default-output-block.skip-main
Sport | Joelle King

King to face World No.1 at international squash open

Joelle King. Soure: File

Kiwi squash champion Joelle King is about to go up against women’s World No. 1 Raneem El Welily at the El Gouna International Squash Open in Egypt.

El Welily has an 11-4 head-to-head lead over King, who is ranked World No. 5.

“I’m expecting her to be very sharp and very strong as usual, and hopefully it will be a good match," says King.

The Ngāti Porou descendant last defeated Raneem El Welily in February 2018 at the Cleveland Classic in the United States, so the Kiwi will be hoping to do the same during their match tomorrow.

“We’ve had great, close matches recently, not just this season."

Match videos including below - check them out... Two good wins for Kiwi squash players, Joelle King and Paul Coll at...

Posted by Squash New Zealand Poipātū Aotearoa on Sunday, April 21, 2019

The tournament so far

So far King has had straight games victories in her third round matches of the tournament, including one against Egypt’s Mariam Metwally, World No. 27.

Metwally led for the majority of the game but King came back to win it 12-10 on the tie-break before taking the third 11-4 to win in under half an hour.

“The thing with the Egyptians is that they are so fearless and they don’t really care who they are playing. They just really want to win. So I had to try and make it tough. I am really happy to win a tough second and then get off in three.”

Joelle says the conditions at the PSA Platinum event are different since it’s being held at the main glass court in front of the Pyramids, a hot-bed for the sport.

“I went down last night and it was quite windy around the time that my match will be played at so it will be nice to get on there on and just feel it out,” says King.

The tournament ends on Friday.