Qualifying Day Two : Seeds continue to fall

The 2026 Quilter Cheviot British Open continued today with the second of three days of Qualifying matches at Solihull Arden Club. Yesterday’s winners battled it out to reach the Qualifying Finals and be within one more win of reaching the main draws of ‘the Wimbledon of Squash’.

After eight seeding upsets yesterday, the field was wide open for more, and the underdogs duly delivered.

Afternoon Session : Walid and Romero advance

The day started with another two seeding upsets as Faria Walid beat third seeded compatriot Haya Ali in straight games, while a delighted Noa Romero ousted eighth seed Tong Tsz-Wing in four games.  The remainder of the session went to seeding until the finals match which saw David Bernet oust sixth seed Salman Khalil in five see-saw games.

Evening Session : Tse, Gohar, Hawal, gatecrash the finals

Another handful of  seeding upsets in the evening session as Egyptian pair Adam Hawal and Mohamed Gohar (brother of Nouran) got the better of 15th and 3rd seeds Matthew Lai and Balazs Farkas, Gohar winning in five to end the day’s proceedings, while 9th seed Perry Malik despatched 7th seed Sanjay Jeeva in straight games.

The biggest upset, though, came in the women’s matches as HK’s 11th seed Toby Tse held off a comeback from top seed Haya Ali to advance in five. Egyptian junior Ruqayya Salem was the other giantkiller, despatching Canada’s 7th seed Nicole Bunyan in straight games.

In the men’s draw only top seed Adrian Waller remains of the top four, while in the women’s 2nd and 4th seeds Jana Swaify and Lauren Baltayan remain, both facing seeded opposition in tomorrow’s finals with no seeds in the other two matches.