Commonwealth Games: King the queen of squash doubles

It was mental rather than physical exhaustion that prevented Joelle King from matching the Commonwealth Games double gold achieved by her mentor eight years ago.

King will end the Games as New Zealand's most successful athlete -- gold and silver medals won overnight her reward for a marathon doubles campaign.

Rapt to win the hour-long women's doubles final with good friend Jaclyn Hawkes, King couldn't go back to back, losing the 96-minute mixed doubles final with Martin Knight.

She admitted to feeling "shattered" after completing five arduous matches in two days. It came at the end of a 10-day tournament in which she had one day off.

It all caught up with her in the mixed final, where she and Knight won the first set against Australian top seeds Kasey Brown and Cameron Pilley but King struggled to maintain her high standards of concentration and they succumbed 11-8 7-11 5-11.

"It was quite emotional at the end of that match," she said.

"Having won gold and going straight back on, it was quite hard to get myself up.

"It's just the mental (side), keeping your concentration, keeping your shots above the tin and putting it in the right place. That sort of let me down a bit in the end."

It was a different King in the few minutes between matches.

She was buzzing straight after combining with Hawkes to topple English third seeds Jenny Duncalf and Laura Massaro 11-9 11-10, in a match notable for New Zealand's fightback from 10-6 down in the second game. The rallies when the scores were 10-9 and 10-10 were drawn out, tense affairs marked by countless let calls.

"It was pretty brutal out there but that's what we train for, that's what we prepare for coming into the Games. I was ready for that but it will be nice to have a rest tonight," King said.

"I'm pretty stoked to come away with a gold and a silver at the Commonwealth Games. Hopefully there are many more to come."

New Zealand have forged an enviable Games record in squash, with their most prolific performer being Leilani Rorani at Manchester in 2002. There she won gold in the women's doubles with Carol Owens and in the mixed doubles with Glen Wilson.

"I couldn't quite keep up with her," said King of Rorani, who mentored her last year as she rocketed up the world rankings to her current 20th spot.

"We've had a lot of great women squash players coming through. Shelley Kitchen (silver and bronze) did pretty well at the Melbourne Games as well."

Kitchen pulled out of these Games in August with illness, prompting coach Anthony Rickettss to shuffle the doubles combinations.

King was joined by Hawkes, who said they instantly clicked.

"We were really disappointed that Shelley couldn't come but once Anthony made the decision that Joelle and I would play together, we just got on with it and decided that we wanted to come back with gold and that's what we've done," Hawkes said.

"We knew we could go well together because Joelle's just so dominant on that forehand side, they just don't want to hit it to her. I think she's the best girl in the game on that forehand side."

The result was a coup for world No 44 men's player Knight, who tried to corral the Australian pair to hit the ball his way at times although he had full faith in King to hold up.

"The workload is big but she had three games yesterday and by the end of it she was just getting stronger and stronger," he said.

"Realistically, if you told me before the Games had started that we'd come in as the 11th seeds and come away with a silver medal, I probably would have taken that."