18 May 2018

King beaten at British Open

5:56 am on 18 May 2018

New Zealand squash number one Joelle King has been beaten by Tesni Evans of Wales in the second round of the prestigious British Open in Hull.

King, ranked No.4 in the world, had no answer to Evans who was in top form to reach her first quarter-final.

NZ squash player Joelle King

NZ squash player Joelle King Photo: PHOTOSPORT

King and Evans, the world No.12 both recently claimed medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast with the Kiwis taking the singles gold and the Welshwoman taking bronze, however on this occasion it was Evans who dominated.

Going into the match, Evans had never beaten 29-year-old King on the PSA World Tour, but the Welshwoman played the big points well to put King on the back foot throughout the encounter as the New Zealander struggled to find her accuracy and Evans pulled away to take an 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 victory in 39 minutes.

"We have played so many times in practice, not so much on the PSA World Tour but in practice we have and we both know each other so well so it was just going to be a case of who did it better today. Fortunately, I did that but it was not an easy match at all, she is a very good friend of mine but someone had to win today," said 25-year-old Evans.

For King the defeat means she will now concentrate on her PSL squash team commitments for her Luxfords St George's Hill side which will host the final in a week's time against Paul Coll's RAC team. After that it's more training before heading to the PSA World Series Finals, 5-9 June in Dubai.

She will then return to New Zealand for the National Champs, at Henderson 15-17 June, with a 'battle of the sexes' promotion match against her Commonwealth Games team mate, Lance Beddoes in Auckland June 12.

Meanwhile Coll will play his quarter-final in the men's singles tomorrow against top seed, world No.1 and current world champion Mohamed ElShorbagy of Egypt.

The last time they played was in February 2017 in the first round of the Windy City Open where ElShorbagy won in five game.