Day Four : Quarter-Finals Complete

“Pretty happy about that!” Said Evans.

“I couldn’t really play much better than that, Gina seemed a little bit off today as well. We had a pretty tough schedule last week in Glasgow for the Doubles, I was fortunate enough not to play both events and I also had a partner in Joel Makin who covered ¾ of the court. I can’t play much more accurate than that and I knew that I had to do that at my best. Really happy that I could put out a good performance.

“We put loads of hours in and that’s the way I like to play squash, it’s trying to minimalize as much work as possible, some days it comes off like today, other days it really doesn’t. You play for that one match where you hit everything.

“My roomie this week is SJ, I’ve been keeping an eye on her! I feel like we’re playing the British Nationals this week being in Manchester and loads of us in the same half. I’m sure it will be a great match, they are both great players and good friends of mine and I’m sure it will be a big battle.

“I love this place so much, I love playing here. I’m so happy the glass court has been put back here and I’ve got some good friends in the crowd, a lot of Welsh people, all my family in the front row who mean the world to me and have got me through some rough times. This one is for them.”

“Feeling tired but good, it was pretty all over the place,” said Rooney afterwards. 

“There wasn’t much consistency to that match, but I enjoyed it, it felt like one of those practice matches where concentration goes out of the window and you play whichever shot you want, but I like it.

“You don’t want to get too ahead of yourself, but I had a lot of confidence coming from the previous round, I had to keep my feet on the ground to get past Kandra.

“I like playing in front of a crowd, it makes it more enjoyable. If they’re enjoying it, then I’m enjoying it. I’ve played too many matches with no crowd, so this feels good.  I’m playing World Champs in a few weeks so you can fly over if you want!

“I watched Joel and Youssef play in Washington not too long ago and it was brutal, whoever wins that I’m in for a tough match. Let’s just hope they tire each other out, but it’s Joel Makin we’re talking about. Just give me any of them, I don’t care.”

“I’m just thinking about trying to win the next rally, I had a few periods where my concentration dipped and Jazz took full advantage of that,” said Perry in her post-match interview.

“It’s a testament to how much she has come on particularly in the last 12 months. We have the same coach and we train together quite a bit. Those are the types of matches where 12 months ago that if I lost my concentration, she would let me get away with it a bit more, but today she didn’t. She’s had some fantastic results, she’s really dangerous and is looking to push on and is nearly inside that top 20 now – I don’t think it will be long, I know how hard she works.

“Me and Tesni were joking last night and have worked out that we have played at every Manchester Open. We both had to put extra in today to win and make sure that happened tomorrow. We are sharing a room, so I have to check everything when I get back – no alarms set for 4am and things like that. We are always playing jokes on each other and doing silly little things anyway, so I’m sure she’s finding some horrible pictures of me from the match and sending them in the group chat.

“We practiced together this morning and yesterday, we have been on court a few times and I know how well she is hitting the ball. Even if she has not been on form, she can bring it any day and we have had some battles over the years and the crowd will be hoping for one of those tomorrow.”

Result : [1] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) bt Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 3-1: 11-8, 11-5, 7-11, 11-4 (41m)

Makin Dominant to Book Semis Place

Wales’ World No.9 Joel Makin powered his way into the semi-finals of the Manchester Open after a dominant straight-games victory over Egypt’s World No.15 Youssef Soliman.

Makin went into the match with an impressive 5-0 record in their head-to-head standings, with their last match proving to be an 80-minute battle at the Squash on Fire Open earlier this year in Washington D.C.

It was more straightforward for the Welshman this time around though as he extended the rallies in the first game to put work into the legs of the Egyptian as he came from 6-3 down to convert the opener 11-9.

That first game proved to be crucial as Makin laid the foundations for a confident display with Soliman struggling to break up the rhythm of the 27-year-old who comfortably saw out the next two games to win 11-9, 11-4, 11-4  in 50 minutes.

“He’s hard to play, he’s got that quick movement and even when he looked like he was slightly injured, he slid into the splits, rolled a counter drop over and it was hard to know as he was a bit in and out,” said Makin.

“He started really quick and got me on the backfoot a little bit. I just had to get control of that backhand sidewall against him and if you don’t do that then, he is moving the ball from the middle and he’s got nice options on the ball.

“Pat [Rooney] is quality and he has had a good patch over the last six months. He’s getting in amongst it with the best players and fair play. He has a nice brand of squash, I’ll have to get into him and get him behind me to get some work into him and that’s the plan.

“You can’t give him time on the ball, he’s got a lot of options. Through the middle he’s particularly difficult, he’s got that big wingspan and he’s got a lot of hold, he’s creative. You’ve got to get it back in around him and force the volley and maybe he’ll start to force it.

“I’ve not had too many hours on court so far, which always helps. I’m trying to put some good squash together and I’m feeling good.”