The 2018 Allam British Open is set to feature an All-American match up in the first round between world No. 13 Olivia Blatchford and former world No. 6 Amanda Sobhy on May 15 in Hull, England.
The match marks Sobhy and Blatchford’s first encounter on the PSA Tour since the semifinal of the 2017 Ciudad de Floridablanca last March, in which Sobhy sustained a torn Achilles. The match will be played at a local club at 1:30pm local time, 8:30am EDT. Follow live scores on psaworldtour.com.
The victor will move on to the Glass Court with a potential second round match against Egypt’s three seed and U.S. Open champion, Nour El Tayeb. Haley Mendez, who reached a career-high ranking of world No. 43 this month, will aim to join her U.S. teammates in the main draw via qualifying.
World No. 1 Nour El Sherbini leads the main draw as the top seed, while fellow Egyptian Raneem El Welily has her sights set on dethroning El Sherbini from the world No. 1 ranking with a British Open victory.
Bristol-based Todd Harrity, world No. 54, is the lone American entry on the men’s side. The twenty-seven-year-old will aim to progress through two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw, May 13-14.
World No. 1 Mohamed ElShorbagy and world No. 2 Ali Farag head the men’s main draw as the respective top two seeds. Defending champion Gregory Gaultier enters the draw seeded third.
Nick Matthew is set for his his final British Open campaign and is set to face Egypt’s five seed Tarek Momen in the first round May 15 at 1:30pm local time.
The British Open is the final World Series event of the season and last chance for players to qualify for the season-ending PSA Dubai World Series Finals, June 5-9.
Watch all glass court matches live on SquashTV, May 15-20.