Massaro stunned by Serme
dubai — Imagine doing everything right but still losing out. Laura Massaro surely felt that way at the Emirates Golf Club on Thursday.
The Englishwoman’s hopes of a three-peat went up in smoke after the World No.7 went down to Frenchwoman Camille Serme in her final Group B fixture of the ATCO PSA Dubai World Series Finals.
Massaro, who had won the tournament over the past two years, was eyeing a rare hat trick, but the fourth-seed succumbed to Serme 11-7, 11-5 in 22 minutes.
And later, with Egypt’s Raneem El Welily winning 11-6, 11-9 in 20 minutes against England’s SarahJane Perry, it left all three of them — Massaro, Serme and Raneem on three wins each. Serme and Raneem punched their tickets to the women’s semifinals at the expense of Massaro, based on the percentage of games won. Massaro had the lowest of percentage of games won among the three.
Raneem and Serme finished with the same percentage of games won — 62.5% — but the former topped Group B based on her percentage of points won. Raneem had 54.1 % compared to Serme’s 51.3 %.
Raneem and Serme will play either of Egypt’s Nour El Sherbini, Nour Al Tayeb or New Zealand’s Joelle King, in the semifinals.
In men’s Group B action, Egypt’s Ali Farag got the better of good friend and countryman Karim Abdel Gawad 11-5, 11-5 in 21 minutes to qualify second from Group B. Meanwhile, Germany’s Simon
Rosner topped Group B by seeing off Frenchman Gregory Gaultier 11-8, 12-10 in 21 minutes, in what was a dead rubber.
Rosner and Farag will play either of defending champion and World No.1 Mohamed El Shorbagy or England’s Nick Matthew in the last four.
Raneem’s win over Serme on Wednesday had put her in contention after her opening day loss to
Massaro. And Raneem, who won her maiden PSA World Championship title in Manchester, started well by taking the opening game 11-6.
She was on course to cruising through in the second game after going up 7-3. But Sarah-Jane Perry fought back to make things interesting. But Raneem held on and wrapped the game and match 11-9.
— james@khaleejtimes.com