English Duo Malliff & Hutton Score Upsets To Make Manchester Semis

Home interest in the women's final of the 2025 Manchester Open is assured after Katie Malliff scored a five-game upset over No.4 seed Farida Mohamed to set up a surprise all-English semi against top seed Georgina Kennedy in the PSA Squash Tour Bronze event at the National Squash Centre.

But it was No.5 seed Jasmine Hutton who started the day off with a bang when she knocked out No.2 seed Nele Gilis-Coll, the former world No.4, in four games. Hutton stormed the opening game, firing the ball in short at every opportunity and made use of the slightly slow start from the Belgian.

After losing the opener 11-5, Gilis-Coll started to settle into her metronomic rhythm and levelled the match after a flurry of errors from the Englishwoman. After a strong talking to from England high performance coach Nick Matthew, Hutton returned to the court with a fire in her belly. She battened down the hatches and made life difficult for the No.2 seed, who was struggling to get in front of the left hander. Hutton won 11-6, 11-7 in the last two games to move into the semi-finals, a third World Event semi-final of the season for the World No.18.

"It's nice to do it here at one of my favourite events," said Hutton on scoring a first win over Gilis-Coll.

"I think confidence is the most important thing you can have. If you don't believe you can win then you won't win, it's as simple as that. That's something that I've tried to work on and I think that's coming through now. I'm craving a lot of big scalps now so just really happy.

"I had to stay composed, you know what you're going to get with Nele. She never gives up and that's a huge asset of hers and everyone respects it so much. So for me, I had to just stay composed and I got a little edgy at the end but I needed to get my depth back and I'm just happy that I won."

The other seeing upset came later in the day as No.7 seed Katie Malliff came through an intense clash with No.4 seeded Egyptian Farida Mohamed. In a match that had it all, Malliff led 2/0 and looked to be cruising through to only her second Bronze event semi-final but back came Mohamed.

The world No.16 battled back to take games three and four despite numerous interactions with the referee. This eventually caught up with the Egyptian, who squandered three match balls in the fifth game as Malliff ran through to win five points in a row and win the match in just under an hour.

Malliff will now take on top seed Georgina Kennedy after the England No.1 wasted no time in defeating compatriot Grace Gear. No.3 seed Salma Hany will be Hutton's opponent after she downed Sarah-Jane Perry.

All seeds progressed in the men's quarter finals as the favourites recorded straight game wins to advance to the final four.

Jonah Bryant was first to book his place in the semis after the 19-year-old came through a challenging match with compatriot Nick Wall. The tall Yorkshireman is always a threat but Bryant managed the match superbly to win in three. He'll take on top seed Aly Abou Eleinen, who needed just over half an hour to get past Colombia's Juan Vargas.

No.2 seed Leonel Cardenas ensured a third semi-final appearance in his last four events with a win over George Parker. The Englishman had chances to claim the first game but couldn't convert. The wind was taken out of his sails from there as the Mexican grew stronger. Declan James rounded off the day's action with a strong win over India's surprise quarter finalist Abhay Singh, coming through comfortably.