Tesni Topples Perry In Five Game Epic To Reach Manchester Open Semi-Finals

Tesni Evans came through a 68-minute five game battle to beat No 3 seed Sarah-pJane Perry to reach the semi-finals of the Manchester Open.

The 26-year-old lost the first game of their quarter-final against her old rival 11-7, but then hit back to take the next two 11-9, 11-6.

Evans, ranked six for the event and nine in the world, saw the world No 6 from England respond in the fourth to win it 11-1.

But Evans responded magnificently to win a  tight deciding game 13-11 to reach the last four of the $76,000 tournament.

It was the second victory this month for the Rhyl-based player over her higher ranked opponent having beaten Perry at the recent European Team Championships having also beaten her at the World Championships in Chicago in March.

“We have played a few times,” said Evans. “We played at European Teams last week and we played in Chicago, but both times SJ wasn’t at her best, so it was good for me to get those wins but to me it doesn’t matter until someone is back at their best.

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“You can see SJ is back now and playing at her best and I’m just really happy that I got over the line. I was struggling at the end of the fourth and mentally just down, but I wasn’t going down without a fight, the problem is she doesn’t do that either, so it was just a battle to the end.

“You win some and you lose some, but I was just happy to get the win.”

Evans now faces Egypt’s top seed Nour El Tayeb, who is ranked third in the world, for a place in the final.

New Zealand’s Joelle King faces American Amanda Sobhy in the other semi.

“I love it here, I think I might try and take this court back to Wales,” added Evans. “I don’t know what it is, I get to have all of my family here today, which is amazing.

“When you have had some good memories in the past, you want to keep those memories going.”