Day TWO : Top seeds progress to Quarters at St George’s

The 2024 British Nationals continued with sixteen Round One matches on two courts at St George’s Hill LTC in Weybridge.

All sixteen seeds progressed, with 10 English, 3 Scottish and 3 Welsh winners.

Evening : Quarter-finals set as Welsh & Scottish trios join English seeds

Tournament debutant Marwan ElShorbagy claimed his maiden quarter-final spot after defeating Perry Malik in the final men’s first round match.

Malik was playing positive squash, earning a game ball for his efforts, but ElShorbagy started to disrupt the 23-year-olds game, and quickly flipped the script to take a 1-0 lead.

The former World No.3 found his footing in the match and won second and third games 11-6 to take his spot in the quarter-finals.

Speaking after the match Marwan said, “I know how dedicated the whole Malik family is. Whenever I get any of them in my draw I’m going to give 110%. They were in Egypt last week and I’ve trained with Curtis a few times and I know how dedicated they are to the sport. I have a lot of respect for the whole family and Perry surprised me. I’m happy to get on court with him, and get sharp.

“I’ve had two months off from tournaments and I’ve got bored of training because it’s been too much so it’s good to have a tournament. It’s my first British Nationals so I want to get into a good rhythm. I’m happy to be back at St George’s, I’ve not been here in a while. I’m thankful to everyone here who made this happen.

“I’ve always followed the British Nationals and I’ve lived in England for a very long time so I know how big it is here. I know the likes of Nick [Matthew], James [Willstrop], Daryl Selby – all the previous generation I was following them because I was a fan of them so I knew how important this is. I’m happy to be here and I’ll try and win.”

Three-time winner Sarah-Jane Perry began her campaign with a convincing 3-0 victory over Isabel McCullough.

The No.2 seed looked strong throughout the 30-minute performance, and McCullough struggled to get a foot in the game against her more experienced opponent.

Speaking after her match, Perry said, “Isabelle really gave a good account of herself and got stuck in – I absolutely love that. I always say whenever I see someone play against someone a bit higher ranked than them just get stuck in and try and showcase their squash. I have a lot of time for that and congratulations to Isabelle and her coach Ben, who’s produced a lot of players. It’s people like Ben and other coaches who have that passion for the sport and they pass on to the next generation.

“I arranged my honeymoon so I could come back and play! I plan to play it every year and there’s only one occasion where I’ve not played through injury and that was just before the Commonwealth Games and it would have been too much. It’s a tournament that I always put in my diary and I want to play, it’s very prestigious and I love to try and give it a good push and try make three wins four.”

Declan James and Tom Walsh were involved in an exciting match-up on the traditional courts to round off the men’s competition’s time on Court One.

In an entertaining 19-minute first game, James and Walsh both traded points to a tie-break. The 31-year-old had the edge in an evenly-contested first game and won 13-11 after 19 minutes.

The taxing first game seemed to have had less effect on James than his opponent, and the World No.50 pushed on to take the second and third games with relative ease and claim his quarter-final spot against Marwan ElShorbagy.

Defending champion Jasmine Hutton beat British Junior U19 champion Amelie Haworth to claim her place in tomorrow’s quarter-finals. Haworth tried to cause issues for the two-time champion, but Hutton’s quality shone through as she won the match in straight games.

Hutton spoke about her opponent after the match: “It’s a bit of a catch 22. Amelie is up and coming and I’ve never played her before. I’ve watched her very closely since she was a young junior so I know how good she is. It’s a mix of the pressure of playing someone you don’t know and it’s my first event of the season so I’ve put a lot of work in. You have pressure of proving how hard you’ve worked. I’m happy to be through.

Welsh No.1 Joel Makin showed his ability to defeat Wales No.2 Emyr Evans in straight games. Facing the Welshman in the quarter-finals is Scotland’s Rory Stewart, who defeated Simon Herbert in four games after a strong start from the Englishman.

Former finalist Emily Whitlock made it a trio of Welsh success as she beat Alicia Mead in four games in the final match of the day.

Afternoon : Malik shines as top seeds progress in top half of draw

In a sensational display of squash on the traditional courts, Curtis Malik took down English Junior U19 champion Jonah Bryant 3-1.

The pair were inseparable throughout the first game as the Englishmen went to a tie-break. The match drew the largest crowd that Court One had seen so far in the competition, and the players lived up to the crowd’s expectations as they battled for 24 minutes, with Bryant eventually taking the 1-0 advantage.

Malik looked composed as he returned to court, and his experience shone through as the 25-year-old took the next two games in 22 minutes. The No.5 seed took a quick lead the fourth game. Bryant fought back to two points behind, but Malik saw out the match to earn his place in the next round.

After the match, Malik said, “I’m feeling pretty good, I put in a hard summer’s training with a lot of physical work and it’s nice to see that come through in that match there. It was a long, physical game where we played for over 70 minutes for a 3-1.

“We had such a long game – the first one was 24 minutes and I made two, silly errors at the backend of the game to give him the game. I wasn’t too disheartened as I put a lot of work into his legs and it paid off in the end.

“I always want to try and get off as quickly as I can and if you’re playing four matches against guys in the top 10/20, you need as much in your legs as possible.”

In the final match of the session, Lucy Turmel defeated Scotland’s Alison Thomson in straight games on the traditional courts to set up a quarter-final clash with Wales No.1 Tesni Murphy.

The Englishwoman looked strong as she quickly claimed an 11-1 first-game win. Turmel carried her form into the second and third game, only allowing Thomson to win nine points across the whole match.

On the show court, defending champion Mohamed ElShorbagy began his campaign to win his third consecutive British Nationals title with a strong showing against World No.198 Will Salter.

The former World No.1 looked in command of the affair throughout, and despite Salter’s efforts, it wasn’t enough to overcome the consistency of the No.1 seed who claimed victory in straight games after 29 minutes.

Speaking after the match, ElShorbagy said, “I had a bit of a break, which was nice. I’m not sure how long the break was as the people who finished World Tour Finals finished a few weeks later, so our break is less compared to other players. It’s what the top players should be used to, I’ve done this for a very long time and it’s not an unusual situation for me. I’m happy to be back and it’s exciting to start another season.

“I’ve played this event twice and won both times, which shows how serious I am about this event the last two years. I showed that I really want to win and play well. I’m glad I’ve been able to do that for the last two years and it would be great to do it for a third year. I’ll try and do it and we’ll see how it goes.”

In a quick start to the day’s proceedings, No.1 seed Gina Kennedy defeated Olivia Besant in just 16 minutes, conceding just eight points in the match.

Elsewhere, Scotland’s Greg Lobban and Wales’ Tesni Murphy progressed in their glass-court matches, while England’s Patrick Rooney and Katie Malliff both registered wins on the plaster courts.