Laura Massaro Hoping for Change of Luck in NY
from ESR Media

January 14, 2014 - British Open champion Laura Massaro is keeping her fingers crossed that 2014 will begin better than last year.

Then, after finishing runner-up in the World Series Finals in London, she was struck down by illness and injury, which ruled her out of the year’s early tournaments.

“My goals this year are to stay fit and healthy, particuarly for the first part of the year,” she said. "Last January/February I had to withdraw from Cleveland due to illness and then got injured just after starting training again.

“I want to play well in the States and then be in good shape for the British Nationals in February, when I would love to get my third national title in Manchester.

“Looking further ahead, I want to defend my British Open title and get a medal at the Commonwealth Games.”

A shock quarter-final loss to home favourite Annie Au in the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open in her last WSA tournament of 2013 has fired up the 30-year-old world number two for 2014.

“After losing in the quarters in Hong Kong my motivation to carry on training was high, so I have continued to train through the festive period,” she said. "I had a bit of illness before Hong Kong, so I wasn’t feeling stale with my training.

“I didn’t play well against Annie in HK, but she had the home crowd behind her on her home court and she played really well. I don’t want to dwell on the result too much, but I have thought a lot about why that result happened and have tried to learn from the mistakes I made to help me in the future.”

Massaro’s loss to Au illustrated the openness of WSA tournaments now and means she will not initially be targeting a match-up with top seed Nicol David in her first WSA Tour event of the year, the Tournament of Champions in New York. which begins on Saturday for the women.

“All 16 draw tournaments are really tough now,” the KL Open champion stressed. "The strength in depth on the WSA Tour is amazing and so I will take the TOC one match at a time.

“I have a qualifier in the first round and I’m looking forward to getting on the glass court in Grand Central Station and playing in such a fantastic location.

“As for Nicol, she had a brilliant end to the year, but I will concentrate on my first-round match and see what happens. Nicol is on the other side of the draw and not in my thought process unless we both make the final.”