Day One, Qualifying Complete at St George’s Hill

Two rounds of qualifying matches at St George’s Hill LTC saw eight players claim places in the main draws, which start tomorrow …

Evening Session : Qualifying Finals

In one of the highlights of the day’s action, Perry Malik battled brother Heston Malik to reach a first-round match-up with No.3 seed Marwan ElShorbagy.

After both brother took hard-earned wins over their Qualifying Round One opponents, Perry Malik looked stronger from the outset, taking the first game 11-5.

The 18-year-old rallied back and took a competitive second game after a tie-break. However, the more-experienced 23-year-old took control of the match, scoring 11-9, 11-7 to win despite some incredible winners and between-the-legs shots from the World No.293.

In the women’s draw, Olivia Besant came back from 2-1 behind to defeat Hampshire teammate Harriet Broadbridge.

The 2022 U13 British Junior Nationals champion had the edge in the first game, winning by a narrow margin before Besant returned the favour in game two to restore parity.

The 15-year-old won the third game 11-7 to reclaim her advantage with another swing in momentum, but the 20-year-old took control of the match, conceding just five points in total in the last two games to win the five-game battle in just 29 minutes.

Speaking after the match, Besant said, “I think I managed to stop making some unforced errors [in the fourth and fifth games], I think that was something that I have been working on recently. I think I just made sure I was hitting some good lengths.

“Harriet is one of my best teammates, so it was a pleasure being on court with her. I’ve grown up with her my whole life, so to play her on a big glass court in a wonderful venue such as this was really fun.

“I’ve definitely spent a lot more hours on court and in the gym [while at Birmingham University], compared to when I started training at Birmingham. I was probably only doing three hours a week before, but now I am doing three or four hours a day.

On her upcoming match against Gina Kennedy, she said: “It’s obviously such a great opportunity to be playing a great player like Gina. I’m really looking forward to it and I’ll put my whole game into it and see what happens.”

Elsewhere, Will Salter came back from 2-0 down to defeat former British Nationals runner-up Joe Lee and Amelie Haworth took down Lara Newton in just 16 minutes to set up a first-round match-up between the 2024 British Junior U19 Nationals champion, and reigning British Nationals champion, Jasmine Hutton.

Closing out the day’s proceedings, Wales No.2 Emyr Evans claimed victory over Alex Broadbridge on the traditional court to set up a first round clash with Wales No.1 Joel Makin. Isabel McCullough, Sam Osborne-Wylde and Polly Clark all safely progressed.

Qualifying Finals :
Polly Clark (Eng) 3-1 Jasmin Kalar (Eng) 11-9, 6-11, 11-4, 11-5 (27m)
Amelie Haworth (Eng) 3-0 Lara Newton (Eng) 11-2, 11-4, 11-3 (16m)
Olivia Besant (Eng) 3-2 Harriet Broadbridge (Eng) 8-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-1, 11-4 (29m)
Isabel McCullough (Eng) 3-0 Reka Kemecsei (Eng) 11-3, 11-0, 11-6 (21m)

Perry Malik (Eng) 3-1 Heston Malik (Eng) 11-5, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7 (37m)
Will Salter (Eng) 3-2 Joe Lee (Eng) 3-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-4 (54m)
Sam Osborne-Wylde (Eng) 3-0 Archie Turnbull (Wal) 11-4, 11-2, 11-1 (25m)
Emyr Evans (Wal) 3-1 Alex Broadbridge (Eng) 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8 (48m)

Men’s Round One  : Malik brothers set up Qualifying Final showdown

In an exciting match-up, Heston Malik progressed in exciting fashion after taking on Matt Gregory.

The 18-year-old conceded the first game to the 22-year-old, but quickly found his form as he dominated the second game 11-3, before winning game three 11-8 for a chance to progress.

The fourth game was the tightest contest of the match as Heston Malik battled form 9-10 to 11-10 to earn his first match ball. Gregory rallied back and in a tense end to game four, the World No.323 restored the match to parity at 2-2.

Malik pushed on from there however, and looked faster than his opponent as the score quickly rose from 6-2 to 11-6, booking a place in the Qualifying Finals against his older brother Perry Malik.

After the match, Heston Malik said, “I’m glad I got through in five game, but I shouldn’t have let it get that close. I didn’t play my best, but I did enough to win.

“I was a bit tense [at the end of the fourth], because the pace of the rallies began to pick up a lot, and I wasn’t really thinking about where I was playing the ball. I should have got my game plan together.

“I’m playing my brother Perry next up. It should be good. We always play each other!”

Heston’s brother Perry Malik booked his own place in the next round in very similar fashion against Paul Broadberry. Perry Malik lost the first game before bouncing back to win games two and three.

The fourth game saw an equally competitive tie-break that Broadberry clinched, but Malik was too strong in the end and dominated the fifth, decisive game to progress.

In yet another close-fought five-setter, Will Salter defeated Bailey Malik on the glass court in the longest match of event so far.

Salter produced a strong performance overall, winning a spectacular first game 15-13 before Malik fought back to take a 2-1 lead.

The World No.198 looked unstoppable in the fourth game as he only conceded two points, and continued his form into the final game to claim a spot in this evening’s match against Joe Lee.

Elsewhere, Wales’ Archie Turnbull defeated Joshua Attwell, Sam Osborne-Wylde beat out Jared Carter, Emyr Evans looked dominant against local favourite Ruudi Clarke and Alex Broadbridge finished out the afternoon session with a win over Dylan Roberts.

Men’s Qualifying Round One : 

Sam Osborne-Wylde (ENG) bt Jared Carter (ENG) 3-1: 8-11, 11-8, 11-1, 11-6 (50m)
Perry Malik (ENG) bt Paul Broadberry (ENG) 3-2: 7-11, 11-6, 11-2, 12-14, 11-3 (54m)
Heston Malik (ENG) bt Matt Gregory (ENG) 3-2: 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 13-15, 11-6 (52m)
Joe Lee (ENG) bt Hasnaat Farooqi (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 (30m)
Archie Turnbull (WAL) bt Joshua Attwell (ENG) 3-1: 11-13, 11-9, 16-14, 11-9 (50m)
Will Salter (ENG) bt Bailey Malik (ENG) 3-2: 15-13, 6-11, 7-11, 11-2, 11-7 (63m)
Emyr Evans (WAL) bt Ruudi Clarke (ENG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 (29m)
Alex Broadbridge (ENG) bt Dylan Roberts (ENG) 3-1: 11-3, 11-4, 10-12, 11-8 (45m)