Squash career

Nicol David played squash when she was five years old, and received coaching at the age of eight. While training at the Bukit Dumbar Squash Centre, Nicol was talent spotted by Ee Phoeh Hoon, who led her to represent her home state of Penang, along with her sisters. Nicol's squash career began in 1992 when she won silver in the Under-14 category of the Penang State Junior Championship. Her first national level victory was also in 1992 at the Milo-Dunlop Sport National Junior Interstate Championship, where she won silver in the Under-16 category. In 1994, Nicol was chosen to join the Penang state squash team for the Malaysian Games (SUKMA) tournament where she helped Penang win a gold medal in the team event, despite being ill at the time.In the same year, she won her first two international titles – the Hong Kong U-13 and the Scottish Junior Open Under-12.

Nicol won the Women's World Junior Squash Championships of 1999 in Antwerp, Belgium, making her the youngest woman to become the world junior champion at the age of 15. In the process, she defeated three players ranked in the world top 20.She successfully defended the title in Penang in 2001, becoming one of only two players in the history of squash to have won it twice; her coach was Richard Glanfield.

In 1999, Nicol began to win major junior tournaments, including the British Junior Open (Under-17 champion), the German Junior Open (Under-19, Champion),the SEA Games (Champion in the Senior and Team categories),and the Asian Junior Champion for both individual and team events.

Nicol's biggest win, however, was the World Junior Championships, played in Antwerp. It took just half an hour for the then 15-year-old Malaysian schoolgirl to obtain world junior champion status when she beat compatriot Leong Siu Lynn 9–5, 9–3 and 9–2 in the final of the women's individual event to become the youngest ever winner of the title. Nicol reached the quarterfinals of the previous World Junior Championships in August 1997 in Brazil, as a thirteen-year-old and has since claimed both the Asian junior and senior titles, as well as the gold medal in the Asian Games in December 1998. Nicol also is one of a few squash player to have won all the age categories in the British Junior Open.