Wildcard Marshall Marks Maiden Bronze Match Win In Manchester Opener

English wildcard Kiera Marshall recorded her maiden win in a PSA Squash Tour Bronze event after upsetting Finland's Emilia Soini in straight games on the opening day of action in the 2025 Manchester Open at the National Squash Centre.

The world No.87 came through a tight first game, winning 11-8 and looked to be hitting with good accuracy in all four corners. This continued in games two and three as Marshall stormed through, winning 11-4, 11-6 to overturn a 28 ranking place deficit to earn a round two spot.

Marshall joined six other home winners on day one as Patrick Rooney, Alicia Mead, Simon Herbert, Nick Wall and Torrie Malik all claimed wins to ensure 15 English players will feature in the second round.

Mead was one of three players to recover from 2/0 down on an exciting opening day in Manchester. The world No.52 surrendered the first two games to Egypt's Rana Ismail but battled back to force a decider, which she won 14-12. France's Edwin Clain and Egypt's Nardine Garas were the other two players to score comebacks as they defeated Charlie Lee and Saskia Beinhard, respectively.

Welshman Emyr Evans and Spain's Marta Dominguez provided two seeding upsets on day one. Dominguez silenced the Manchester crowd, wasting no time in defeating local favourite and 2024 quarter finalist Saran Nghiem 3/0 in just 24 minutes, whilst Evans downed Pakistani No.1 Muhammad Asim Khan in a tough four-game battle.