Over the last few week’s we’ve featured a number of playlists from Laura Massaro, covering both constructing rallies and finding your own brand of squash. Given Laura’s presence on SquashSkills, we thought it would only be right to do some research into her very successful career so far!
Born in Great Yarmouth, England, it all started for Laura when she picked up a racket aged 7 and progressed through the junior rankings winning British Closed titles at under 14, 15, 17 and twice at under 19. She was part of the winning England Junior Team at the European and World Championships before starting on the WSA (Women’s Squash Association) tour at 19 years of age.
Laura progressed on the WSA tour over the 1st couple of years moving inside the world’s top 50. Laura’s first title came in 2005 as she won the German Open and then consistently achieved quarter-final placing’s to break inside the world’s top 20.
In 2008, Laura put in an extended run of tournaments in which she exceeded her seeded expectations, and in June of the same year, she broke into the world top 10, where she has remained ever since.
In 2011, Laura won her first Gold 50 event, the Cleveland Classic despite being seeded 8th for the event, beating world champion Nicol David in the final, and later that year claimed another momentous win in the $60,000 WSA World Series Gold event, the US Open. The win allowed Laura to finish 2011 at No3 in the world.
In 2012, Laura became England’s number 1 player when she jumped above England teammate Jenny Duncalf for the first time. She also won the Carol Weymuller Open in Brooklyn before ending the year as runner-up at the World Open in the Cayman Islands. This cemented her place as World Number 2.
March 2013, Laura won the KL Open. A world series Gold event beating world number 1 Nicol David in the semi-final before taking the title against Alison Waters in the final. It was a huge win to beat Nicol on her home turf in Malaysia. Laura then backed up this win with her biggest title to date winning the British Open title and becoming the 1st British Women to do so in 22years. The rest of 2013 was a good year. It didn’t bring any titles but Laura lost in very tight finals in the US Open and Monte Carlo Classic.
2014, started well with another final, this time in the Tournament of Champions in the iconic location of Grand Central Terminal in New York. After a short break Laura then travelled to Chicago renewed and ready to play. The event went well with her winning the event. Great preparation going into the World Open in Penang. The event in Penang was a massive success and after saving 4 match balls in the QF Laura went on to win the event beating Nour El Sherbini in the final to become the 1st English Woman since Cassie Jackman in 1999 to win the title and become World Champion. A massive achievement!
2014 continued with success when after a summer of preparation Laura achieved 2 silver medals in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games. Her silver medals came in the Women’s singles event and the Women’s doubles. The Games in Glasgow were a huge success for squash and on finals day the TV audience peaked at 1 million viewers!
2015 was a mixed year for Laura. Semi-Final losses to Raneem at the Tournament of Champions and Cleveland was followed by a loss in the British National’s final to Sarah-Jane Perry and a last 16 loss to Emma Beddoes in Chicago. After discussions with her team, Laura put her rackets away for 5 weeks with a view to coming back to the tour refreshed and rejuvenated.
It worked! After a 3-2 Semi-Final win over Nicol at the British Open, she then went on to lose in the final to Camille Serme in a tight 3-1. Proof a rest was just what she needed. From September Laura took titles in Macau, the U.S Open and Qatar. Those wins followed by a semi-final win over the World Number 1 Raneem El Weiliey meant that from January 1st 2016 Laura would be ranked number one in the World for the first time in her career!
Laura has achieved the highest World ranking of Number 1 in the World.
Her achievements to date are double silver medalist at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014, World Champion 2013, British Open Champion 2013, Windy City Open Champion 2014, KL Open Champion 2013, US Open champion 2011, World player of the year 2011 and 2013, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Delhi 2010 and 2x British Closed Champion.
She is currently the World number 2, coached by David Pearson and her husband Danny Massaro.
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