Day Two Evening : Debutant Marwan ElShorbagy Reaches Quarters As All Seeds Progress

The first round at the 2024 British National Squash Championships was completed tonight as all seeds progressed at St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club.

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, “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, “She [Isabelle McCullough] 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. She’s [Amelie Haworth] 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.

Wales 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.

The quarter-finals of the British Nationals will take place at 13:00 (GMT+1) tomorrow. Action from the glass court will be shown live on SQUASHTV, while matches from Court One will be shown live on the Nationals website.

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Results – First Round: 2024 British National Squash Championships

[2] Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) bt [Q] Isabelle McCullough (Eng) 3-1: 11-8, 11-3, 11-8 (29m)
[5/8] Rory Stewart (Sco) bt Simon Herbert (Eng) 3-1: 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7 (48m)
[2] Joel Makin (Wal) bt [Q] Emyr Evans (Wal) 3-0: 11-2, 11-7, 11-5 (41m)
[5/8] Georgia Adderley (Eng) bt Torrie Malik (Eng) 3-1: 3-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8 (38m)
[3/4] Jasmine Hutton (Eng) bt [Q] Amelie Haworth (Eng) 3-0: 11-5, 11-3, 11-8 (25m)
[5/8] Declan James (Eng) bt Tom Walsh (Eng) 3-0: 13-11, 11-5, 11-7 (43m)
[3/4] Marwan ElShorbagy (Eng) bt [Q] Perry Malik (Eng) 3-0: 13-11, 11-6, 11-6 (38m)
[5/8] Emily Whitlock (Wal) bt Alicia Mead (Eng) 3-1: 11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 11-4 (40m)

Schedule – Second Round: 2024 British National Squash Championships
(All times are local GMT+1)

Glass Court
13.00 [1] Gina Kennedy (Eng) v [5/8] Katie Malliff (Eng)
14.00 [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Eng) v [5/8] Patrick Rooney (Eng)
15.00 [3/4] Tesni Murphy (Wal) v [5/8] Lucy Turmel (Eng)
16.00 [3/4] Greg Lobban (Sco) v [5/8] Curtis Malik (Eng)
18.00 [3/4] Jasmine Hutton (Eng) v [5/8] Emily Whitlock (Wal)
19.00 [3/4] Marwan ElShorbagy (Eng) v [5/8] Declan James (Eng)
20.00 [2] Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) v [5/8] Georgia Adderley (Sco)
21.00 [2] Joel Makin (Wal) v [5/8] Rory Stewart (Sco)