New Zealand’s Joelle King was beaten by Canada’s Hollie Naughton in their women’s singles semifinal on day five of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Defending women’s singles squash champion Joelle King has been beaten in the semifinals at the Commonwealth Games.
King was upset in four games in Birmingham on Wednesday morning (NZ time) by Canada’s Hollie Naughton, 11-7 3-11 8-11 1-11.
The underdog proved too sharp after King took a tight first game, and was unstoppable at the end in her first career win over the New Zealander.
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“Just from the first point I didn’t feel really settled, and she capitalised,” King said.
“She was playing very well, moving very well … I kinda just hung in in the rallies.
“Really disappointed with that to be honest. I came here to try and defend the gold – it didn’t happen.”
The rivals matched silky touches at the front of the court with the odd unforced error in an open first game – the first time the match officials were called upon was when King gained a crucial stroke call when leading 8-7.
However, English born-and based Naughton was a dominant figure in the second game, dictating matters in a rapid affair.
Left-handed Naughton is ranked 15th places lower than King in the world at No.20 but showed few signs of the gap after King had shot out to a 4-1 lead in the third game, grabbing an 8-7 lead and taking a 2-1 lead when King was unable to overturn a no-let call when Naughton held game ball.
From there, Naughton proved unstoppable.
The New Zealand team’s joint-flagbearer had taken 85 minutes for her four-set victory 9-11, 18-16, 11-9, 14-12 over England’s Lucy Turmel in the previous round and admitted that played a part in her sluggish display.
“Probably more emotionally than physically,” King said.
“It was a pretty huge match and I just wasn’t sharp enough out of the blocks today.
”She was playing well in this tournament, but I definitely should have been more experienced to be able to shut it down.”
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Joelle King ws unable to successfully defend her gold medal in Birmingham.
Naughton will now meet the winner of the all-England second semifinal between Sarah-Jane Perry – who King defeated in the 2018 Gold Coast final – and Georgina Kennedy, while King will face the beaten player in the bronze medal match.
However, NZ world No. 2 Paul Coll later raced into the men’s singles final with a classy victory over India’s Saurav Ghosal.
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