Joel Makin takes Manchester Open title
- Published
Joel Makin salutes the Manchester crowd after one of the best wins of his career
Joel Makin won his biggest title to date and his first since 2018 by beating world number three Mohamed ElShorbagy at the Manchester Open.
The Welsh number one had lost 3-0 to ElShorbagy when they last met at the Squash On Fire Open.
But this time Makin turned the tables, winning 11-7, 5-11, 13-11, 11-4.
"That was a massive push for me. I've been close to getting a win like this for a while," said Makin after the PSA World Tour Silver event.
"You feel like you're putting in the work and you get close and then you lose. You put together matches but you don't quite get it together all through the week.
"I've managed to get off 3-0 in earlier rounds here, which has been great for me and I was able to have a big push in the final then.... I enjoyed all of it and it's great to be back here.
"We had the Manchester Open last year but we didn't get to have a big crowd and this is what we want, people here enjoying the sport and tight, hard matches."
England's Sarah-Jane Perry lost out to New Zealand's Joelle King in the women's final in straight sets, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8.