Bryant and Nghiem Win PSA Challenger Tour Players Of The Month

English duo Jonah Bryant and Saran Nghiem have won the PSA Challenger Tour Player of the Month awards for April, as voted for by fans on social media. 

Still only 18 years of age, Bryant enjoyed a memorable few weeks in which he won all nine matches he played on tour, claiming the 15k RC Pro Series presented by Telcoin in St. Louis by beating top-50 player Cesar Salazar in the final, before going one better in Dublin, winning the 20k Cannon Kirk Gillen Markets Irish Open. 

Victory in Ireland was particularly impressive given the fact that Bryant was unseeded, as well as the calibre of player he beat en route to glory. 

After seeing off Viktor Byrtus in round one, the teenager then knocked out Finnlay Withington and the in-form Declan James either side of an unfortunate injury to Nick Wall in the last eight. 

He then got the better of fellow rising star Mohamad Zakaria – a player who had beaten him twice already this season – in a mouthwatering final between two of the most exciting young talents in the world.

He ended the month at a career-high ranking of 72 in the world, and ran away with the men’s Player of the Month award, getting 66% of the vote. 

Nghiem, meanwhile, also took home the RC Pro Series title from St. Louis, clinching the biggest prize of her career.

The 20-year-old was the No.3 seed but knocked out second seed Alina Bushma in the semi-finals, before beating another young star in Riya Navani to get her hands on the trophy. 

She followed that up with a run to the semi-finals of the Expression St. James Women’s 20k as the No.7 seed, beating third seed Nardine Garas in the last eight, before falling to World No.17 and eventual winner Farida Mohamed. 

Voting for the women’s Player of the Month award was far closer than the men’s poll, with Nghiem edging Barbados’ Margot Prow, who claimed her first two titles on the Challenger Tour. 

Prow won back-to-back titles at the Life Time PSA Tour – Berkeley Heights and the IQUW Bermuda Open, gaining 36% of the vote to Nghiem’s 40%, with less than 25 votes separating the pair.