Joelle King tells HEAD Bristol Base stiffened her resolve for return of PSA World Tour
On the eve of the PSA World Tour’s return, HEADSQUASH caught up with New Zealand’s World No.8 Joelle King to check out how her preparations for the second-half of what has been the most daunting season in the history of the professional game have gone.
Joelle, who plays the HEAD Graphene 360 Speed 135 SB, is based in Bristol where she is part of respected English coach Hadrian Stiff’s elite camp.
As Joelle revealed, she credits Hadrian with helping save her career after she sustained a career threatening Achilles’ injury in 2014 which side-lined her for nine-months, leaving her in tears when they first met up to discuss how they could resurrect her hopes.
The restrictions imposed by the third lockdown of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the UK have hit hard and Joelle has no doubt that her place as a key member of Stiff’s stable has insured that when she opens her account in Cairo, at the CIB Black Ball Open on Saturday, she will once again be good to go.
Recalling that emotional meeting, Joelle admitted: “Hadrian and I met on a couch in Hull and to be honest I cried my eyes out but we agreed to get on court and see where it took us. Now three years later Hadrian has been an amazing addition to my game.”
“It’s no coincidence since I started working with him, I have had the best results of my whole career. Really when I had my first session with Hadrian, I was 12 in the world and I didn’t have a coach back home in New Zealand. I was kind of struggling after my injury to know if I was going to get back to the level I had been at and I had just lost first round in the British Open.”
“Hadrian really changed my mindset in terms of my whole approach to the game. This was at a time the game was evolving and it was getting faster, and the tin was lowered, and I just couldn’t keep playing the way I had through my 20s to get to World No.4.”
“That style was just irrelevant, and the Egyptian girls were taking the game to a whole new level but Hadrian just opened my eyes to a whole different way of playing and approaching the game. At 32 any way of making the game easier on the body is always welcome and I have just loved every minute of working with Hadrian.”
Joelle added: “During the latest restrictions I have been really fortunate that my club, the Workout Harbourside in Bristol, has been signed off as an elite hub. We were given some designated hours and it really has been a blessing that we have been able to keep going.”
Joelle revealed her run to the semis of the 2020 Black Ball Open, which was the concluding event of the first-half of this truncated season, has been providing inspiration as she counts down to her return to competitive action.
The 32 - year-old said: “There were lots of positives and of course frustrations as I felt I could have gone all the way but all of that has fuelled me up really strongly to come back and focus on the areas I need to improve.
“I had a tough opening round with Donna Lobban who I played all through juniors with that Australia versus New Zealand element, so there is always that little bit of rivalry. A hard match like that at the beginning of a tournament can really focus you in terms of what is going well and what is not.”
“So, it was a bit of a turning point for me as the last year had been a bit of an up and down one with more downs than ups in terms of results, but I’ve worked away and owe a lot to my team who have been great in supporting me. “
“In the quarters it was (Nouran) Gohar, the British Open champion, who has been World No.1 and I was really happy to get that one done in three.”
Joelle’s run came to an end after an epic five-game 74-minute semi-final with England’s SJ Perry, in which she saved three match balls before squandering one to lose a dramatic 13-11 fifth game tie-break, yet she remains positive about the experience.
Joelle said: “The semi with SJ could have gone either way. At one game up and 9-5 up in the second I had control and when I reviewed it with my team, it felt that that was quite a turning point in the match. To go 2-0 up would have put me in a very strong position but I didn’t and all credit to SJ, she took that game and the match and went on to win the tournament.”
“Now, looking forward to this week (the 2021 Black Ball), I’ve always been someone who has never looked beyond her next match. Obviously, I will face the winner of Jasmine Hutton and Danielle Letourneau and that could go either way.”
“Both these girls are improving all the time and training really hard, so whoever I play I will need to put my best foot forward.”
When it comes to her career long collaboration with HEAD, Joelle admitted that she couldn’t envisage playing an alternative racket to the Graphene 360 Speed 135 SB, which has proven reassuringly trusted while equally adaptive to the nuances which coach Hadrian Stiff has added to her game.
Joelle said: “I have played with Head since the very first time I picked up a racket as a kid and I have been lucky enough to be sponsored by them since I was in the juniors. Really, they are the only racket company I have ever been with for the duration of my career, so that tells you how highly I rate HEAD rackets.”
