Nour El Sherbini insists she will learn from the pain of defeat and come back stronger next season after losing to Laura Massaro at the season-ending PSA Dubai World Series Finals.

The reigning world champion and world number one, 21, was whitewashed 3-0 by veteran Massaro, 33, at Dubai Opera on Saturday, having battled back from 1-0 down and an injured wrist in Friday’s semi-final against Camille Serme to reach the showpiece.

The Egyptian lost two tight opening sets 11-8 and 12-10 before losing her composure in the third in which she was beaten easily 11-5 as Massaro retained her title in Dubai.

But, as in most sports, you tend to learn more from your defeats rather than your victories, and El Sherbini certainly intends to grow from this loss.

“It’s important to take the positives from defeat. At the end of the season I lost in the final so I’m definitely going to take the positives and learn from the bad things,” said the Alexandria native, who claimed she’d not enjoyed the best of campaigns despite retaining her world championship crown in her homeland against compatriot Raneen El Welily in April.

“Take a negative and try to improve it. Every loss is a lesson, not a bad thing.

“I need to take some rest now, it’s the end of the season, and then start to train again. Try to improve the bad things.

“Throughout the whole season I did not enjoy the best results that I wanted so I will try to improve a bit and change a lot of things in my training and see how next season goes.”

Massaro’s victory saw her edge to 7-4 ahead in the head to head against El Sherbini, and the youngster admitted experience is something that will also improve the more she plays her fellow elite players.

“Definitely it (experience) plays a part,” she added.
“She’s been playing for so long now and has more experience so definitely in the head to head she beats me more than I beat her. I don’t remember how many times we played but she beats me a lot. It’s a thing I have to think about in the future.”