England’s Laura Massaro and Malaysia’s world number one Nicol David denied the hosts of the Women’s Alexandria International an all-Egyptian semi-final line-up after hard-fought victories over local players in the quarter-finals of the WSA International 100 squash event at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.<\/p>\n
World No.4 Massaro avenged a defeat in their last meeting in the US Open in October when she twice came from behind to beat Alexandrian Nour El Sherbini, ranked just three places below, 5-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 in 63 minutes.<\/p>\n
“Nour is so talented, I’m happy I managed to get one more win out of her today,” Massaro (pictured above, right, with El Sherbini) told the event website www.alexandriainternationalsquash.com later. “I’m sorry I spoiled the party for the crowd, everybody wanted her to win – I had to work extra hard in each rally to compensate for everybody cheering for Nour!”<\/p>\n
Top seed David is now just one win away from a 100th WSA World Tour final appearance following a tough battle with Cairo-based Nour El Tayeb, the fifth seed. A stunning rally brought the match to a close when David leapt to put away the winner with the Egyptian stranded on the floor after a dive.<\/p>\n
“I think it was a very exciting match for the crowd, with Nour diving all over the court and just picking up everything,” said David (pictured above, right, with El Tayeb) after her 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 triumph in 41 minutes. “It was a very tough match, it was very hot on there, and I’m truly happy to get through in three!”<\/p>\n
David will now face her third successive local opponent when she takes on career-long rival Omneya Abdel Kawy for a place in the final. The world No.9 from Cairo pulled off the day’s only upset when she survived a five-game battle with England’s Alison Waters, the world No.6.<\/p>\n
Kawy recovered from a 2\/1 lead by Londoner Waters to take the last two games for the loss of just six points, much to the delight of the home crowd.<\/p>\n
“That was very tough,” said Abdel Kawy after her 8-11, 11-9, 2-11, 11-3, 11-3 victory. “In the first two games, strangely enough I was very tired, and she was playing very, really well, and my head was just not there.<\/p>\n
“My coach told me ‘come on, you can win this, you know you are not tired, just give it a big push’.”<\/p>\n
In the final match of the day, second seed Raneem El Welily kept hopes of an all-Egyptian final alive as she came from 1\/2 down to beat in-form French star Camille Serme.<\/p>\n
Sixth seed Serme, who won the British Open title in May against expectations and went into the Alexandria quarter-final boasting a 15-match winning streak since March, built up a 2\/1 lead.<\/p>\n
But from 0-3 down in the fourth, the Alexandria-born world No.2 dominated proceedings, dropping just three more points to record a popular 8-11, 11-4, 11-13, 11-5, 11-1 win in 55 minutes.<\/p>\n
RESULTS: Women’s Alexandria International, Alexandria, Egypt<\/strong><\/p>\n Quarter-finals: England’s Laura Massaro and Malaysia’s world number one Nicol David denied the hosts of the Women’s Alexandria International an all-Egyptian semi-final line-up after hard-fought victories over local players in the quarter-finals of the WSA International 100 squash event at Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.<\/p>\n World No.4 Massaro avenged a defeat in their last meeting in the US Open in October when she twice came from behind to beat Alexandrian Nour El Sherbini, ranked just three places below, 5-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 in 63 minutes.<\/p>\n “Nour is so talented, I’m happy I managed to get one more win out of her today,” Massaro (pictured above, right, with El Sherbini) told the event website www.alexandriainternationalsquash.com later. “I’m sorry I spoiled the party for the crowd, everybody wanted her to win – I had to work extra hard in each rally to compensate for everybody cheering for Nour!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-others"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [5] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 (41m)
[7] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) bt [3] Alison Waters (ENG) 8-11, 11-9, 2-11, 11-3, 11-3 (53m)
[4] Laura Massaro (ENG) bt [8] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) 5-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 (63m)
[2] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [6] Camille Serme (FRA) 8-11, 11-4, 11-13, 11-5, 11-1 (55m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"