British Open: Joel Makin beats Victor Crouin to reach semi-final

Joel Makin reached the British Open semi-final for the second time in his career with a 3-1 comeback win over Victor Crouin at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

French world number 13 Crouin took the opening game of their quarter-final 11-7 before the British number one hit back to take the next three games 11-5, 11-5, 11-6.

Makin, very much the local favourite having lived in Birmingham for the last 12 years, admitted he was needled by Crouin’s approach in the 70-minute match.

“I can’t lose to a man who fist pumps at 0-0 in the first game,” said the world number four. “Not my kind of thing that, it got my adrenaline up.”

Welshman Makin, 30, will take on defending champion and world number one Mostafa Asal in the semi-final, with their match scheduled for Saturday, 7 June at 15:00 BST.

The 24-year-old Egyptian won his quarter-final in straight games, beating compatriot Youssef Ibrahim 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 in 54 minutes.

“For the semi against Asal, if I hit my lines I know I can cause him some issues, but he’s been hitting his lines and just won the World Champs so his aggressive hitting has been top quality,” said Makin.

“I’m going to get stuck in, these are the benchmarks in my career, you either get to a British Open final or you come up short again. These are the big moments that you’re looking forward to and put in all the work for.”

Fellow British players Marwan ElShorbagy and brother Mohamed ElShorbagy are in action on Friday bidding to join Makin in the last four, taking on respectively Paul Coll of New Zealand and Peru’s Diego Elias.