'Superb' Joelle King reaches last-eight of British Open

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Ngāti Porou squash pro Joelle King has continued her fine record at the British Open putting away Egyptian Nada Abbas to reach the last eight of the tournament for the seventh time from nine attempts.

King, the tournament fifth seed, was in superb form throughout the entire match and kept the ball moving away from Abbas giving the talented Egyptian no opportunity to flex her attacking muscles. King took the opening two games 11-3.

The momentum continued for King and after dealing with a charge from Abbas in the middle of the game, she booked her place in her seventh British Open quarter-final 11-3, 11-3, 11-7 in 28 minutes.

King was thrilled with her performance and to finish so quickly.

“Nada (21-years-old) is an up and coming superstar. It’s my first day on the glass court so there's a bit of a transition but I thought from the first serve, that I aced, I calmed down and I thought I played the court really well. As you say, my seventh quarter-final so here's hoping this week I can go further.

“I just enjoy these stages and being out here. I live in Bristol so playing in England is like a second home for me. So I've got (coach) Hadrian (Stiff) here, it's just nice to be playing here in front of some familiar faces,” 33-year-old King said, who has an interesting battle coming up if she wants to reach the semifinals for the first time.

“I think they put all the tallest players in one quarter, two very tall and powerful players, SJ (Sarah-Jane Perry) has great hands and Farida (Mohamed) is an absolute fighter so it's going to be an interesting match up. So I just have to come back and do my best each day.”

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King has now had her opponent confirmed as fourth-seed England player Sarah-Jane Perry who is one of her great Commonwealth Games rivals. Their last four matches have been shared 2-2. They will play on Saturday morning (NZ time).

“The court is beautiful, I thought I found my length really well and just hit the corners, it's quite basic really and if you do that well and get in front you seem to come out on top.”