2024 British Nationals Qualifying Roundup – Perry Wins All-Malik Duel As Main Draw Set

The qualifying stage of the 2024 British National Squash Championships has finished as Perry and Heston Malik battled and the final places in the first round draw were decided at St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club, streaming live on SquashTV.

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

While one of their other siblings Bailey Malik fell short in a 63-minute thriller against Will Salter in the afternoon session, both Perry and Heston Malik took hard-earned wins over their Qualifying Round One opponents, overcoming Paul Broadberry and Matt Gregory respectively in five-game clashes

Perry Malik looked stronger from the outset of his qualifying finals match, earning an 11-5 win. 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.

Speaking after the match, Perry Malik, “I’m feeling good. It’s always hard playing a sibling, but it’s going to happen a lot more, so it’s good to get used to it with that competitive spirit, because we train together the whole time, so it’s quite a hard match to be honest.

“[Before the match] We were warming up together, we were smiling with each other, it doesn’t really feel like a competitive match, but hopefully we will get used to it.

“I’ve never actually played Marwan [ElShorbagy] before. I’ve seen a lot of him while growing up, I’ve watched a lot of matches of his while he’s been up there. He’s been up there [high in the world rankings] for a good while now, so I’ll have a little look at some videos tonight and try to give him the best match that I can tomorrow.”

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 clash first round with Wales No.1 Joel Makin. Isabel McCullough, Sam Osborne-Wylde and Polly Clark all safely progressed.

The first round of the British Nationals will take place at 13:00 (GMT+1) today. Action from the glass court will be shown live on SQUASHTV, while matches from court one will be shown live on the Nationals website.

For updates on the British Nationals, follow England Squash on X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Results – Qualifying Finals: 2024 British National Squash Championships

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)
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)
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)
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)

Results – Qualifying Round One: 2024 British National Squash Championships

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)

Schedule – First Round: 2024 British National Squash Championships

Glass Court
13.00 – [1] Gina Kennedy (Eng) v [Q] Olivia Besant (Eng)
13.45 – [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Eng) v [Q] Will Salter (Eng)
14.30 – [3/4] Tesni Murphy (Wal) v [Q] Polly Clark (Eng)
15.15 – [3/4] Greg Lobban (Sco) v [Q] Sam Osborne-Wylde (Eng)

18.00 – [2] Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) v [Q] Isabelle McCullough (Eng)
18.45 – [2] Joel Makin (Wal) v [Q] Emyr Evans (Wal)
19.30 – [3/4] Jasmine Hutton (Eng) v [Q] Amelie Haworth (Eng)
20.15 – [3/4] Marwan ElShorbagy (Eng) v [Q] Perry Malik (Eng)

Court One
13.00 – [5/8] Patrick Rooney (Eng) v Ben Smith (Eng)
13.45 – [5/8] Katie Malliff (Eng) v Millie Tomlinson (Eng)
14.30 – [5/8] Curtis Malik (Eng) v Jonah Bryant (Eng)
15.15 – [5/8] Lucy Turmel (Eng) v Alison Thomson (Sco)

18.00 – [5/8] Rory Stewart (Sco) v Simon Herbert (Eng)
18.45 – [5/8] Georgia Adderley (Eng) v Torrie Malik (Eng)
19.30 – [5/8] Declan James (Eng) v Tom Walsh (Eng)
20.15 – [5/8] Emily Whitlock (Wal) v Alicia Mead (Eng)