Coll closes in on London title defence
- Dave Worsley
- Mar 29
- 2 min read
New Zealand’s Paul Coll has won a five-game quarterfinal match over England’s Marwan ElShorbagy to keep his title defence alive at the Optasia Championships in London.
Seed seed Coll won 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 4-11, 12-10 in 79 minutes in yet another tight match between the pair.
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Coll made a solid start to the match, getting in front of ElShorbagy and jumping on the volley whenever possible. However, ElShorbagy remained in touching distance on the scoreboard and responded brilliantly to take a one-game lead.
The 32-year-old Coll bounced back in terrific fashion in the second, using a nice variation in his game and moving his opponent across all four corners of the court. A punishing rally at 8-8 left ElShorbagy doubled over in fatigue, and the New Zealander jumped at the chance, winning three straight points to level the match.
The momentum then swun in Coll’s favour in the third, with the open nature of the rallies working to the Kiwis advantage. Coll moved away in the latter stages of the third game to sit within a game of victory, before ElShorbagy bounced back to decisively take the fourth and force a decider.
ElShorbagy and Coll’s then played a 20 minute fifth game including some spectacular rallies where from match ball down, ElShorbagy managed to force a deciding tie-break, but it was Coll who managed to take his second opportunity to win the match, hitting a perfect forehand overhead volley to seal victory in fitting style.
“It was a great match. He came out firing,” said Coll.
“It was such a high pace, and I found myself getting caught a little bit deeper in the court sometimes. I felt I was playing well though, but he was just chucking in short so well, I felt like I was getting caught off guard.”
Coll will face England’s Mohamed Elshorbagy, the older brother of Marwan in his semifinal,