2024 Squash Australian Open Preview
Published Wed 20 Mar 2024
Courtesy PSA
The City Tattersalls Group Australian Open 2024 kicks off today as players look to score round one wins in the PSA World Tour Bronze event. The event runs from 20-24 March and will be streamed live on SQUASHTV.
France’s Victor Crouin is the top seed for the men’s event as he looks to break back inside the top 10 in the world. The French No.1 has tasted success in Australia before as he rattled off three wins in a row in the summer of 2019, including the Australian Open.
The women’s top seed is Egypt’s Salma Hany as she looks to score an event win for the first time since 2013. The World No. 11 has been played some of her best squash this season and will be determined to score a win and return to the top 10.
Egyptian duo Youssef Soliman and Amina Orfi are the No.2 seeds and pose serious threats to the top seeds. Soliman has already claimed a Bronze event win this season, claiming the Squash on Fire Open 2024 in impressive style. He also holds a 3-1 head-to-head advantage over top seed Crouin so will be full of confidence heading into the event.
17-year-old Orfi has stormed up the PSA rankings this season and now sits at World No.12, a rise of nearly 50 places from this time last year. Orfi has also claimed a Bronze event win this season, as she matched Soliman in winning the Squash on Fire Open in Washington D.C. The determined teenager expects big thins of herself and will be itching to add another World Tour title to her name this week in Sydney.
The 3/4 seeds in both draws are very dangerous and more than capable of scoring upsets to trouble the top seeds. In the men’s event, European duo Sebastien Bonmalais and Dimitri Steinmann occupy the seeding places and will look to continue their good form and reach World Tour finals for the first time in their careers.
Tomato Ho and Rachel Arnold are the 3/4 seeds in the women’s event and will need to perform strongly to achieve their seedings then will need to raise their games again if they are to trouble the dominant top two seeds.
There is plenty of home interest on day one as Joseph White, Rhys Dowling and Dylan Molinaro all feature in the men’s event looking to delight the home crowd and move into round two.
Jessica Turnbull, Alex Haydon, Sarah Cardwell, Madison Lyon and Erin Classen will join former World No.1 Rachael Grinham with Australians making up a quarter of the women's draw.
Day one action starts at 3pm AEDT
