The inaugural German Open 2024 – Presented by Sportwerk, gets underway tomorrow, with 24 men’s and women’s players arriving in Hamburg, Germany to compete for the PSA World Tour Bronze titles.
The event will take place between 3-7 April 2024 at The Sportwerk Centre, and will be the first PSA World Tour event to ever be held in Germany. Every second of action from the tournament, including both side courts on the opening two days, will be available to watch live on SQUASHTV.
Gilis sisters top women’s draw
In the women’s draw, World No.4 Nele Gilis has been named as the top seed, with younger sister Tinne the No.2 seed. The Belgian duo have already faced each other in two finals so far this season – the Singapore Open and the New Zealand Open – both of which Nele won, and could potentially meet once again in a title decider if the event went to seeding. Nele will start her campaign against one of Malaysia’s Yiwen Chan or England’s Torrie Malik, while World No.8 Tinne will play either Spain’s Marta Dominguez or German Wildcard Maya Weishar in the second round.
There are a host of in-form players elsewhere in the draw, with No.4 seed Salma Hany arriving on the back of her maiden World Tour title at the Australian Open victory, and World No.6 Georgina Kennedy, who is the No.3 seed for the event, having already reached at least the semi-finals of seven events this season. Kennedy will start her campaign against one of Malaysia’s Ainaa Amani or Nadia Pfister of Switzerland.
Up-and-coming star Fayrouz Aboelkheir is the No.5 seed in Germany and will arrive on the back of a confidence-boosting performance at the London Classic, where she took a game from World No.2 Hania El Hammamy before eventually losing out in a deciding game of their quarter-final match. No.6 seed Tesni Murphy, meanwhile, looks to be rediscovering her top form after a nasty injury earlier this season. Egypt’s Malak Khafagy and Switzerland’s Cindy Merlo round up the top eight seeds.
Makin and Marwan men’s top seeds
Wales’ Joel Makin is the top seed in the men’s event and will be looking to capture a first PSA World Tour title since February 2023. The World No.11 will be full of confidence after reaching the semi-finals of the London Classic last week and coming within a game of defeating World No.2 Paul Coll. Makin will get his campaign underway against either former World No.1 James Willstrop or England’s Tom Walsh.
No.2 seed Marwan ElShorbagy will be looking to exact revenge upon Makin in Hamburg after losing out to the Welshman in a dramatic final game tie-break in London last week. The Englishman sits in the same quarter of the draw as No.6 seed Dimitri Steinmann, and plays either compatriot Ben Smith or Squash in the Land runner-up Bernat Jaume in his opening match of the tournament.
Elsewhere, World No.19 and No.3 seed Mohamed ElSherbini will be looking to bounce back after being knocked out in Round 1 of the London Classic by Wildcard Declan James and further cement his position inside the world’s top 20. Meanwhile, Eain Yow Ng will be on the hunt for a first title since his Irish Open victory 12 months ago. The Malaysian has been named as the No.4 seed.
Five German players will look to draw upon the home support across both draws, with men’s No.6 seed Raphael Kandra the highest ranked of these. The World No.29 will open his tournament against either Switzerland’s Yannick Wilhelmi or Egypt’s Mazen Gamal. The other four home players taking to the court will be Saskia Beinhard, Katerina Tycova, Maya Weishar, and Valentin Rapp.
