2024 Day TWO, Round TWO

The sixth edition of the Manchester Open continued today at the National Squash Centre with sixteen Round Two matches on two Glass Courts.

Yesterday’s Round One winners all came up against one of the top eight seeds.

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Evening Roundup : Wildcard Saran does it again

The evening session on day two of the Manchester Open saw 16 more players attempt to move into round two of the PSA World Tour Silver event.

Women’s wildcard Saran Nghiem continued her impressive form as she scored another upset to down former World No.5 Sarah-Jane Perry and reach her first World Tour quarter final. Nghiem raced to a 2-0 lead, playing structured, accurate squash which was proving too much for the experienced Perry to deal with.

It wasn’t long before the England No.2 found her shots though as she moved through the gears to equalise at 2-2. Despite losing the previous two games, the local player was determined to take advantage of the opportunity and after a positive start to the fifth ran through to win 11-5 in the decider.

“It’s amazing!” said Nghiem.

“I was a bit worried about giving her so much respect because I know how big of a name SJ is, I’ve been looking up to her since I started playing so to get the win in Manchester of all places feels great, I’m just loving it.

“It’s great when they [friends and family] can watch in person, it feels great to have people rooting for you. It gives you the extra edge when you think you’re down, it just gives you that little boost, so it’s amazing to get these big wins in front of friends and family, it means a lot to me.”

Nghiem will take on Egypt’s No.4 seed Salma Hany in the last eight after she defeated Tesni Murphy on the all-glass court in the National Squash Centre. Japan’s Satomi Watanabe and England’s Georgina Kennedy were the other two women to score wins in the evening session as they defeated Torrie Malik and Hollie Naughton, respectively.

All the top seeds made their way through to the quarter finals in the men’s evening matches. Egyptian duo Youssef Soliman and Fares Dessouky have set up a tantalising last eight clash as they moved past Mohamad Zakaria and Lucas Serme in confident fashion.

The final two men’s matches of the evening saw two Wales v England clashes as Nathan Lake took on Emyr Evans on glass court 2 whilst No.2 seed Joel Makin faced George Parker on glass court 1.

Lake was first to book his spot in the next round after beating Evans in four games. Lake secured a 2-0 lead after saving a game ball in the second game and after Evans gave himself a lifeline by wining the third, Lake moved up a gear to convert.

Makin closed out the evening session with a hard fought 3-0 win over Parker. The rallies were long and intense but Makin always looked to be in control and after a close opener, stormed to victory.

Afternoon Roundup : Marche downs top seed Marwan

The second round of the Manchester Open got underway this afternoon from the National Squash Centre as the round one winners took on the top eight seeds in bids to react the quarter finals.

In an entertaining afternoon session, France’s Gregoire Marche came back from 2-0 down to defeat top seed Marwan Elshorbagy for the first time in his career. Marche entered the match with out a win against the Englishman in 10 attempts and after losing two opening games, looked to be again on the receiving end of an Elshorbagy win.

The Frenchman battled back to score the third game and breathe more life into the contest. The Elshorbagy frustration was increasing point by point, which was working to Marche’s advantage. 11-5, 11-2 were the scores in the fourth and fifth games as Marche completed the comeback to earn a spot in a fifth World Tour quarter final this season.

“It’s a great win for me. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever beaten him on the tour so it’s nice to finally break that record,” said Marche.

“I lost the first two games and I had some game balls I think but as I said, I knew something was going for me. I felt I was playing much better than yesterday, I just needed to clinch one thing, just one point maybe at the end of the third and that gave me a bit of confidence. I just had to stay calm and focused because the end of the third game was a bit tricky. Then, I started well in the fourth and the fifth as well, so yeah it’s a really good win for me.

“I had a few issues during this season. I had surgery in my eyes in January, so I had to stay away from the court for two months. It was a good time off, maybe that’s why I feel a bit more fresh compared to the others. I just wanted to play well at the end of the season, there’s this tournament and then the British Open next week.”

Two of the other men’s matches also went the distance as Spain’s Iker Pajares and Egypt’s Youssef Ibrahim needed five games to defeat European duo Yannick Wilhelmi and Declan James. They will be joined by Scotland’s Greg Lobban, who downed up and coming English junior Jonah Bryant in straight games.

Egypt’s Nour Aboulmakarim scored the win of the women’s matches in the afternoon as she earned a spot in her first World Tour Quarter final, beating compatriot Farida Mohamed in an intense five-game battle.

The match was filled with momentum swings and intense rallies with both players desperate to move ahead on the scoreboard. The younger Egyptian did that the best in the deciding game – in which Mohamed received consecutive conduct strokes – and closed it out 11-8 to score her biggest win on tour.

“Actually, this is my first time to ever reach the quarter final in a big event,” said Aboulmakarim after her win.

“It was a bit tricky with Farida, because we haven’t been playing for a while. I think last time we played with each other it was two years ago, but overall, I managed it well mentally and technically. I’m so happy with my performance today and looking forward for what’s next.

“It was so intense, but it was all mental so I just tried to manage it and I’m happy to be through it. This is really big for me as I’ve had a lot of losses lately, so I think this win actually helped me to gain back my confidence and I’m looking forward to the British Open before the end of the season too.”

The other women’s seeds featuring in the afternoon session all had no trouble in sealing their places in the last eight. Top seed Nour El Tayeb successfully started her title defence, beating Malaysia’s Aifa Azman in just 21 minutes whilst Rowan Elaraby and Sabrina Sobhy also won 3-0.

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