By Paul Osborne

Nicol David and Grégory Gaultier have secured the men's and women's titles at this year's British Open ©squashpics.comIt was smooth running for the top seeds at the British Open Squash Championships as world number one Nicol David and Frenchman Grégory Gaultier secured the men's and women's titles inside Hull's Sports Arena.

Malaysian superstar David avenged last year's final defeat at the hands of Britain's Laura Massaro to secure the British Open title.

Defending champion Massaro took an early lead in the women's encounter winning the first game 11-8.

David showed her grit in the second, however, as she pulled the tie level with a relatively comfortable 11-5 win.

The Malaysian didn't look back from there as she powered through the next two games to seal the win 8-11 11-5 11-7 11-8 and win her fifth British Open title in eight years.

"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," David said.

"I was playing for my life out there.

"It felt great to come out on the winning end knowing that all the hard work that you put in does pay off."

Nicol David had to fight from behind to regain her British Open title from Laura Massaro ©squashpics.comNicol David had to fight from behind to regain her British Open title from Laura Massaro ©squashpics.com



Despite the loss, Massaro remained upbeat saying: "I can honestly say I gave it my all today so overall I'm pretty pleased.

"I knew today would bring out Nicol's best level, I hoped it would.

"You want to play players at the top of her game and my main goal was to play my best.

"I wanted to come off today knowing where I stand, whether I deserve to be anywhere near her in the rankings or not.

"I'm not far away at all, we were both at our best.

"I gave it everything that I had so I can't be too disappointed with the result.

"Even though I've lost it will give me a lot of confidence going into the next tournament."

There was further misery for Britain in the men's final, with Nick Matthew missing out on a fourth British Open title as he was beaten 3-0 by Gaultier.

The final proved one match too far for world team champion Matthew as Gaultier won 11-3 11-6 11-2 in just 45 minutes - their shortest best-of-five-games encounter to date.

With the victory, the Frenchmen now doubles his British Open tally having previously won the title in 2007.

Grégory Gaultier was relentless in his final against Nick Matthew as he cruised to a 3-0 win over the world champion ©squashpics.comGrégory Gaultier was relentless in his final against Nick Matthew as he cruised to a 3-0 win over the world champion ©squashpics.com



"It's an unbelievable feeling to win," said Gaultier.

"I want to sleep now because I only had three hours sleep last night because of the tension.

"To win the trophy once again is amazing.

"I don't know if people can understand, I've been working so hard for 25 years.

"I'm so grateful to my coaches, physios, all my team and my family back home because they give me the extra push.

"It's not an easy job.

"All the work I've done has paid off and I'm really proud.

"Even the crowd were great.

"I might have been playing Nick in front of a home crowd but I feel they were also supporting me."

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