Home
Other Sports
Tesni Evans And Joel Makin Put Wales On The World Squash Map

Tesni Evans And Joel Makin Put Wales On The World Squash Map

Tesni Murphy (nee Evans) Celebrates

What a brilliant day for Welsh squash at the Commonwealth Games with both Joel Makin and Tesni Evans winning bronze medals after fantastic scraps in the third/fourth play-off matches. The dynamic Welsh duo battled to 3-2 victories over much higher ranked players than themselves to make up for the bitter disappointments of missing out on a shot at a gold medal. The 23-year-old Makin followed up his 106 minute marathon semi-final against New Zealand’s world ranked No 9 Paul Coll, which saw him surrender a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2, with a 99 minute classic against Scotland’s Alan Clyne to take his place on the medal rostrum.

What a brilliant day for Welsh squash at the Commonwealth Games with Joel Makin and Tesni Evans contesting bronze medals after fantastic scraps in the third/fourth play-off matches.

The dynamic Welsh duo battled hard against much higher ranked players than themselves with Evans making up for the bitter disappointment of missing out on a shot at a gold medal by claiming bronze.

The 23-year-old Makin followed up his 106 minute marathon semi-final against New Zealand’s world ranked No 9 Paul Coll, which saw him surrender a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2, by just failing to grab a medal in a clash with Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan.

Joel Makin just failed to win bronze. Pic: BBC.

Makin went down fighting – 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5 in a gruelling match that lasted 81 minutes.

Love this to @tesnievans! #proud #TeamWales #gc2018 #GC2018Squash pic.twitter.com/6IE6DvYjwm

— Oli Harrison-Jones (@Oli98) April 7, 2018

While Makin went close, Evans became the first Welsh medallist since Alex Gough took bronze in 1998.

Evans had beaten England’s world No 7 Laura Massaro in her quarter-final, but fallen to another English player, Sarah-Jane Perry, in the semis. That meant she had to face the champions from the last two Games, Malaysia’s Nicol David in her battle for a medal.

Cytuno yn llwyr. Epic. @JoelMakin a @tesnievans incredible today. @sqwales https://t.co/OgXT3BpRHn

— Gethin Jones (@GethincJones) April 9, 2018

Another epic battle ensued in which ‘Tiger Tesni’ finally came out on top 3-1 after 40 minutes of tough squash. She took only nine minutes to win the opening game 11-7, but then slumped to a 11-3 defeat in the second game.

She hung in to win game three 12-10 and then just had enough to win the fourth and final game 11-7 to become the first Welsh woman to win a squash medal. David is ranked No 9 in the world to Evans’ 12^th place.