[1] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-1 [3] Jonah Bryant (ENG) 6-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-4 (67m)
This match reminded me Jonah’s match against Ali in Gouna a few months ago. Jonah played a superb squash in the opener, really taking the game to the now retired Legend Ali Farag, but had to put so much energy to keep up with his pace that he was just a bit flat in the rest of the match.
And tonight, great opener from Jonah, well in front Joel, playing sublime squash. At 5/3, they had a rally that would have killed any top 20 player. Incredible of movement, fluidity, attacking retrieving, up and down the court and the front wall. And they were not even sweating.
But I feel that Joel knew exactly what he was doing, and although he lost the first game quite comprehensibly, 11/6, it was still 17m of hard work for the young man. Who by the way, only made a single error in that opener, against 4 for Joel.
Still 11 m of second game for 11/2, Jonah still made to work hard.
The third is cruel to the Englishman: 18m of extremely hard work, keep up with Joel until 5/5, but tiredness crepts in, and 3 errors in 4 points at the end. 11/5 for Joel.
The last game, 14m of hard work, but Joel again on top, 11/4.
Joel : “He brought some skill level, he’s got elastic speed, he’s quick into the front and he’s dangerous. He’s a nice lad and he’s going to be a problem as he gets older, but for now I’m going to keep dragging him into deep water and make it miserable for him as much as I can!
“I found a bit of a gap as the match went on, but I enjoyed that with him, he’s a good lad and there were probably five decisions and none were contentious, moving around each other, all four corners – you can’t complain.
“It’s been a curse for Tesni coming back here, she’s been injured every year so it would be nice to see her get a win. She’s back in form, tricky, skilful and good to watch so hopefully people will enjoy that tomorrow and get another win.
“Personally it’s a nice thing to win, especially doing a first of something. Dave Evans got quite close before but Pete Marshall was just coming back from chronic fatigue and he’s relentless as ever so he made that difficult for him.
“It’s nice to get a win and I’m going to try get my name on that trophy as many times as possible.”
