What a brilliant day for Welsh squash at the Commonwealth Games with Joel Makin and Tesni Evans contesting bronze medals after fantastic scraps in the third/fourth play-off matches.
The dynamic Welsh duo battled hard against much higher ranked players than themselves with Evans making up for the bitter disappointment of missing out on a shot at a gold medal by claiming bronze.
The 23-year-old Makin followed up his 106 minute marathon semi-final against New Zealand’s world ranked No 9 Paul Coll, which saw him surrender a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2, by just failing to grab a medal in a clash with Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan.
Makin went down fighting – 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5 in a gruelling match that lasted 81 minutes.
Love this to @tesnievans! #proud #TeamWales #gc2018 #GC2018Squash pic.twitter.com/6IE6DvYjwm
— Oli Harrison-Jones (@Oli98) April 7, 2018
While Makin went close, Evans became the first Welsh medallist since Alex Gough took bronze in 1998.
Evans had beaten England’s world No 7 Laura Massaro in her quarter-final, but fallen to another English player, Sarah-Jane Perry, in the semis. That meant she had to face the champions from the last two Games, Malaysia’s Nicol David in her battle for a medal.
Cytuno yn llwyr. Epic. @JoelMakin a @tesnievans incredible today. @sqwales https://t.co/OgXT3BpRHn
— Gethin Jones (@GethincJones) April 9, 2018
Another epic battle ensued in which ‘Tiger Tesni’ finally came out on top 3-1 after 40 minutes of tough squash. She took only nine minutes to win the opening game 11-7, but then slumped to a 11-3 defeat in the second game.
She hung in to win game three 12-10 and then just had enough to win the fourth and final game 11-7 to become the first Welsh woman to win a squash medal. David is ranked No 9 in the world to Evans’ 12th place.