(Photo PSA)
Gilis sisters Tinne and Nele will square off for the New Zealand Open squash championships title tomorrow. It will be the tenth meeting between the two sisters, with Nele holding a 8-1 record.
However, they have not met since Nele’s straight victory in the semi-finals of the PSA World Tour Finals 2023-2024. Tinne’s sole win over Nele came at the Open de France de Squash in 2022.
Top seed Tinne, the Belgian No. 1 moved through to her first final on the PSA Squash Tour since October 2024 after defeating World No.21 Marina Stefanoni 11-9, 11-5, 13-11 in her semi-final tie.
Third seeded Nele, advanced to the final after her semi-final clash with Torrie Malik was cut short due to an injury to the Englishwoman early in the third game.
Malik has been in inspired form coming into the contest, with back-to-back five-game wins over Salma Hany and Nour Heikal. However, in the latter part of the two matches, Malik had hyper-extended her left knee, with the after effects of the injury showing during this match with Nele.
World No.13 Nele worked her way through the opening two games in commanding fashion, securing 11-4 and 11-7 victories. After returning to court for the third game and falling 2-0 down, a visibly upset Malik was forced to retire from the match due to this injury.
After the match, Nele said: “Of course, I’m happy to be in the final. It’s not how I wanted to win, it just doesn’t feel right, but credit to Torrie because she’s had an incredible tournament.
“The final, I’m very excited to have another final against Tinne, at the New Zealand Open no less, with my family here and I’m really looking forward to it.
“We’ll just do our own thing. We’ve done this a million times before and I’m sure it is going to be a long match.”
Meanwhile, Tinne came out of the blocks quickly at the start of her semi-final match, hitting crisp lines and lengths, and finding her trademark backhand drop into the front left corner on numerous occasions. Despite Stefanoni fighting back from 9-4 down to 10-9, Gilis produced a superb rally to move one game to the good.
Confidence in the Tinne camp only grew as the match progressed, with the 28-year-old attacking with increasing regularity and putting Stefanoni under severe pressure all across the court.
Stefanoni struggled to get a foothold in either the second or the start of the third game, with Tinne racing into a 7-1 lead in the third and sitting within four points of victory.
The American refused to go down without a fight, though, winning nine of the next 11 points to send the third to a tie-break and breathe new life into the contest.
Tinne regained her accuracy just in time, though, with a pinpoint lob, seeing her move to match ball, and the top seed moving through to the final when Stefanoni clipped an attempted forehand drop into the tin.
After the match, Tinne said: “I thought I started really well. Obviously, Marina, being Marina, does some ridiculous stuff. She made me work so hard to get over the line at the end of the third game there. That’s the fighter she is.
“I’m just glad I fought as hard as she did and got away with the 3-0 win today,” said Tinne the younger of the two sisters.
In the men’s competition, Kiwi No.1 Paul Coll continued his quest for a third consecutive New Zealand Open title after ending the impressive run of Spain’s Iker Pajares in three games.
He will take on 18-year-old Mohamad Zakaria in the final. Zakaria came through the longest match of the season to clinch his spot in the final, outlasting World No.6 Joel Makin in a 125-minute epic.
Coll, playing in front of a packed-out Isaac Theatre Royal crowd in Christchurch, produced a rock-solid performance to move through to Sunday’s title decider by an 11-3, 11-5, 11-1 scoreline.
Picking up from where he left off from his dominant quarter-final win over Ng Eain Yow, Coll rarely put a foot wrong throughout his 37 minutes on court.
The World No.2 produced smart, attacking patterns of play to constantly put Pajares under pressure and take the first two games by 11-3 and 11-5scorelines.
Pajares began to fade physically as the third got underway, in contrast to Coll, who only moved from strength to strength. The home favourite didn’t let up as he booked his spot in the final against two-time World Junior Champion Mohamad Zakaria.
On his upcoming final against Zakaria, he said: “I’ve got huge respect for their match. You know the way they played it, I love squash – that’s why we love squash, for battles like that. He’s young and fit, so he’ll be up for it tomorrow.
“I love that brand of squash and I have full respect for them.”
Two-time World Junior Champion Zakaria fought off a match ball late in a thrilling fifth game to seal an incredible 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 13-11 victory in his semi-final match.
After Makin came through a testing opening game 11-8, the quality only went up as play resumed in the second, with the pair trading several brutal exchanges that went well beyond the 90-second mark.
However, it was No.3 seed Zakaria who managed to rally from 7-4 down to firstly draw level and subsequently move through to level the match after 47 minutes of superb play.
The players continued to trade points through the majority of a closely-fought third game, with Makin beginning to put some tough work into the legs of Zakaria.
Egypt’s Zakaria hung tough despite the pressure, with his quality of shot selection shining through in the latter stages of the third. The teenager clipped in a pair of sumptuous counter-drops to edge ahead of Makin before a quality combination saw him move 2-1 up after 79 minutes of play.
A change of ball at the start of the fourth favoured Makin’s tactics, with the Welshman surging into a 7-1 lead and holding off a late comeback from Zakaria to send the match to a deserving fifth game.
A thrilling fifth game was to follow, with the pair once again impossible to split in the latter stages. Both players saw a match ball come and go at 10-9 and 11-10, respectively, before Zakaria squeezed Makin down the backhand wing on his second opportunity to seal potentially the win of his career to date.
After the match, Zakaria said: “I’m super happy that the cramping ended at the end and that I get to fight another day.
“I swear I was thinking back to every time I was in the gym and not wanting to do something, for the sake of matches like these. I’m so happy that it has paid off because I have been really working hard.
“I’ve been doing loads of work on my squash with JP [Jonathon Power], and I think he’ll be happy with this – he won’t be happy with the length, though, but he will be happy with the result!”
Semi-Final Results
Women: [1] Tinne Gilis (BEL) bt [5] Marina Stefanoni (USA) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 13-11 (41m); [3] Nele Gilis (BEL) bt Torrie Malik (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 2-0 ret. (25m)
Men: [1] Paul Coll (NZL) bt Iker Pajares (ESP) 3-0: 11-3, 11-5, 11-1 (37m); [3] Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) bt [2] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-2: 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 13-11 (125m)
