Semi-Final Report: Coll v Makin

Paul Coll is into the final of the GillenMarkets London Classic after coming from behind to beat Joel Makin in Alexandra Palace.

Makin took the first game 11-5, pouncing on mistakes and dominating a flat-looking Coll with his typical high intensity.

The Kiwi responded in game two, moving more freely and attacking Makin’s counter drops to level the scores with an 11-7 win.

Makin’s own response was a fierce one, with the World No.11 taking the first five points of game three as he regained the advantage with a hard-fought 11-8 win in 20 minutes.

Once again, Coll hit back to find parity, securing another 11-7 win to take the match into a fifth game.

This time, the former World No.1 was able to maintain the momentum, pushing on in a brutal finish to take the match with yet another 11-7 victory.

“I’m very proud of myself to get through that, it was riddled with errors from me and I was trying to play things but it wasn’t working and I wasn’t hitting my targets,” Coll said.

“Those are the ones I’ve been speaking to my coach about, we want to have that consistency of working a way through those matches and finding a way to win.

“I’m proud of that and it’s something we’ve discussed over the last month that we wanted to get better and doing and today was one of those ones where I had to find a way through, change my gameplan a bit and find something that was working for me. I’m proud of that and pumped for it, I’m sure the squash will be 10x better tomorrow.

“I was about to punch myself, but I had to calm myself down and knew what we had to do and I’m proud of that.”

Result: [1] Paul Coll (NZL) bt [4] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-2: 5-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7 (86m)

The finals of the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic take place tomorrow, 01 April, at Alexandra Palace. Action will be streamed live on SQUASHTV and partner channels from 15:00 (GMT+1).

For more information on the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic, visit the PSA website or follow the PSA on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can also keep track of all of the live scores from the event by clicking here.