Nicol David Reclaims British Open Crown by Howard Harding May 18, 2014
- World number one Nicol David avenged her title loss last year by
beating England's defending champion Laura Massaro in today's final of
the Women's Allam British Open Squash Championship to win the historic
Women's Squash Association (WSA) World Series Platinum title at the
Sports Arena in Hull for the fifth time since 2005.
World No2 Massaro took
a tight first game 11-8 before the Malaysian (pictured above in the
final) stormed back to take the next three games 11-5, 11-7, 11-8 in 64
minutes to win the 74th WSA World Tour title of her career.
"To win the British
Open means the world," the delighted 30-year-old from Penang told the
crowd: "Laura played a great match today and I really had to dig deep
to win this title back.
"I was playing for my
life out there. It felt great to come out on the winning end knowing
that all the hard work that you put in does pay off.
"Dr Allam (pictured
above with David, centre, and Massaro) has brought the prestige back to
the British Open and it's been fantastic. Raising the prize money for
the women has been tremendous for the tour. We need more people like Dr
Allam involved in the sport," concluded David.
The Malaysian's coach
Liz Irving, a former world No2 from Australia, summed up the
significance of the win to her Twitter followers later: "I am so
humbled by the integrity of Nicol. Her drive, her work ethic. She
worked hard for this title! A real inspiration!"
Despite the loss,
Massaro remained upbeat: "I can honestly say I gave it my all today, so
overall I'm pretty pleased. I knew today would bring out Nicol's best
level, I hoped it would. You want to play players at the top of her
game and my main goal was to play my best.
"I wanted to come off
today knowing where I stand, whether I deserve to be anywhere near her
in the rankings or not," continued the 30-year-old from Preston. "I'm
not far away at all, we were both at our best.
"I gave it everything
that I had so I can't be too disappointed with the result. Even though
I've lost it will give me a lot of confidence going into the next
tournament.
"It's a goal to be
number one in the world, but she's a brilliant player. I'm going to
have a little break next week as it's my only chance before the
Commonwealth Games. I've got a lot of doubles practise coming up and
I'm really looking forward to the Games," conclude the England No1.
RESULTS: Women's Allam British Open, Hull, England
Final: [1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [2] Laura Massaro (ENG) 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-8 (64m)
