Laura Massaro, who has unexpectedly developed into the biggest threat to Nicol David's long-term supremacy of women's squash, has carried her defence of the British Open title tenaciously into the semi-finals.
Massaro, the only English woman to be both World and British Open champion, now has some of the pressure of expectations from which the Malaysian constantly suffers, but overcame her tension and her compatriot Sarah Kippax in a straight-games win on Friday.
There were moments in the second game, during which the mobile Kippax established a five-point lead, when Massaro had to make extra efforts to control her emotions. But her ultimate success in doing so was well reflected by the 11-8 12-10 11-8 scoreline.
"I have not dropped a game so far, so I must be doing okay," Massaro said.
"It's always difficult playing Sarah because she gets a lot of balls back. But I got my tactics right."
Massaro next plays Raneem El Weleily, whom she beat in last year's semi-finals and in the semis of the past two world championships.
These results however might serve to increase the focus of the third-seeded Egyptian, who looked impressive in an 11-5 11-6 11-8 win over Low Wee Wern, the seventh-seeded Malaysian.
Top seed David beat Omneya Abdel Kawy of Egypt 11-7 12-10 11-4 and will play the other semi against English fifth seed Alison Waters who accounted for fourth-seeded New Zealander Joelle King 11-4 8-11 11-5 11-1.
In the men's, Ramy Ashour - the first Egyptian in almost 50 years to attempt a defence of the British Open title, trampled his way into the semi-finals.
Ashour advanced with an 11-5 11-5 11-7 victory over James Willstrop, the former world No.1 from England.
He next plays Gregory Gaultier, the former British Open champion from France who recently regained the world No.1 ranking.
He needed to contest only one game against Amr Shabana, the four-time former world champion from Egypt, who came on court with a stomach problem and quit after only eight minutes feeling even worse.
"He's my best mate on the tour, and it was bad enough to have to play him but now this happened," said Gaultier.
The other semi-final will be between Nick Matthew, the top-seeded world champion, and Mohamed El Shorbagy, the 23-year-old Egyptian who has beaten the Englishman in their past two meetings, and whom some believe is about to make a breakthrough.
Shorbagy had to play well to halt the in-form Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet 11-7 9-11 11-6 11-6 but Matthew needed to be close to his absolute best to score a 11-4 12-10 11-9 victory over Fares Dessouki, an 19-year-old Egyptian who scraped into the tournament via qualifying only after a late withdrawal.
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