Laura Massaro leads England’s World Team title bid in Canada
From England Squash and Racketball
World champion Laura Massaro will lead England’s attempt to regain the Women’s World Team Squash Championship in Canada next month.
The world No.2 from Lancashire will captain a strong team comprising four players in the world’s top 18 for the event at Niagara-on-the-Lake from December 1 to 6.
Massaro will be joined in Canada by world no.5 Alison Waters (Middlesex), 17th-ranked Sarah-Jane Perry (Warwickshire) and Leeds-based Emma Beddoes, who has just achieved a career-best ranking of 18. In a surprise move, there is no place for Jenny Duncalf, the world no.15 from Yorkshire.
Assistant National Coach David Campion said: “This was a tough selection given the current strength in depth of the ladies. Leaving out a player of Jenny’s experience wasn’t easy, but the selections came down to form and we feel that the squad of Laura, Alison, Sarah-Jane and Emma gives us the best possible chance of success at this point in time.”
Beddoes beat Nour El Sherbini in the recent Macau Open but then lost to Duncalf in the quarter-finals.
England will be attempting to go one step further than they did in the last three competitions, finishing runners-up in 2008, 2010 and 2012, and to recapture the trophy they last won in 2006.
Campion added: “Egypt and Malaysia are very strong and amongst the favourites for the title, but so are we. Our goal is to produce our best level on the day. If we can do that, we will be very difficult to get past.”