Joelle King (NZL) 3-1 Grace Gear (ENG) 11-8, 13-11, 9-11, 11-8 (47m)
A very good performance from English Grace Gear today, as usual should I stress. I love her soft hands, her long backhand drop shots are out of this world, and look out for that crosscourt lob, dyinhg nicely in the back corner.
Sorry to be as blunt as I can be but not the best performance for the ref though, I’m sorry to say. Joelle was at the wrong end of a few, and she did well not to lose her head, still, up 8/3 in the third, the brain/lungs went a bit out of the window, and Grace – who could have very well taken the second game – finally got her reward, clinching the game 11/9.
A strong start for the Kiwi in the 4th, 5/0, but Grace wouldn’t have it at all, back to 5/5 we were. Joelle’s experience allowed her to find a better length at the end the game, and she is taking the last tame 11/8 in 10m.
Joelle : “Bit of a silly twist on a friendly game just before the New Zealand Open, and I struggled a bit with the knee, which was frustrating. But getting back to form now.
I’m back in New Zealand now, I’m part of the system with all the sports, which is a really nice change. But I had been away from NZ for 18 years, so it’s quite a hard transition at the same time.
I need to get used to the lifestyle, a very easy lifestyle, very relaxed, but it kind of makes it difficult for coming back into an intense environment. So you are relaxed and you come back here in a very tense environment.
But it’s ok, at this stage of my life, it’s the right time to be relaxing a little bit and transitioning in a way from pro-life. But definitely, enjoying every minute on play.
I would say I would have retired now, if it hadn’t been for the Olympics. I just had a conversation with New Zealand Squash about whether I would be interested in still playing for that. As of now, yes, but I think we’ll be taking it year by year and see what happens.
As you get older you don’t know what you are going to get sort of day by day, and actually, it’s quite nice to come back and not having the pressure to be one of the top four seeds.
I went to Germany for the first time ever last week, and I tried to really enjoy being in the city, and not just seeing the airport, the club and the hotel! Just trying to have a bit of a different perspective on tournaments.
I can’t compete in the way I used to, I’ve been accepting that, so I’m trying to find the small joys and what you can get out of the sport still, and that’s a nice way to be.
