Tournament of Champions RD2: King Powers Past Courtice

New Zealand’s World No.6 Joelle King was in confident form as she prevailed against England’s Julianne Courtice in straight-games in her opening round at the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions inside Grand Central Terminal.

The two players had never faced each other on the PSA Tour before and with a string of recent impressive performances for Courtice, it was a close first game between the two players before King was able to see it out 11-9.

From then on the damage had been done by King and she was able to comfortably power through the next two games to take an 11-9, 11-2, 11-4 winning margin in 25 minutes.

The Kiwi will go up against India’s Joshna Chinappa in the last 16 after her win at the River Club of New York against Belgium’s Tinne Gilis.

“Julianne and I have played a little bit in practice,” said 31-year-old King afterwards.

“I think that helped to kind of know her game, but I have so much respect for her. She’s a great player and she has improved a lot in the last two years, so it was always a case of having to play my best squash to get over the line.

“I approached Laura [Massaro] pretty much the day she announced her retirement. I asked her if she would become part of my team, since the British we have been talking and actually after the summer I was fortunate enough to go and spend some time with her and Danny [Massaro]. I think the person she is and the achievements she had speak for themselves, it’s been an exciting addition and obviously I still have Hadrian [Stiff] in Bristol, but they compliment each other quite well.”

Result:
[6] Joelle King (NZL) bt Julianne Courtice (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-2, 11-4 (25m)