Squash: Landers-Murphy in Irish Open semifinal

Rotorua's Amanda Landers-Murphy has made the semifinals of the Irish Open. Photo / File

Rotorua squash player Amanda Landers-Murphy appears to have hit form at the right time, having made the semifinals of the Irish Squash Open.

The tournament provides valuable game time on the court ahead of next month's prestigious British Open.

Overnight in Dublin, the 28-year-old beat Enora Villard, of France, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4 in her quarterfinal. Early tomorrowmorning (NZT) she will take on Nele Gilles, of Belgium, who is well known to New Zealand audiences, having played an exhibition series here in summer.

Giles is ranked 29th in the world while Landers-Murphy is 41st. They have played on three previous occasion with the Belgian leading 2-1 in head-to-heads. Their last match was two years ago, at the same tournament, and Giles produced a win in five sets.

Earlier this week, Landers-Murphy beat former world number two Jenny Duncalf, of England, in five games, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Fellow Kiwi Campbell Grayson has also progressed to the semifinals, in the men's tournament. The Aucklander accounted for England's Richie Fallows in his quarterfinal 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6 and will play Czech player Daniel Mekbib for a place in the final.

Earlier in the week the New Zealand men's number two progressed to the quarterfinals with an 11-7, 11-9, 11-5 win over Spaniard Carlos Cornes Ribadas.

Meanwhile, Landers-Murphy's Commonwealth Games doubles partner Joelle King and New Zealand's number one men's player Paul Coll both went out of the PSA Platinum tournament at El Gouna, Egypt in the quarterfinals this week.

King and Coll, both ranked fifth in the men's and women's world rankings, were defeated in the quarterfinals by their respective number one ranked opponents.

King lost to Egyptian Raneem El Welily 6-11, 11-6, 7-11, 6-11 in 38 minutes.

The pair had met 15 times on the PSA World Tour in the past, with the Egyptian having won 11 of them. However, King had won four of the last six, including the finals of the Hong Kong Open and Cleveland Classic in 2018.

King will now take part in the Manchester Open next month before competing in the British Open later in May.

For Coll, his match against Ali Farag was another tight encounter, but another match where the Egyptian won the vital points including some long and drawn out rallies where Coll threw himself around the court.

The 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 scoreline in 49 minutes showed it was only an occasional error which cost the Kiwi who is at a career-high ranking.

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