Joelle King Into Manchester Open Final

New Zealand’s world No.5 Joelle King has booked her place in the final of the inaugural Manchester Open after she defeated American, Amanda Sobhy in straight-games at the British National Squash Centre.

The first game was exhausting for both players as they traded points until King pulled away to a 17-15 win.

From then on the momentum stayed with the Kiwi who didn’t put a foot wrong to advance against world No.8 Sobhy as she put on a confident display to reach the PSA World Tour Silver final. The overall score 17-15, 11-5, 11-8 in 39 minutes.

“It’s no secret that Amanda has been coming back strong this year,” said 30-year-old King. “It’s credit to her that she’s in the semi-finals of a Silver tournament not so long after coming back from injury. I don’t like to keep going on about having the same injury, but I know what it’s like to be chasing those top girls and she has proven that she is worthy of her top eight ranking again. I’m just really pleased to be off in three.

“Overall this week, I’ve been feeling mentally quite good. Even in my other matches if I had lapses, I was able to close out in the business end and I guess that is one of my strengths when I’m playing well.

“I was down in the first and I was able to claw my way back and take a crucial first game and I’m pretty happy with my mental performance.

King will face feisty Welsh player Tesni Evans for the title. Evans knocked out the top seed Nour El Tayeb in the semifinals. King has a 3-2 head-to-head record including their last match earlier this year where she won in four games.

The Manchester Open is ideal build up for King towards the British Open starting May 20.