London Classic QF: Gilis Avenges Kennedy Defeat

Belgium’s Nele Gilis is through to the semi-finals of the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic after coming from behind to beat England’s Georgina Kennedy 2-1 in Alexandra Palace.

No.5 seed Kennedy came into the match full of confidence after beating Gilis in last month’s Windy City Open, and was in the ascendency early on.

In the opening game, the Englishwoman used all four corners well and took the ball early, denying the No.4 seed time as she moved into the lead with an 11-6 win.

Kennedy continued to be positive in game two, pushing up more and keeping Gilis – who struggled at times going short – on the defensive.

Gilis eventually settled into the contest, though, and errors began to come from Kennedy as the Belgian grew in confidence and moved 7-6 up.

The World No.4 continued to improve as the game wore on, finding her range well to level after recording an 11-6 win of her own.

Now it was Gilis who looked the confident player and Kennedy who was making errors, and Gilis raced into a 5-1 lead as she looked to complete the comeback.

Kennedy battled hard to wrestle back momentum, but was unable to dent the Belgian’s armour, and Gilis wrapped up the match with an 11-3 victory.

“In the last couple of months I’ve been playing with such a weight on my shoulders. Today I felt like I was the underdog and I went back to that mentality of wanting to crush anyone that is in my way. The pressure was on her, especially in front of her home crowd, so that makes it tougher.

“I needed to trust my game and my game plan. I didn’t execute it well enough in the first game, and I’m very happy I did that. I started to work my way into the match better in the second and started to find my range better, it paid off in the end.

“I wasn’t too focused on targeting her backhand, but I did know that if I was patient some errors would come. I wanted to put her under pressure in the back corners and put it in when I had the opportunity.”

The semi-finals of the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic take place tomorrow, 31 March, at Alexandra Palace. Action will be streamed live on SQUASHTV from 15:00 (GMT).

For more information on the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic, visit the PSA website or follow the PSA on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can also keep track of all of the live scores from the event by clicking here.

Result

[4] Nele Gilis (BEL) bt [5] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) 2-1: 6-11, 11-6, 11-3 (46m)