Massaro completes astonishing comeback to reach Allam British Open final

Laura Massaro completed an astonishing comeback to beat Nour El Sherbini 3-2 and reach the Allam British Open final in Hull.

El Sherbini [1] stormed through the first game and edged the second with England’s Massaro seemingly heading out of the competition.

World No.4 Massaro battled her way back into the match to make the score 2-2 and set up a nervy decider. Massaro had the momentum at this point and closed out the match 5/11, 7/11, 11/5, 11/3, 11/6 in 63 minutes, with the pressure too much for El Sherbini as she made critical errors.

“I thought she played brilliantly in the first two games,” 33-year-old Massaro said of her 21-year-old opponent. “I know how hard it is when you’re 2-0 and you can feel the match slipping away from you.

“She had barely dropped any points this week [before the semi-final]. I was just thinking I at least needed to win one game.”

Massaro has been phenomenal in this year’s tournament and went into this afternoon’s match on the back of victories over Dipika Pallikal Karthik (India), qualifier Mayar Hany (Egypt) and World No.3 Raneem El Welily (Egypt).

Now she has the chance to win the Allam British Open for a second time on Sunday.

“I love coming down here, British Open finals day is where you want to be,” she said. "It’s a chance to play for a major trophy. I have such fond memories from before when I won it at the KCOM Stadium [in 2013].”

Sarah-Jane Perry can set up the first all-English women's final since 1991 with victory against five-time champion Nicol David in the other semi-final.