LAURA Massaro bids for a place in the final of the Qatar Classic today as she targets her third tournament victory in a little over a month.

The East Lancashire star has already claimed success in the Macau Open and US Open and saw off Egypt’s Nouran Gohar 3-1 in the last eight in Qatar yesterday.

MORE TOP STORIES:

The 32-year-old now faces another Egyptian in the shape of world No 6 Omneya Abdel Kawy in the last four.

“Omneya is a very different player to Nouran,” said Massaro of her semi-final opponent. “She plays with softer hands, attacks a lot to the front and isn’t quite as powerful as Nouran so it’s a completely different game considering they’re both Egyptians.

“We’ve come through the juniors together so we’ve played each other enough and it will just be a case of who plays the best on the day.”

Massaro’s victory in America last time out was her first major tournament win in more than a year and her performance against talented teenager Gohar signalled her intent to make it back-to-back titles.

The Hoghton star restricted the world junior champion to very few opportunities during their 43-minute quarter-final and the fourth seed displayed plenty of composure and dexterity to mix up her attacking options.

The result was a battling 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6 success.

And despite the impressive nature of the victory, Massaro still believes there is room for improvement.

She said: “I’m a bit disappointed with how I played in that third game. I think I came off my tactical plan a little bit and allowed her to play the way she wants.

“Everyone can see how lethal she is when you let her do that so I’m very happy to get off in four games in the end.”

Massaro also insists that there is plenty more to come from her in this tournament, despite her punishing recent schedule.

“I feel good physically which is a really big thing for me,” she added.

“If I’m moving well and feeling good physically then I’m halfway there with my game and I feel like that’s happening at the moment.

“Obviously playing two big majors in a row is hard so I’m really happy that I’ve made it to the semis and backed up a really good week in Philadelphia here in Doha but I’m not done yet. I’m going to try and go one more round if I can.”