"It means everything. I came into this week trying to defend, I prepped really well, had a great week in Birmingham with my coach, I brought my physio over and tried to make everything happen to defend the title. I'm loving the court, loving the atmosphere and I'm fired up for tomorrow," said the 29-year-old from Greymouth.
"I came in today with a game plan, the body and mind are both feeling great, he's such a talent, he's so strong that I had to execute my game plan to win and I'm very happy to do that 3-0 in the semis.
"I stuck to my game plan well. I was aggressive when I needed to be and defended where I needed to, and executed my game plan from the first rally."
He has now set himself up for a contest with Egypt's Ali Farag in the final tomorrow. If Coll wins the final he will retain the No 1 world ranking in May, however if he loses the final Farag will take over top spot again.
"Nobody gave me the World No.1 spot easy, so I'm not giving it up easy."
The pair have played 19 times with Farag ahead 15-4, however since the beginning of 2021 Coll is ahead 3-2 and has won the last two matches.
Earlier King put up a great fight in her first semifinal at the tournament and was beaten by Egyptian Hania El Hammamy 11-5, 5-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-3 in a contest which saw both players leave everything on the court.
The Egyptian started the better of the two, finding her line and length immediately and forcing King deep into the back corners. This set up numerous attacking opportunities for the El Hammamy, which she took full advantage of as she won the opening game 11-5.
In a complete turnaround second game, King stepped up the court and used her hitting power to keep El Hammamy off the T and impose her own game on the match. She capitalised on some unforced errors from the world No 3 and took the game 11-5 to equalise.
King, 33 who rose one place to No 5 in the world in the April rankings a couple of days ago continued her momentum into the third game and narrowed the angles of the talented Egyptian player. El Hammamy tried to force opportunities but found no way through the solid hitting of King. King took the game 11-7 in 17 minutes to take a 2-1 lead.
El Hammamy responded and took her chances well in the front two corners. She set up a fifth and final game, winning 11-8.
The momentum El Hammamy gathered in that fourth game showed no signs of disappearing as she ran away with the fifth game playing aggressive squash to dominate King in the final game to win the match in 71 minutes.
El Hammamy was relieved to have won another close encounter between the pair.
"Every time Joelle and I play we seem to kill each other. Anytime I lose my focus I get chopped so I had to focus really well today. I had to minimise my errors and keep telling myself to play safe and fight for every shot and I dug very deep, it's always tough against her so I'm very happy to get through," she said.
King's next tournament is the Manchester Open next month followed by the PSA World Championships in May in Cairo. She is set to return to New Zealand for the first time in three years and will play the NZ Championships 1-3 July in Tauranga.
The men's final will be at around 3am NZT tomorrow morning (Monday). It follows the women's final between El Hammamy and Nouran Gohar which starts at 2am NZT.
