It will be England versus Egypt in the finals of the 2016/17 PSA Dubai World Series Finals after a breathtaking night of semi-final action at Dubai Opera saw Laura Massaro and Nour El Sherbini seal their spots in the title-deciders.
Massaro and El Sherbini set up a repeat of the 2015 PSA Women’s World Championship final after they achieved respective victories over Nouran Gohar and Camille Serme.
Massaro, the defending champion, was two match balls down to Gohar, but dug into her mental reserves to take the win in three games and reach the final of this tournament for the third time in succession.
“Saving two match balls is brilliant and I’m really proud of myself, but I’m also really annoyed that I let three game balls in the first go,” Massaro said.
“I just need to let it sink in, but I’m really happy to be through for tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, World Champion El Sherbini is through to a second Tour final in a row after she ended World No.3 Camille Serme’s tournament.
Like Massaro, El Sherbini also fought back from two games down despite injuring her hand in the third game and she will look to become the first female Egyptian to lift the prestigious title when she locks horns with Massaro, who she lost to in last year’s semi-finals.
“I thought that I was going to retire from the match because I couldn’t hold the racket,” said El Sherbini.
“But I thought that I should go on and try and I think that it’s the reason I won. Because of my hand I was just thinking that I wanted to finish the points, so I attacked on every point and every opportunity.”
With an equal, lucrative $160,000 prize purse up for grabs, the World Series Finals brings together the top eight players on the Men’s and Women’s PSA Road to Dubai Standings, who are then split into two groups of four where matches are played in a best-of-three games format.
Players then battle for points to qualify for the knockout semi-finals and beyond, while the final will be contested in the regular best-of-five games format.
The finals of the 2016/17 PSA Dubai World Series Finals will take place from 22:00 local time (GMT+4) on June 10 and will be broadcast live on SQUASHTV, Eurosport Player and the following broadcasters:
Astro (Malaysia / Brunei)
beIN Sports (Middle East / North Africa)
BT Sport (United Kingdom)
DAZN (Japan)
Eleven Sports Network (Singapore / Taiwan)
Fox Sports Australia (Australia)
MNC Indonesia (Indonesia)
Now TV (Hong Kong)
Sky Sport NZ (New Zealand)
Super Sport (Sub-Saharan Africa)
Ten Sports (Indian Subcontinent)
Truevisions (Thailand)
Results – Semi-Finals: Women’s 2016/17 PSA Dubai World Series Finals
[2] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt [1] Camille Serme (FRA) 2-1: 15-17, 11-3, 12-10 (60m)
[3] Laura Massaro (ENG) bt [5] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 2-1: 12-14, 12-10, 11-7 (47m)
Draw – Final: To Be Played June 10th
[2] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [3] Laura Massaro (ENG)