Nicol David battles through to British Open quarters

Kingston upon Hull: Reigning champion Nicol David had to come from behind against one of the tour`s most improved players on Thursday before reaching the quarter-finals in search of her sixth British Open title.

The top-seeded title-holder from Malaysia won 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5 against Emma Beddoes, the world number 13 from England, and slipped to a 2-6 deficit in the third game before chiselling her way towards a painstaking victory in Hull, northern England.

"I played well at the end to stay in there. I think she`s full of confidence after some of the results she`s had recently," said David, perhaps mindful of Beddoes`s success over the 2013 British Open champion Laura Massaro two months ago.

"I was just holding my ground in the second and third games," David explained. "I just decided to settle down a little bit more, to stick with being consistent and gaining intensity and everything got a bit better. She made a few mistakes and that gave me some momentum."

The most important of those errors was in the first game after Beddoes had attacked boldly and come from 5-9 to 9-9, only to hit the ball out of court and then strike a return of serve down.

She nevertheless played with skill and imagination, driving hard and taking risks with boasts and drops, to come from 5-8 down to take the second game and advance to a 6-2 lead in the third.

But the champion handled the mini-crisis well, playing almost faultlessly if conservatively throughout the rest of the match, and making a surge from 4-4 in the decider which earned her seven out of eight points.

"I am really pleased to win that 3-1," she said. "I knew I had to get sharper and play with more intensity and I think I did."David now faces another much-improved player, Sara-Jane Perry, the surprise British national champion, whom David beat on Perry`s birthday during last year`s British Open.

Once again it is Perry`s birthday on Friday, and David was insistent the result should be the same as last year. "No -- no birthday presents," she said. 

"I`m looking forward to taking another step."

If she does she may have a semi-final with Laura Massaro, the third-seeded Englishwoman whom she has played in both the last two British Open finals.

Massaro came through with a 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-1 win over Nouran Gohar, an impressive result given Massaro has only just returned to competition after five weeks out during which she pondered her squash future.

She trailed 4-7 in the first game and 8-9 in the second, and only really got on top in the fourth against a 17-year-old Egyptian who struck the ball with great venom and looked self-confident enough to have won. 

"I had just that bit more experience and I think that helped make the difference," said Massaro.

"I am very pleased. I`ve managed to get a couple of tricky opponents out of the way now (the other was Joshana Chinappa) and I`m feeling better."

She may need to be, for her next opponent, Joelle King, has made a difficult comeback of her own.

Indeed the former world number four from New Zealand, was in tears after following eight monts out from a career-threatening injury by reaching the quarter-finals of the British Open.

King achieved this emotional success with a 11-5, 11-7, 11-2 win over a giant-killer, Victoria Lust, the English wild card player who in the previous round brought down the former world finalist from Egypt, Omneya Abdel Kawy.

The tall 26-year-old from Cambridge on New Zealand`s North Island prevented Lust from any sort of repeat performance by employing a forceful, well-organised game from a dominant centre-court position.

"I feel so emotional because it has been such a long road back," said King, who had Achilles tendon surgery in August. "It`s really a privilege to come back to do what I love most."