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Manchester Open Semi-Finals: The Stats & How to Watch Live
It’s semi-finals day at the 2024 Manchester Open, with four exciting matches taking place at the National Squash Centre this evening.
All of the action will be live via SQUASHTV and PSA’s broadcast partners, while live scoring is available here.
Up first at 16:00 (GMT+1) is top seed Nour El Tayeb against fellow Egyptian Rowan Elaraby, before No.5 seed Fares Dessouky takes on Scotland’s Greg Lobban.
Home hopes rest on the shoulders of England No.1 Georgina Kennedy, and she will be in action against No.4 seed Salma Hany at 17:45. No.2 seed Joel Makin and No.4 Youssef Ibrahim close the night out.
Here’s the Order of Play for tonight
(All times are local GMT+1)
Nour El Tayeb v Rowan Elaraby
Defending champion Nour El Tayeb and No.3 seed Rowan Elaraby will meet for the ninth time on the PSA Tour, with the former winning five of their previous eight meetings coming into today’s match.
It will be their first meeting since the 2022 Singapore Open, with World No.6 El Tayeb winning 3-0 on that occasion. Elaraby’s most recent win over El Tayeb came at the 2022 Grasshopper Cup – in a best-of-three game format – while her last best of five victory over her compatriot came at the Black Ball Open earlier that year.
El Tayeb is looking to capture her fourth title of the season after wins at the South Western Open, Malaysia Cup and Squash in the Land in recent months. Meanwhile, Elaraby is without a PSA title since the 2022 Carol Weymuller Open.
El Tayeb – who won both the 2020 and 2023 Manchester Opens – beat Malaysia’s Aifa Azman in her opening match before coming back from a game down to overcome USA’s Sabrina Sobhy in yesterday’s quarter-finals.
Elaraby has had a flawless tournament so far, dispatching Hong Kong’s Chan Sin Yuk and fellow Egyptian Nour Aboulmakarim, both by a 3-0 margin.
After three straight quarter-final finishes, Elaraby has finally made it through to the last four of an event. Can she go one better and reach the final, or does El Tayeb have other plans?
Fares Dessouky v Greg Lobban
For Egypt’s Fares Dessouky and Scotland’s Greg Lobban, today’s encounter will be just their second meeting on the PSA Tour, with their one and only previous match seeing Dessouky prevail 3-1 during the 2020-21 PSA World Championships.
Dessouky is looking to lift his first trophy since the 2022 Canary Wharf Classic, while Lobban has tasted success more recently, winning the Open de Montreal three months ago.
This is the first time Dessouky has made it beyond the quarter-finals at the Manchester Open and he beat Frenchman Lucas Serme in round two before upsetting No.3 seed Youssef Soliman in the last eight.
For Lobban, it’s his first time in the semi-finals of a PSA World Tour Silver event following wins over Englishman Jonah Bryant and Frenchman Gregoire Marche.
Lobban is yet to reach a Silver-level final, but he’s displayed some fine squash so far at the National Squash Centre and the 31-year-old, who returned to the top 20 earlier this month, has the ability to trouble Dessouky today.
Salma Hany v Georgina Kennedy
World No.13 Salma Hany and World No.7 Georgina Kennedy are set to play each other for the fifth time on the PSA Tour, with the woman from England winning three of their last four matches.
It was Hany who triumphed the last time they met though, battling to a dramatic 3-2 victory at January’s J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions.
Two months later, Hany ended her 11-year wait for a PSA title at the Australian Open. Meanwhile, Kennedy brought her 14 month run without a trophy to an end when she triumphed at the German Open.
Both players have enjoyed seamless progression into the latter stages. Hany has defeated Wales’ Tesni Evans and wildcard Saran Nghiem, both by 3-0 scorelines, while Kennedy has also failed to drop a game, beating Canada’s Hollie Naughton and Japan’s Satomi Watanabe.
Kennedy will have the home crowd behind her, but Hany will be buoyed by her win in New York four months ago, meaning the crowd at the National Squash Centre, and those watching on SQUASHTV, could be in for a thriller tonight.
Joel Makin v Youssef Ibrahim
One of the best shot-makers in the professional game meets one of the sport’s fittest players tonight as No.4 Youssef Ibrahim and No.2 seed Joel Makin go head-to-head.
Makin has generally had the better of their head-to-head record, winning three matches to Ibrahim’s one, but it was the Egyptian who emerged victorious when they met at the Black Ball Open last month.
That ended a run of three straight wins for the Welshman, who has plenty of pedigree at the Manchester Open having won the event in 2022 and reached the final in 2021, beating Ibrahim in the semi-finals that year.
Ibrahim was pushed to the limit in a difficult second round encounter with England’s Declan James – eventually pulling through in five games – but followed that up with a more comfortable win over Nathan Lake in the quarter-finals.
Makin has dispatched George Parker and Spain’s Iker Pajares so far – dropping the first game to the latter – and he will be looking to put Ibrahim through his paces physically tonight as he eyes a place in his second final of the season.
