King and Coll safely into quarters

New Zealand’s two big squash stars, Paul Coll and Joelle King, took contrasting routes into the singles quarter-finals.

Coll, ranked No 2 in the world, ground out a four-game win over Emyr Evans of Wales 8-11, 11-0, 11-5, 12-10. King breezed past Georgia Adderley of Scotland 11-3, 11-5, 11-5.

The two New Zealanders are seed No 1 in the singles events.

Coll led 8-5 in the first game and did not win another point. He then applied himself and quickly won the next two games and led 6-3 in the fourth. But Evans came back and even held a game point at 10-9 before Coll closed him out.

“I’ve never come across him before, but I’d heard he is a good player,” Coll said. “I had leads in the first and fourth games and switched off. I’ll learn from that.”

Coll gave credit to Evans for playing so well on the big stage.

“Having said that, it’s not good enough to have such big leads and relax like that. I was pleased that I played really good squash at times, but my concentration was lacking.”

King said she was aware that Adderley is an improving player. “She’s been come through the ranks over the past year. She’s even come down to Bristol to train with me, so I knew how dangerous she could be.”

King said she was pleased with her form and is feeling confident on the court.

The third New Zealander in the singles was Kaitlyn Watts, who fought hard but found the talented Indian Joshana Chinappa a shade too severe and lost 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, ?????

King now plays Englishwoman Lucy Turmel, who is seeded in the 5-8 bracket, and Coll runs into the talented Adrian Waller, also of England and also seeded in the 5-8 bracket.