ANNA Hopkin claims she is starting to feel at home on the world stage after her first major final appearance at the Commonwealth Games.

Chorley's Hopkin finished seventh in the 50m freestyle final, her time of 25.28 seconds just outside her personal best in a race that saw Australia’s Cate Campbell edge out sister Bronte.

“I still think I can go much quicker than that,” said the 21-year old, who won bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay final.

“My primary focus was that relay medal but my individual ambition was to make the final and the experience will be invaluable.

“It’s my first individual senior international final and I’m starting to feel like I belong a bit. It’s a bit daunting in the call room before with all the Australian but it’s great to race in that environment too.”

Laura Massaro’s dreams of a singles Commonwealth gold are at an end once again and the East Lancashire squash star admits she is struggling to find an answer to her new nemesis Tesni Evans.

The 34-year-old Massaro came into these Games on the Gold Coast, the third of her career, as the No.1 seed and desperate to upgrade her singles silver from Glasgow four years ago.

But she was sent packing by Evans, the Welsh no.8 seed who has now beaten Massaro the last three times they have met including December's world championships.

And Massaro – whose dream of a gold is not dead yet with the doubles still to come – paid for a slow start in a 3-1 defeat (11-8, 11-8, 5-11, 15-13).

“It’s always going to be an uphill battle from two-nil down, I didn’t execute things right in the first two sets then I found my way a little bit,” she said.

“But at the point she was just a little bit more confident and you always have your back up when you are two down. It was just my start really, I need to find a way to be better at starting matches off quicker.

“She has improved a lot and you need to learn to adjust to that, the Tesni that I was playing a year and a half ago isn’t the Tesni that I am playing now.

“It is an adjustment and a learning period, you go through it with all the girls that make the break, that is credit to her.

“You have to re-adjust and give her the respect that she deserves and that is what I did today in comparison to the last few times.

“That was probably the closest we have played of the last few, I feel like I am getting there and figuring it out and getting closer, it just wasn’t quite enough today.

“But I have a few days now before the doubles so I can pick myself up, do a bit of training and try and move on.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

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