Squash: King and Coll miss out on British Open finals

New Zealand squash star Paul Coll
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

New Zealand squash stars Joelle King and Paul Coll have been knocked out of the British Open in their respective semi finals this morning.

Peruvian top seed Diego Elias knocked out defending British Open champion Coll to set up a decider against Ali Farag tomorrow.

King was beaten by Egyptian World number one Nouran Gohar 3-nil in 33 minutes.

Elias, who will sit at the top of the PSA World Rankings on Monday, crowned the milestone of becoming the first-ever South American to be World No.1 with a final appearance after beating Coll 3-1.

The Peruvian showed why he will become the top male player next week when he took a two-game lead, winning 11-4 and 11-3, but the back-to-back defending champion Coll landed the perfect riposte as he took the third to halve the deficit.

There was a lengthy pause in play in the early exchanges of the fourth when Elias accidentally elbowed Coll in the face, but the break in play allowed Elias to regroup as he went on to blitz Coll in the crucial fourth game and secure a final berth.

“I started as fast as I could, attacking a lot. That is why I got tired after the first couple of games and why I tried to throw a couple of balls in and see if they went in,” Elias said after the game.

“It didn’t go my way, but then in the fourth, I tried to push as hard as I could in that game. I didn’t mean to hit Paul in the face like that. I am sorry about that, it pretty much stopped the match so I am not happy with that. I am happy with how I stayed calm, though, and happy to win the match in four.

“He [Coll] is one of the fittest players on Tour, and a close friend of mine. It is always clean on court, it is always tough. It is not easy to win games, like I won the first, second and the last one. I started strong, and I am happy with that. Him winning twice here, he is such an amazing player and hopefully he can come back from this and go back to the top.”

King knocked out by ‘The Terminator’

‘The Terminator’ had won the last seven meetings between the pair, with five of those wins coming in semi-finals. They did battle at the Black Ball Squash Open last month, and Gohar won in four games on that occasion.

It was much more simple this time for the Egyptian, the 2019 British Open champion. Her pace and power hitting was too much for the Kiwi in the early exchanges, and King could only muster three points in the opening game of their contest.

The second game was closer, but only after the World No.4 had fought back after losing seven of the opening eight points.

King came close to scraping it, but Gohar won it 11-9, and then went on to dominate the third. She dropped just a single point in the third game, and she moves through to a fourth consecutive British Open final.

“All credit to Joelle [King] – she’s played amazing squash this week and I had to be on my toes to bring something higher than an ‘A’ game and be ready for everything she was going to throw at me. She’s had her whole team here so it gives her a lot of support and in my mind I was ready for a fight,” Gohar said.

Results:

Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt Joelle King (NZL) 3-0: 11-3, 11-9, 11-1 (33m)

Diego Elias (Peru) bt Paul Coll (NZL) 3-1: 11-4, 11-3, 2-11, 11-1 (61m)