Joelle King has had a disappointing loss in the first game of the PSA World Tour Finals in Cairo, Egypt.
Seeded fifth for the top-eight player tournament, King was defeated in 55 minutes by the fourth seed, Camille Serme from France.
🗣️ "It could have gone either way and I think it was a good match from both of us."
— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) June 9, 2019
Reaction from France's @CamilleSerme following her win over @Joelle_King at the #WorldTourFinals 🇫🇷https://t.co/YNbdJRjuJX #squash_at_thepark pic.twitter.com/JDahnkLUBD
The 30-year-old took the first game against Serme 14-12 in a game which took a staggering 20 minutes, however, in the second it was the Frenchwoman who showed resolve to win 12-10.
A let call in favour of the Kiwi followed by some more focussed play had King force her way back and then start stretching the lead until she eventually had a match point at 10-8. But it was not to be as Serme won three points in a row and then the winning point pushing King into the backhand corner and the error. The final score was 14-12, 10-12, 10-12 to Serme.
King’s next pool match is tomorrow morning against Tesni Evans from Wales, the eighth seed. King beat Evans in the final of the Manchester Open in March.
Men’s tournament fifth seed, Paul Coll faces fourth seed Karim Abdel Gawad of Egypt in his first match tomorrow morning as well.