The 2024 British National Squash Championships get underway tomorrow, with 49 players descending upon St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club in Weybridge in search of the two respective titles.
Four qualifiers from both the men’s and women’s events will progress to the main draw tomorrow, with action due to begin at 11:30 a.m. Every second of play from both the qualifying stage and the subsequent main draw will be available to watch live on SQUASHTV.
For the second time in the tournament’s 50-year history, the British Nationals will be held at St George’s Hill, with an all-glass show court and a glass-back side court in use throughout the week.
Men’s No.1 seed Mohamed ElShorbagy and women’s [3/4] seed Jasmine Hutton will return to the south-east based club with historic hat-tricks on their minds, with both players having captured the 2022 and 2023 editions of the event. World No.8 ElShorbagy will be looking to become just the second male player in the tournament’s history to claim three back-to-back titles, while World No.21 Hutton can become the third female player to achieve this same feat.
However, they are unlikely to have it all their own way, with nine other top 50 men’s players and eight top 50 women’s players named in the two draws.
Most notable among them in the men’s event are No.2 seed Joel Makin, and [3/4] seeds Marwan ElShorbagy and Greg Lobban, all of whom are currently ranked in the world’s top 20. Welsh No.1 Makin will be out for revenge after losing out to ElShorbagy in the last two finals of the event, while the younger brother of Mohamed, World No.10 Marwan, will be competing in his first-ever British Nationals.
The top eight seeds in the men’s event are rounded out by Adrian Waller, Nick Wall, Curtis Malik and Patrick Rooney.
In the women’s side of the event, top seed Georgina Kennedy will return in a bid to claim her maiden British Nationals title, after a runner-up finish in 2021 and a semi-final exit last year. The London-based 27-year-old is currently ranked at World No.5 in the women’s world rankings and will enter the event as one of the major contenders for this year’s title.
Two past British Nationals champions, Sarah-Jane Perry and Tesni Murphy, are likely to also both be in the mix in the latter stages of the tournament, with World No.18 Perry eying a fourth individual success and World No.28 Murphy looking to claim her third title. Welsh No.1 Murphy, who was forced to retire from the 2023 final against Hutton due to a torn plantar fascia, could set up a repeat of last year’s title decider if she and Hutton were to come through their respective halves of the draw.
Elsewhere, the top-eight seeded Katie Malliff, Lucy Turmel, Emily Whitlock, and Georgia Adderley, will all be looking to kick-start their 2024/25 seasons with strong runs this week.
For more updates on the 2024 British National Squash Championships, visit the tournament website or follow England Squash on X, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.
