DUBAI // Having won the first game 12-10 and leading 9-6 in the second – only two points away from booking her pace in the women’s final of the World Series Finals – the final of last month’s World Championship’s briefly crossed Laura Massaro’s mind.
The top seed here, Massaro had raced through the first two games of the title decider in Malaysia, winning 11-6, 11-4, but then the tide turned.
Egypt’s Nour El Sherbini won the next three games to win the title and get her name in the record books as the youngest world champion in women’s squash.
Playing the same opponent in the semi-finals of the World Series Finals in Dubai, Massaro, 32, used the disappointment of that loss to spur herself across the finish line.
The Briton avenged her Malaysia defeat with a 12-10, 11-6 win over El Sherbini, and she now meets Raneem El Welily, who edged two-time winner Nicol David 11-5, 8-11, 11-8 in the other semis.
In the men’s final, the world No 13 Cameron Pilley, who barely managed to qualify for the finals, will meet world reigning world champion and two-time World Series Finals winner Gregory Gaultier for the title, after his stunning win over world No1 Mohamed Elshorbagy in the semis.
“It’s always great to be playing for a major title,” said Massaro, who was trailing at the start of both games – 1-4 in the first and 1-3 in the second – but then reeled off seven points on the trot in the first game and six on the trot in the second.
“So I am really happy with my performance more than anything.
“It [the World Champions final] crossed my mind once, at the back end of the second, but it was just to remind myself to close out the match, try and make a really big push and not to back off now.
“So I wouldn’t say it was a negative reminder in anyway. If anything, it probably spurred me on to just try and really get over the finish line.”
Pilley is the first Australian to reach the final since Anthony Ricketts’ triumph in 2006 and he made the grade by mastering Elshorbagy 11-9, 11-5, while Gaultier defeated Colombian Miguel Angel Rodriguez 11-7, 11-7.
“It was a great match I thought and I gave it everything I had,” Elshorbagy said. “I have no regrets. It’s been an unbelievable season for me. Every opponent that I beat this season accepted the fact that I beat him and today it’s my turn to accept the fact that I lost. He played better than me and he deserved to win.”
Pilley, of course, had never dreamt of playing for the title in a World Series Finals and the 33-year-old Aussie could barely conceal his joy.
“Being in the final from just being able to break into the Top 8, very happy with the way it’s going,” Pilley said. “My goal here was to reach the semi-final and then to make the final, I have never dreamt about it because you have to be in the top eight to compete in this.
“So if I did win it, it would be beyond all expectations.”
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