Joel Makin produced the best performance of his career to send World No 1 Mohamed Elshorbagy crashing out of the St George’s Classic in Surrey.
The Haverfordwest ace – who has reached a career high 33 in the world rankings – beat Egypt’s defending champion in straight sets in the $106,000 Men’s Channel VAS tournament in Surrey.
Elshorbagy has triumphed in the US Open only last week, but had no answer to Makin who won 12-10, 13-11, 12-10 in 61 minutes in the second round.
“It’s massive,” Makin told squashinfo.com. “I had a lot of belief and I knew exactly what I needed to do. I really had to be disciplined and I didn’t think about his form, just focused on the process.
“If I was going to get into the match, I had to switch it and keep getting the height.
“I had to be positive and my short balls were better today than they have been. I’ve been working on them for a long time, but they came together. They were three really tight games.”
@JoelMakin You beauty! Tremendous and well deserved win! 🏴👍🏼 Beating World Number 1 in 3 straight sets #squash pic.twitter.com/xTrdPnbaPd
— Helen Phillips (@HelenPhillips05) October 18, 2018
Unseeded Makin, who is now based in Birmingham, had reached the second round with a victory over Germany’s Raphael Kandra, coming back from losing the first set 11-7 to reel off the next three – 11-3, 11-7, 14-12.
Makin will now face Perus’s Diego Elias, seeded six, after the world No.13 beat England’s Daryl Selby 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 in 40 minutes.
The win added to the feel good factor in Welsh squash with Tesni Evans reaching an historic US Open semi-final last week.
Evans is in action on Friday in the Carol Weymuller Open in New York.