Day FIVE : Semi-Final Saturday at Ally Pally

The London Classic is down to the semi-final stage with four best-of-five matches at Alexandra Palace .

You can Watch Live on SquashTV, follow on Live Scoring ans Socials, and we’ll have reports and reaction right here.

Coll on song to desptach Ng

[2] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-0 [8] Eain Yow Ng (MAS)   11-3, 11-5, 11-7 (39m)

Reigning champion Paul Coll advanced to the final of the London Squash Classic presented by Bassim Haidar after an accomplished performance against Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng at Alexandra Palace.

Coll, who beat World No.1 Mostafa Asal to lift the trophy here last season, will join wife Nele Gilis in the finals after she beat Japan’s Satomi Watanabe in her semi-final earlier today.

Coll won 11-3, 11-5, 11-7 in 39 minutes to reach back-to-back London Classic finals. He is targeting his first PSA title since March’s New Zealand Open on home soil.

“I carried on the form from yesterday and tried not to let him into the game,” said Coll afterwards.

“I wanted him to feel a lot of pressure from the start, it’s probably one of the biggest semi-finals he’s been in.

“Joel’s obviously playing incredible squash at the moment and he’s very solid, he’s not making any mistakes. I’m going to have to have to be up for the challenge and match him in that intensity. He’s playing very well and it’s just going to be a good battle tomorrow.

“I’m stoked for Nele to be in another big final. She’s been training hard in the off season and got her squash into good form, so it would be amazing if she could get the win. Last time in New Zealand, that was a great party afterwards, so it’d be awesome to get a double, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and two tough opponents.”

Makin takes out top seed Elias

[3] Joel Makin (Wal) 3-1 [1] Diego Elias (Per) 11-6, 11-4, 6-11, 14-12 (80m)

Welsh World No.4 Joel Makin reached the final of the London Squash Classic presented by Bassim Haidar after toppling No.1 seed Diego Elias in a four game battle at Alexandra Palace.

Makin beat Elias en route to securing his first major title at the PSA Squash Tour Finals in June and has now won three of his last four matches against the World No.2 seed, following an 11-6, 11-4, 6-11, 14-12 triumph.

It was a tightly-contested beginning to the match as Makin kept the ball alive and forced Elias into some punishing rallies, but the Peruvian came right off the boil the longer the first game went on.

The second game was a one-sided affair, with Elias not entirely happy with the court floor and he looked disinterested as Makin charged ahead to double his lead.

Elias let his emotions get the better of him last time these two players met in Toronto, but this time around he kept his composure and returned to court displaying his usual impeccable ball control.

The Peruvian dragged Makin into all four corners and picked him off at will to halve the deficit.

The fourth game was an epic battle between two contrasting styles with Makin taking the ball off the side wall and using height and weight to nullify Elias’s racket skills.

The Welshman faced four match balls but fought back each time and held his nerve to seal the win, reaching back-to-back PSA finals for the first time since 2017. He can go to World No.3 if he wins the tournament.

“He’s done this quite a few times, where he can look disinterested and then turn it on,” said Makin afterwards.

“He’s that good at squash, I wasn’t really that interested in what he was doing, I was just trying to close down the lines and get positions around the middle whilst keeping him behind me for periods. He’s always in and out, but that’s the level he can play. I’ve seen him beat World No.1s doing that and then turn the match around. I didn’t suddenly think that he wasn’t interested today, I was well aware of what could happen.

“I shifted the tactics a little bit. He came back really well in the third and I just nicked a tight fourth. The squash I’m playing is tidier and I’m enjoying the way I’m playing.

“I’ve tweaked a couple of things and I’m happy with it, but it’s an ongoing process for me, I want to see how many tournaments I can win this year and I’m still trying to get better. There’s still a few things to tidy up, but the level is getting there.

“I’ve come close before, I played Paul in the final at Canary Wharf a couple of years ago, so hopefully it’s him in the final and I can get a good win there. He’s three in the world at moment, I’m four, and if I beat him tomorrow I think that might change it. That stuff aside, I’m just aiming to win as many tournaments as I can.”

Orfi ends Siva’s title defence

[2] Amina Orfi (EGY) 3-1 [5] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS)  11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5 (68m)

Egypt’s No.2 seed Amina Orfi has reached the final of the London Squash Classic presented by Bassim Haidar for the first time after ending Sivasangari Subramaniam’s title defence at Alexandra Palace.

Orfi – who will play Belgium’s No.8 seed Nele Gilis in the title decider – put in a powerhouse of a performance to win 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5 to reach her first PSA Squash Tour final since April’s El Gouna International.

The 18-year-old played at a high pace throughout, always looking to put Sivasangari under severe pressure.

The Malaysian found her best squash at the business end of both of the first two games, but the deficit between her and Orfi was too big for her to make up as the Egyptian opened up a two-game advantage.

Sivasangari – who beat three of the world’s top four when she won the London Classic in April of last year – showed plenty of grit in the third game as she struck back to keep her hopes alive, moving Orfi to side to side and attacking with accuracy into the front.

Orfi got herself back in front in the fourth though and closed out the win to reach her 13th PSA Squash Tour final.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match, we played several times last season and we’re both very close in the rankings,” said Orfi afterwards.

“I knew it was going to be a battle, but I knew she was going to be under pressure being the defending champion.

“Nele has done really well this tournament. She didn’t play the quarters match, but she had a great performance today, so I’m going to see what I can do tomorrow.

“I’m not trying to really think about rankings, I just want to play well and see the work that I’ve done in the summer. I’m trying to turn up in these events hopefully win as many titles as I can.”

Gilis through to final win Watanabe win

[8] Nele Gilis (BEL) 3-1 [3] Satomi Watanabe (JPN)  11-7, 11-13, 11-2, 11-3 (57m)

Belgium’s World No.14 Nele Gilis reached her first Gold-level final since November 2023 after upsetting No.3 seed Satomi Watanabe at Alexandra Palace in today’s first semi-final.

Gilis put in arguably her finest performance of 2025 to date as she emerged with an 11-7, 11-13, 11-2, 11-3 victory to reach her first PSA Squash Tour Final since the German Open in April of last year.

Gilis had won four of her five matches against Watanabe coming into today’s match, but it was the player from Japan who got the win last time out as she beat Gilis to win the 2024 Optasia Championships.

No.8 seed Gilis – who received a walkover into the last four after top seed Olivia Weaver withdrew from their quarter-final match was on it from the word go. She kept the ball deep in the back of the court, giving Watanabe very little opportunities to attack.

Watanabe’s best period of the match came in the second game as she took the game to her opponent, firing the ball in short and overturning a game ball to level things up.

That was as good as it got for the World No.6 though. Gilis refocused and dominated the third and fourth game, dropping just five further points to book her place in the title decider, going one better than her semi-final at last year’s London Classic.

“I’m ecstatic, I was so close to reaching the final last year, and I just missed out,” said Gilis afterwards.

“I couldn’t be happier to go one step further this year. I didn’t do much differently [in the last two games], I just stuck to my game plan and after the second I felt like i was playing well. I’m not quite sure what happened in the second, I lost a little bit of accuracy and she was very good around the middle of the court, so I just stuck to my game plan and tried to do a little bit better.

“I was gutted that I couldn’t play yesterday because I was really excited to. Me and Olivia always have great battles and it’s not nice to go through like that, but at the same time it was a great opportunity for me, it made me even more excited to play today. I wish Olivia a speedy recovery.

“I’m so determined to win tomorrow. I’ve been working so hard to get back to this stage and I will give it my all.”