Squash: Massaro through to semi-finals in Malaysia

September 13, 2024

England’s world No2 Laura Massaro acknowledged that Joelle King ‘made it really hard for me’ as she battled for five games to overcome the New Zealander in today’s longest quarter-final of the Women’s CIMB Malaysian Open Squash Championship at the Curve Shopping Mall in Petaling Jaya in Selangor.

The second seed from Preston, who had reached the last eight without dropping a game, was pushed from the off by fifth seed King, the 24-year-old world No5 eager to make the semi-finals for the first time.

Massaro (pictured above, right, with King) lost the opener after a tie-break - but fought back to take a 2/1 lead. But again King countered to draw level. England’s recently-crowned British Open champion had the upper hand in the decider, however, finally closing out the match 12-14, 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-3 in 69 minutes.

“I managed to play really well in the fifth game and won that fairly comfortably,” Massaro told squashstars.com later. “The other four games were quite tight.

“Joelle played great - the match was really tough the whole way through. She made it really hard for me - and that’s what these matches are all about.”

Massaro, in the semis for the second year in a row, now meets No3 seed Raneem El Weleily, the defending champion from Egypt.

England’s former world No2 Jenny Duncalf was beaten by Raneem El Weleily who took control of the match after the first game winning in 39 minutes 4-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-5.

Semi-final line-up:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) v [10] Camille Serme (FRA)
[2] Laura Massaro (ENG) v [3] Raneem El Weleily (EGY)

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Squash: Massaro through to semi-finals in Malaysia

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Squash: Massaro through to semi-finals in Malaysia

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