Gold for King after thriller
It was third time lucky for New Zealand’s Joelle King as she clinched a Commonwealth Games squash gold medal with a cliffhanger victory over England’s Sarah-Jane Perry.
A day after eliminating one of the sport’s powerhouses Nicol David in the semifinals, King delivered in the women’s singles decider, winning 16-14 11-8 6-11 11-13 11-8. She finally clinched it in the fifth game after a 72-minute epic at the Oxenford Studios show court on the Gold Coast.
It was 29-year-old King’s third time contesting the women’s singles and her previous best effort was bronze in Glasgow four years ago.
She won doubles gold and mixed doubles silver in Delhi in 2010.
King was 2-0 up and cruising before the feisty Perry fought back, and it went to the wire. King was 5-0 up in the fifth game before Perry came back to 8-8 and the tension was near unbearable.
The crucial moment was when Perry caught the ball and expected to be awarded a stroke in an awful blunder. Instead it was called no let and King was 9-8 up before jubilantly converting match ball.
King went in as favourite for the final, ranked fourth in the world to Perry’s eighth, and having won their most recent clash in four games in the second round of the world championships in December.
It was dubbed the battle of the giants, with Perry the tallest player on the women’s tour at 1.83m and King not far behind at 1.76m. It meant plenty of contact and let calls between the pair.
In a marathon first game King eventually got home 16-14 on her fourth game ball.
She was helped by five unforced errors from Perry who was vocal towards the referee throughout.
King had her own rough call in the second at 8-6 up when denied a point when Perry backed into her, provoking a rare outburst from the usually composed King.
But she kept her nose in front and clinched the second game with a pinpoint drop shot into the nick.
Perry raced to 6-1 up in the third but let King back in, losing her cool with the referee in a prolonged exchange when she was handed a warning for time-wasting.There was more drama with Perry 8-4 up when she stumbled and slammed into the wall head first, and was granted a three-minute injury time-out.
Perry recovered to close out the third game 11-6 and give King some nervous moments as she grew in confidence and hit some superb winners.
The fourth game seesawed as King looked set to close it out then had her first match ball at 11-10 up, but Perry responded with a backhand drop shot and roared back to send it to a fifth.