World Junior title twice in 1999 and in 2001. Since then, she has won many major tournaments and in the year 2000, she decided to join WISPA to become a professional squash player. Within a month during the tour, Nicol again outperformed the others to clinch the Savcor Finnish Open title.
Nicol David’s other notable achievements include winning the Asian Squash Championship eight times, a hard-to-beat record. Nicol was also named the WISPA Player of the Year for six consecutive times from 2005 until 2010. She was honored with the Order of Merit (Darjah Bakti) by His Majesty Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin in 2008 and was the first recipient of the award that was established in 1975. This award is limited to only ten recipients who have made significant contributions in the arts, sciences and the humanities. In the same year, she also received the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri award which carries the title “Datuk”, making her the youngest person ever to be conferred Datukship in Penang.
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