Tesni Bows Out But Has Moved Towards World Elite

It wasn’t to be for Tesni Evans at the PSA World Squash Championships, but the Wales No 1’s performances in Manchester have proved she is closing in on the top players in the world.

In reaching her first quarter-final at her seventh world championships, the Cardiff-born Evans provided the shock of the competition with her second round triumph over England No 1 and 2013 world champions Laura Massaro.

She went into her quarter-final against Egypt’s Nour El Tayeb on a high, but wasn’t able to conjure up the same amount of magic as in her previous round and eventually fell 3-0 after 40 minutes, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9.

“Tesni beat Laura Massaro and not many do that, and we were one-all this year, so I knew it was going to be a tough match. I’m just happy to get through,” admitted El Tayeb, who was forced to battle all the way.

Seeded eight places higher than Evans, El Tayeb made it 2-1 this year between the two players and will now meet fellow Egyptian, and No 1 seed, Nour El Sherbini in the semi-finals.

The first game was a close affair, with El Tayeb looking the sharper as two unforced errors from Evans put her on the back foot. But as the rallies wore on, the game turned into a drop-shot duel, with Evans producing two consecutive winners to level at 7-7.

El Tayeb eventually closed out proceedings, ferociously smashing a kill at 8-8 on the way to her 11-9 victory.  The second game was played at even higher intensity, with El Tayeb profiting from an error from Evans in the front right corner to close out the game 11-7.

Given the last three matches between the two had gone to four games or more there was every hope of a fightback from Evans, but in the end she couldn’t match the clinical execution of her Egyptian rival in the third game.