Squash: Nick Matthew & Laura Massaro lose British Open finals
- Published
England's British Open hopefuls were disappointed in their respective finals as Laura Massaro and Nick Matthew both lost at Hull's Sports Arena.
Defending champion Massaro won the first game but went down 3-1 to Malaysian world number one Nicol David.
Matthew, going for a fourth British Open title, was beaten 3-0 by French world number one Gregory Gaultier.
The last time English players held both the men's and women's British Open titles was 1939.
Massaro looked good early on before David found her feet to come through 8-11 11-5 11-7 11-8 and claim her fifth title in eight years.
"I'm really disappointed with the result but I gave it everything today," said Massaro, 30. "I can definitely take the positives moving forward.
"Nicol was just playing really well. Physically she picked so many shots up and it was just me trying to regroup the whole time."
David, who lost last year's final against Massaro, said: "To win the British Open means the world. Laura played a great match today and I really had to dig deep to win this title back."
Massaro, from Chorley, will take a break before returning to training in July ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
"My goal is to try and win a medal," she added. "It's going to be really tough, but if I could do that I'd be chuffed."
Matthew, 33, found Gaultier fired up form the first ball and struggled to get a foothold in the match as the Frenchman won 11-3 11-6 11-2 in just 45 minutes - their shortest best-of-five-games encounter to date.
"I lost to a guy who was by far the better player on the day," said Matthew, who beat Gaultier in last year's world final.
"If you're not disappointed it means you don't want it enough, but I can take it on the chin that he was too good today. My game plan was to match him early on but he was like a man possessed."
Matthew's next campaign will also be in Glasgow, where he will try to try to defend his Commonwealth gold medal for England.
"My last memory on court (from this final) will be a negative one, so I'll have that bit between the teeth," said the Sheffield man.
"I suppose it's a good thing, it will give me that little bit of hunger in my training."
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