LAURA Massaro got the defence of her World Series Finals off to a super start with a comeback victory over world champions Raneem El Welily in Dubai.

The East Lancashire squash star is bidding to win the title for the third year in a row and prevailed 8-11, 11-9, 11-8 in 39 minutes against the World No.2.

And the Hoghton star was pleased to get her round robin campaign off to a winning start.

“This best of three plays with your mind a little bit,” said Massaro, who beat World No.1 Nour El Sherbini in the final of last year’s event.

“It was such a tight match and I thought I needed to nick a game. Even if I lost the next one at least nicking a game would put one on the board.

“I remember last year, SJ (Perry) needed to win a game or something funny (to qualify) so every game counts and that’s all I was thinking.

"In that third I thought that after a few hard rallies it was getting tough for both of us. I just tried to keep my foot on the gas.

“I didn’t think I would win it last year to be honest, everyone keeps saying ‘how do you feel about three times?’ and I can’t believe I won it twice.

“It’s nice to know you’re coming back for three days in a row regardless of results.”

The 34-year-old plays Perry today before concluding her group campaign against France's Camille Serme who also opened with a win.

Massaro's win over El Welily was a repeat of the 2016 final which Massaro won in five games.

It was the Egyptian who had the better of the match in the opening exchanges as she came out on top of some short rallies that rendered Massaro unable to move her opponent around the court.

Massaro displayed her famous tenacity in the second as she dug in to level while she had a lot of success down the backhand side in particular.

After taking the second, Massaro built up four match balls, of which El Welily was able to save two.

But she was powerless to stop Massaro settling the match in style, hitting an incredible behind the back winner to catch El Welily out.