New Zealand’s Paul Coll has defeated Egypt’s Tarek Momen 3-0 in a 60-minute tussle for a place in the semi-finals of Paris Squash 2023.

Coll was measured throughout the hour-long battle with the former World Champion, with plenty of errors coming from Momen’s racket in the first game while Coll remained steady with some solid defensive work.

More errors from Momen in the second game were pivotal along with Coll maintaining his exemplary defensive play. Momen saved game ball to send the second into a tiebreak, but Coll converted game ball at the second attempt to round off a 25-minute game.

It was close once again in the third but Coll, who’s beaten Momen 11 times from their 17 previous meetings, closed it out 11-8 to confirm his place in the last four.

“I was happy with that,” says Coll.

“The court played a bit different to how it played the first match I played on it. The temperature is a bit colder.

“It was a bit dead and I had to be careful with because you know what he’s [Tarek Momen] like with his soft drops and poking it around. I was very happy to get off 3-0 without dropping a set.

“The court was quite dead today so if I let him do what he wants then I was going to be in trouble. I told myself to go for it a bit more and volley it a bit more and put it in quickly when I had the opportunity I put in maybe four winners at the back of the third and that was enough to close it out.”

Coll will meet World Number One Ali Farag in his semi-final overnight NZT.

Result:
[4] Paul Coll (NZL) bt [8] Tarek Momen (EGY) 3-0: 11-8, 12-10, 11-8 (60m)

Joelle King was also in action, giving up a two-game lead to be defeated by the USA’s Amanda Sobhy in her quarter final.

Sobhy, who had only beaten King twice previously on the PSA World Tour in their 12 encounters, made a slow start to the first two games. King was impeccable and solid with her shot selection, taking a commanding two-game lead with 11-3 and 11-8 wins.

Sobhy turned the tide in a vital third game for the American, who was finding more depth in the court and having King cover a lot of ground.

Having won the third 11-6, the confidence from Sobhy was flowing while King seemed to be struggling physically. Sobhy capitalised to level the match before sealing the win with an 11-2 final game over King.

Result
[7] Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt [4] Joelle King (NZL) 3-2: 3-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-2 (48m)