AIFA Azman completed her fairy tale run in the Malaysian Open with a flourish by winning the title yesterday.
The 19-year-old defied the form book by stunning world No 8 and top seed Salma Hany of Egypt 12-10, 11-8, 11-4 in the final at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil.
World No 69 Aifa showed a champion's resolve in roaring back from 4-9 down to take the first game 12-10.
That gave the Kedahan a huge confidence boost as she pulled away to a 2-0 lead before sealing the win after 30 minutes with a shout of joy.
The win was Aifa's 11th Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour title, and with the Malaysian Open being a PSA World Tour Bronze event, it is also her biggest career win to date.
Aifa is also the first Malaysian, since eight-time world champion Nicol David's triumph at the 2017 Ciudad de Floridablanca in Colombia, to bag a World Tour level crown.
In doing so, Aifa is only the third Malaysian, after Nicol and Low Wee Wern, to taste success on the World Tour.
What made her achievement even more remarkable was that Aifa entered the competition as a wild card and beat a string of higher ranked players en route to the final.
"In the first game I was 4-9 down and it was really tough as I had to come back and keep my focus," said Aifa.
"But I stuck to my game plan which worked and I did the same in the second and third game too.
"I had to change my shots a little because I felt that she was going behind me a lot, so I wanted to prevent her from doing that.
"This win really feels amazing especially since I was only a wild card to start with.
"I really trained hard for this tournament and I believe this is just the first step for me as I want to achieve more in my squash career.
"Hopefully this win will push me into the world top 50 rankings."
With Aifa in fine form and riding high on confidence, it augurs well for Malaysia ahead of the Asian Team Championships which start on Tuesday.
Aifa is named as the second string player behind Rachel Arnold while the other members of the team are Chan Yiwen and Noor Ainaa Amani Ampandi.
