2024 Day ONE, Round ONE

The sixth edition of the Manchester Open got under way today at the National Squash Centre with sixteen Round One matches on two Glass Courts.

All the 9/16 seeds are in action today, with the winners progressing to tomorrow’s Round Two where the seeded players await.

There’s plenty of home and local interest, with four Brits in afternoon action and wildcards Finnlay Withington and Saran Nghiem taking on George Parker and Alicia Mead this evening.

You can Watch Live on SquashTV, follow on Live Scoring and our Social Feeds, and we’ll have photos going into the Gallery and Reports and Reaction right here.

Reports and Reaction

Evening Roundup

The evening session of the Manchester Open 2024 got underway from 5pm today at the National Squash Centre with eight matches split across two courts in the PSA World Tour Silver-level event.

Women’s wildcard Saran Nghiem scored the win of the evening session as she overcame compatriot Alicia Mead to delight the Manchester crowd. Nghiem has travelled back from the USA to play in the event as she is currently studying at Harvard University. After sealing the opening game 11-9, Nghiem was pegged back to 1-1 but showed her quality to regain the lead then impressively secure her round two place by winning the fourth game 11-0.

“I’m so happy to be through to the second round,” said Nghiem.

“If I’m going to get my first World Tour win anywhere, where better than the club I started playing squash at. I’m playing SJ tomorrow, she’s been at the top of the game for so long now and she’s obviously an incredible player so I’m just going to try and compete on there tomorrow and show my best squash. Hopefully get another win.”

Nghiem was joined by Aifa Azman, Torrie Malik and Hollie Naughton in claiming round one wins after they defeated Saskia Beinhard, Grace Gear and Cindy Merlo.

16-year-old Mohamad Zakaria scored his first World Tour victory in the evening session today as he defeated England’s Simon Herbert in five games on court two. The Egyptian was featuring in his first World Tour event without receiving a wildcard and took the opportunity with both hands. The Egyptian stormed through the opening two games to take a commanding 2-0 lead but Herbert fought back to force a fifth and final game. Zakaria regrouped in the decider to close it out 11-4.

George Parker battled past men’s wildcard Finnlay Withington to move through to the second round and was joined by Declan James and Lucas Serme after they beat Daniel Poleshchuk and Ben Smith.

Afternoon Roundup

The Manchester Open 2024 got underway this afternoon from the National Squash Centre with eight matches split across two courts in the PSA World Tour Silver-level event.

Wales’ Emyr Evans was featuring in only his second World Tour event and impressively scored his first World Tour win as he defeated Portugal’s Rui Soares in straight games. Evans held a positive head-to-head record over Soares heading into the clash and showed his quality as he captured the opening two games 11-7, 11-8 before closing the third game out 11-6 to score a first World Tour win.

“I’m buzzing,” said Evans after his breakthrough win.

“I didn’t think I was going to get in this event. I was a reserve but I just thought today is a big opportunity, try to relax, have no pressure and I’ve shown signs that I could do that so I’m glad that I put it all together today.

“We’ve played a lot in the league as well, which helped as it gave me a bit more confidence, knowing that I can get over the line against him. I probably didn’t expect to win 3-0 which is even better so I’m happy.”

Another player scoring a first World Tour win was England’s hot prospect Jonah Bryant. The 18-year-old crept into the draw on Monday after Mostafa Asal’s withdrawal to feature in his first ever World Tour event and he took the opportunity with both hands. Bryant admitted afterwards that he didn’t play his best squash but managed to defeat compatriot Nick Wall in five games to progress. Bryant twice took the lead but showed his class and determination in the decider to win 11-5.

“I’m very happy, I didn’t think I played my best squash but it kind of makes the win better because I managed to win not playing well, which is always a good sign, so yeah I was happy to get through.” said Bryant after his win.

“I think I started off well in the first, I found a good length and width and I was in front of him on the volley. I was holding him and wasn’t making too many mistakes and then he came back strong in the second and got me pinned behind him but I managed to sort myself out in the end so overall just happy to be through.

European duo Yannick Wilhelmi and Gregoire Marche were the other two players to come through in the men’s draw as they overcame Edwin Clain and Martin Svec respectively.

There were no upsets in the women’s matches in the afternoon session with all four higher ranked players coming through 3-0. England’s Katie Malliff and Egypt’s Nour Aboulmakarim kicked things off as they defeated Marta Dominguez and Haya Ali. Whilst Hong Kong’s Can Sin Yuk and Tesni Murphy follows suits with confident wins over Ainaa Amani and Millie Tomlinson.

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