[1] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-0 Ben Smith (ENG) 11-6, 11-5, 11-2 (27m)
Joel : “Ben’s a really skilful player. He’s a tall guy and is big across the forehand side. He’s got a short backswing and is a dangerous guy in that area. Tight squash helps, because technique breaks down more on the side walls than it does in the middle and you can’t give these guys time.
“I’m happy with that performance in the first round here.
“I’d been knocking on the door for a while last season, and I knew a good result was coming. I’d had a couple of 3-2 losses to Farag, but he was just so good that he could pull away from me at the crucial times. I just tried to tweak a couple of things from that, and I knew that I could then content for a major tournament.
“You want to be able to repeat these performances though. It’s one thing doing it once, it’s another doing it all throughout a season. I’ll keep chipping away – there’s no breaks.”
