Men’s World No.1 Ali Farag and Women’s World No.4 Nele Gilis will headline the 2024 Optasia Championships when The Wimbledon Club plays host to a range of the world’s top professional squash players between March 12-17.
Farag will return to the PSA World Tour Gold tournament after winning the event in 2022. The 31-year-old features alongside New Zealand’s World No.3 Paul Coll – who won the 2016 event – Egypt’s World No.4 Mostafa Asal and England’s World No.5 Mohamed ElShorbagy, who captured the 2017 trophy.
Karim Abdel Gawad returns to defend the title he won last year, while Welshman Joel Makin, ElShorbagy’s younger brother Marwan and France’s Baptiste Masotti take up the other top eight seeded positions.
The men’s wildcard will be World No.62 Charlie Lee. The 25-year-old from London upset Mohamed ElShorbagy in the second round of last year’s tournament as he reached the quarter-finals.
A women’s PSA World Tour Bronze event has been added to the schedule for the first time and Gilis will look to win her third PSA title of the season. England’s World No.14 Sarah-Jane Perry will also be going for glory, while Egypt’s World No.18 Nada Abbas and Japan’s World No.21 Satomi Watanabe are also amongst the title favourites.
Further British interest comes in the form of Wales’ Tesni Murphy and British National Champion Jasmine Hutton – the No.5 and No.6 seeds, respectively – while France’s World No.25 Melissa Alves and Egypt’s World No.34 Hana Moataz are also in contention.
Scotland’s World No.89 Alison Thomson takes the wildcard spot for the inaugural women’s event.
The tournament will also be streamed live on SQUASHTV, while the semi-finals and finals will be shown by PSA’s broadcast partners.
2024 Optasia Championships – Men’s Entry List
- Ali Farag (EGY)
- Paul Coll (NZL)
- Mostafa Asal (EGY)
- Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG)
- Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
- Joel Makin (WAL)
- Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG)
- Baptiste Masotti (FRA)
- Iker Pajares (ESP)
- Nicolas Mueller (SUI)
- Patrick Rooney (ENG)
- Nick Wall (ENG)
- Raphael Kandra (GER)
- Leandro Romiglio (GER)
- Dimitri Steinmann (SUI)
- Karim El Hammamy (EGY)
- Rory Stewart (SCO)
- Curtis Malik (ENG)
- Shahjahan Khan (USA)
- George Parker (ENG)
- Andrew Douglas (USA)
- Juan Camilo Vargas (USA)
- Simon Herbert (ENG)
Wildcard) Charlie Lee (ENG)
2024 Optasia Championships – Women’s Entry List
- Nele Gilis (BEL)
- Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
- Nada Abbas (EGY)
- Satomi Watanabe (JPN)
- Tesni Murphy (WAL)
- Jasmine Hutton (ENG)
- Melissa Alves (FRA)
- Hana Moataz (EGY)
- Katie Malliff (ENG)
- Chan Sin Yuk (HKG)
- Emilia Soini (FIN)
- Enora Villard (FRA)
- Millie Tomlinson (ENG)
- Cindy Merlo (SUI)
- Alicia Mead (ENG)
- Ainaa Amani (MAS)
- Torrie Malik (ENG)
- Marta Dominguez (ESP)
- Saskia Beinhard (GER)
- Nardine Garas (EGY)
- Asia Harris (ENG)
- Nadia Pfister (SUI)
- Akanksha Salunkhe (IND)
Wildcard) Alison Thomson (SCO)
