Nicol David's World Championship career is at an end following defeat to France’s Camille Serme ©Getty Images

Nicol David's final appearance at the Professional Squash Association World Championships has come to an end as the eight-time winner was knocked out today by France's Camille Serme in Chicago.

The Malaysian 35-year-old, who holds more World Championship titles than any other woman, announced last week that she would retire from the sport at the end of the season meaning this would be her last appearance at the sport's pinnacle tournament.

Unable to end on a high, David, who won the Championships eight out of 10 times between 2005 and 2014, was defeated in the third round today 3-1 by Serme inside Chicago's Union Station.

The veteran star did initially take the lead, but the final score read 9-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-5.

"It's been so great to be part of this major event," David said.

"It's our first $1 million (£753,200/€877,500) event and I got a chance to play in it, which is great.

"Squash has come a long way, so to get this far is a thrill for me.

"With [this being] my last Worlds, I gave it my all, I'll take whatever I got and I really enjoyed my match today."

Serme paid tribute to her opponent afterwards, calling her a "legend" and saying it was an "honour" to play in her last match at the Championships.

"She's such a fighter, even in the last game, I was 6-0 up, I had really good length and she came out firing and I thought she could come back, so I had to push really hard," she said.

For her efforts Serme will now play New Zealand's Joelle King in the quarter-finals, after she saw off Hong Kong's Joey Chan.

Egypt's two-time world champion Nour El Sherbini survived a scare to beat the US number one Amanda Sobhy in five games.

She will now play Welsh number one Tesni Evans for a place in the last four.

On the men's side world number four Simon Rösner came from behind against Spain's Borja Golan to become the first German to make the World Championship quarter-finals.

That match finished 9-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-5, 11-5, meaning Rösner will now play India's number one Saurav Ghosal in the next round.

Egypt's world number two Ali Farag and New Zealand's Paul Coll will also do battle in the last eight after they advanced courtesy of respective wins against Egyptian pair Mazen Hesham and Fares Dessouky.

Quarter-final action will begin at 5pm GMT tomorrow.