2021 Platinum Reports REPORTS

R3: Joelle is back….

R3: [7] Joelle King (Nzl) 3-0 [9/16] Nadine Shahin (Egy) 11-5, 11-9, 11-3 (27m)

Deconstruction. Joelle, beaten in Windy City 3/0 by Nadine, was according to her own words “a different player then”. We all saw for a bit more than a year the Kiwi struggle with her squash and today, it was a different person on court all right.

Strong. Mentally focused. Barely any errors. Calm. Clinical. The Joelle King that got through Achille’s injury and is back to tell the tale, the Joelle that left her whole life to go and live in Bristol, changed her whole surroundings to perfect her squash, is back, well, and kicking in Cairo!

To be honest, I don’t think Nadine did anything wrong. She fought hard and dug in, hat to her in the 2nd, down game ball down at 10/5, she took the game to the Kiwi and truly pushed her by finding a perfect balance between attacking and length.

Joelle reassessed in the 3rd, 8/0 up, 9/2, 11/3 in 6m.

Next….!

Joelle: “It was by no means easy,”

“I actually lost to Nadine the last time we played 3-0 last year in March, so I had that in the back of my mind. I know that I’m a different player to what I was in March. It was far from easy, mentally I had to keep my focus the whole time. As we saw the other day she never gives up until the last point is over.

“Early games and late games, both have pros and cons. It’s 9am in the UK where I’ve come from, so I’m used to training early, so for me it doesn’t make a difference – I’m here to do a job.

“I didn’t come all this way to make friends. I’ve been working really hard and I want to put my best foot forward. I’m trying to do the best I can out there and so far, so good.”