King and ElShorbagy Take NZ Open Titles: Player Reaction

The men’s Robertson Lodges New Zealand Open and the women’s Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Open conclude today in Tauranga and we’ll have reports and reaction from the finals at the Trustpower Baypark Arena right here.

The women’s final will see home favourite and World No.5 Joelle King take on Welsh No.1 Tesni Evans, before ‘Superman’ Paul Coll and England’s Mohamed ElShorbaagy do battle once again.

You can watch all the action on SQUASHTV, while live scoring is available here.

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Order of Play
(All times are local GMT+13)

King Claims Title On Home Soil

New Zealand’s Joelle King has taken the victory at the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Open, thanks to a sublime performance against Welshwoman Tesni Evans in the final in Tauranga.

The Kiwi, playing in front of her home crowd for the first time in more than a decade, starting quickly, as she has done all week. She won six of the first eight points to take n early lead in the first game one se did not look like losing. She did not allow Evans to find her rhythm in the early exchanges, claiming the first 11-4.

The Welshwoman came out firing in the second, though, and took a 4-1 lead. However, King did not panic, and despite being behind, looked totally relaxed on court. She won eight straight points in the middle part of the second, and went on to win it 11-6, doubling her advantage.

The third game followed the exact same pattern as the second, with Evans holding a 4-1 lead before King fought back. This time, she won nine points in a row to move to 10-4, match ball up. The World No.14 saved one of those, but the Kiwi succeeded with the second, winning the this 11-5 to claim the title on home soil.

“We get asked a lot, what’s your favourite tournament to play? And I haven’t had the chance to say New Zealand because we haven’t had a tournament for so long, but 100% playing here at home,” King said.

“I’ve been sort of nervous during the day all week but once I arrive and I see the court and I see everyone here who I know and they’re supporting me, it just kind of goes away as soon as I step on the court. It hasn’t kind of sunk in yet. Obviously, a bit later on I’ll be able to enjoy it. Super pleased with how I’ve played all week.

“New Zealanders love to party don’t they? The DJ, we’ve all talked about how amazing he’s been. I think it just sets the scene, it’s been absolutely buzzing in there and it’s packed. Even this morning, there were people that came to my practice. They couldn’t get tickets for tonight so they just wanted to come and have a picture. That’s awesome. That’s what we want. That’s what squash deserves. I’m just hoping. Hoping like hell that we come back next year.

“All week, I’ve just felt really good. Even the US Open, the last tournament I played, I felt [during] that tournament, my summer training started to settle in and I started to find my range a bit more and then coming home, I’ve had a couple of exhibitions and everything started to kind of click. Hopefully I can take this into the next few tournaments.

“It’s awful, I have to fight so hard to not lose my concentration because she’s [Tesni Evans] so cheeky and funny, she’s making jokes. For me, it’s so easy to lose concentration, I can’t kind of switch. So, it’s really hard and obviously I care a lot about her as well but I think it’s awesome for her that she is back in a final. She’ll be the first one to say she was struggling a little bit, not in the last six months, but before that. I’m very pleased for her that she’s back playing a really good level of squash.”

Result
[1] Joelle King (NZL) bt [6] Tesni Evans (WAL) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 (37m)

ElShorbagy Downs Coll For Victory

England’s Mohamed ElShorbagy is the Robertson Lodges New Zealand Open champion after beating New Zealand’s Paul Coll in a four-game final that thrilled the crowd at the Trustpower Baypark Arena in Tauranga.

A week on from featuring in the Carrus Nations Cup final against each other, the pair started in quick fashion in the opening game. They were level at 6-6, but a push from ElShorbagy saw him lead 9-6. Coll, though, took the next five points, including an epic four-minute rally, to win it 11-9 and to hold the advantage.

‘The Beast’ started strongly in the second game, but it was level at 6-6 once again. ElShorbagy pulled ahead again, and this time he held out, winning 11-8 to level the match. He then showed the qualities that have seen him spend more than 200 weeks at the summit of the World Rankings. He dropped just four points in the third to led 2-1.

Coll requested a new ball prior to the start of the fourth game, and once again, nothing could separate the two in the mid-part of it. They were level at 7-7, but ElShorbagy played three perfect rallies to give himself Championship Balls. He took the first to clinch the victory, winning in four games to secure the 47th title of his incredible career.

“Yeah. I’ve just loved my time here. I couldn’t have asked for a better two weeks to win the Nations Cup and my first time representing England last week. And then to win here, my first time playing the New Zealand Open, obviously the first time to have it in over 30 years, I think,” ElShorbagy said.

“So to win it and put my name, I was actually looking at the names on the trophy and to put my name beside all the all the greats of the sport like that, it’s such an honour, really happy to win it.

“It was hard for him to play with a lot of pressure on him, I could see the way he was playing the whole two weeks. He wasn’t very relaxed on court, the whole two weeks, but still, you know, he came back at me in the first game. I was 9-6 up. He came back at me like a champ. Second game. I knew once I lost focus in the first game when I was 9-6 up, I knew I was going to have to work really hard in that second game.

“I think it all could have gone either way after I won that second game. I knew I kind of had a big advantage here, you know, even though we were at 1-1. But for me it felt like I just need to win another two games. I think for him it felt like he needed to another ten games.

“Next week in Singapore is going to be another story and yeah, you need to keep it consistent. Obviously, I want to go back to World No.1 another time in my career. These are the ones you need to win. These are the matches you have to back up and win and you can’t enjoy them too much. Singapore is next week. Very, very important tournament. I think I’m getting closer now. I think I’ve announced that I’m back to be able to be playing. These guys have beaten a lot of the top guys now this year, done them back to back.

“Very proud to get 500 wins today in my 75th final. But again, you can focus on watching them. I want to get to 600. I want to get 700. I want to get to 100 finals and to 200. I still have a lot of squash in me. I think last season, a lot of people doubted me, thought that I was done. They thought I was finished, you know, because I just had one season. But that’s when your name is beside the greats of the sport. You know, when you have a few bad results, people always think you’re done, you know?”

Result
[2] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) bt [1] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-1: 9-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7 (62m)