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arrow pointing leftBack 25 March 17 - by Chris Peddy

Three English players through to British Open finals for first time since 1953

England has three finalists in the British Open for the first time in 64 years after Nick Matthew, Laura Massaro and Sarah-Jane Perry all won their semi-finals.

The players rose to occasion in front of their home fans in Hull, knocking out two World No.1s on an incredible day for English squash.

The last time three English players made it through to the finals all in the same year was in 1953 when Janet Morgan beat Marjorie Townsend and Roy Wilson lost to Pakistan’s Hashim Khan.

And from the way Massaro’s match against defending champion Nour El Sherbini began, an unlikely repeat began to look almost like an impossibility. England’s No.1 found herself 2-0 down, with El Sherbini dictating the pace. Massaro was not going to go down without a fight and valiantly fought back to win the match 5/11, 7/11, 11/5, 11/3, 11/6 in 63 minutes.


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Then it was the turn of Perry [7], playing in her first World Series semi-final, against five-time British Open champion Nicol David [6]. World No.8 Perry withstood everything David (Malaysia) threw at her, sealing the win in four games 11/8, 7/11, 13/11, 11/7 in 56 minutes and setting up the championship’s first all-English women’s final since 1991.

Matthew [4] faced the unenviable task of a last four tie against defending champion and World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy less than 24 hours after a draining five-setter against Tarek Momen [8]. He produced some of his best squash of the tournament so far to oust the Egyptian 11/8, 11/8, 8/11, 11/5 and prevent him from winning a hat-trick of Allam British Open titles.

“There was a patch in that second game where he really got on top,” he said. “He’s like a boxer who gets you on the ropes and you can’t recover, so I was conscious of ‘getting back into the middle of the ring’ as it were and picking my blows when I could.

“There were obviously a lot of nerves at the end, he put a few in the tin. I felt him wavering and it gave me the confidence to push on.”

At 36, Matthew has shown no sign of slowing down this week, comfortably beating Spain’s Borja Golan and Germany’s Simon Rosner before overcoming a punishing five-setter against Egypt’s Tarek Momen (Egypt) in his quarter final.

His final test comes against World No.3 Gregory Gaultier (France) in the final, whose opponent Ramy Ashour was forced to retire through injury in the other semi. Gaultier will have the added motivation of dethroning Mohamed ElShorbagy as the World No.1, as well as an Allam British Open title win, if he emerges victorious tomorrow.