Makin in quarters of Qatar Classic tournament | Sportsmonks
Sportsmonks

Makin in quarters of Qatar Classic tournament

Wales’ World No.10 Joel Makin has reached the quarter finals of the 2020 Qatar Classic after defeating France’s World No.38 Lucas Serme 11-7, 11-9, 11-7 at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex.

The match was strongly contested all the way through with Serme forcing Makin to work hard for every point, but it was the Welshman who prevailed with his accurate shot-making and incredible retrievals seeing him come away with a straight-games win at the PSA Platinum event.

Makin will face either World Champion Tarek Momen or former World No.1 James Willstrop in the quarter finals.

“You know how mobile Lucas is,” said 26-year-old Makin.

“A couple of two wall boasts I put in and he was just jumping all over them. To play him, you have to really get your tactics right and be deliberate when you go in short. Make sure you’re not chucking them out there easily because he’s so fluid and light and a great mover on court. You have to be really sensible and stick to your plan, otherwise you can open up too much and that’s not the way you want to play.

“Tarek [Momen] is the higher seed, but like James [Willstrop] has shown so many times, he’s done a good amount of training, his hitting is as good as ever, if not better. He’s further down the rankings, but everyone knows he is well capable of beating these guys if his body is right. It will be an interesting match and the cold conditions might make quite a big difference.”

Result: [8] Joel Makin (WAL) bt Lucas Serme (FRA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-9, 11-7 (52m)

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