Nicol David & Laura Massaro Set Up British Open Final Rematch by Howard Harding May 17, 2014
- England's defending champion Laura Massaro and Malaysian Nicol David
will contest the final of the Allam British Open Squash Championship
for the second year in a row after the world's top two players came
through four-game semi-finals today in the Women's Squash Association
(WSA) World Series Platinum event in Hull.
World No2 Massaro, the
reigning world champion, beat Egyptian Raneem El Welily 6-11, 11-8,
11-4, 11-7 in 44 minutes in front of a packed and partisan crowd at the
Hull Sports Arena to notch up the 30th WSA World Tour final appearance
of her career.
The 30-year-old from
Preston (pictured above with El Welily) will be hoping for a repeat of
last year's climax where she became the first English woman in 22 years
to win the historic title.
"Defending the title
means a huge amount," said Massaro after her impressive win over the
player one place below her in the WSA World Rankings. "To win it once
is a big honour but to do it two years in a row would be massive.
"I've made my seeded
position now so I can finally play with a bit of pressure off. The
crowd were fantastic today and will hopefully be just as loud tomorrow.
"There's always
pressure going into a final, especially when you're a defending
champion. Playing Nicol there won't be pressure because she's world
number one but it just comes down to playing my game plan as well as I
can on each day," added the Lancashire lass.
David, a four-time
winner of the title, overcame determined Londoner Alison Waters by a
similar scoreline to deny the hosts a first all-English final for 23
years.
"Alison was really
fired up in the first game, I knew I had to be that intense from the
beginning and I just hung in there and stayed that way throughout the
match," said David after her 8-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-2 win.
The mighty Malaysian (pictured above with Waters) will now be competing in her 93rd final on the WSA Tour.
"It's a repeat of the
final last year, but I don't think we'll be doing anything differently
we're just going to be playing our best squash in the final of the
British Open and you should expect a really good battle," continued the
30-year-old from Penang.
"The British Open to
me is very prestigious, it's like winning the World title. It has so
much history behind it and just knowing that you're part of it makes a
difference when you're out there on court playing squash in front of a
great crowd."
RESULTS: Women's Allam British Open, Hull, England
Semi-finals: [1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [5] Alison Waters (ENG) 8-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-2 (43m) [2] Laura Massaro (ENG) bt [3] Raneem El Welily (EGY) 6-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7 (44m)
