World-class squash returns to Houston this week as the South Western Open Presented by Cotidié takes place between September 27 – October 1 at the Houston Squash Club.
Action from every match will be broadcast live on SQUASHTV.
This will be the second South Western Women’s Open after World No.2 Nouran Gohar took the title last year, but the Egyptian misses out this time around after being forced to pull out due to injury.
Instead, World No.8 Nour El Tayeb will headline the PSA World Tour Gold event as she bids to win her 14th PSA title.
El Tayeb was the 2022 runner-up and will aim to go one better this year. She will be joined in the draw by US No.1 Amanda Sobhy, who fell to El Tayeb in the semi-finals of the 2022 event.
It’s been a mixed start for El Tayeb so far after a last 32 exit at the QTerminals Qatar Classic earlier this month, while Sobhy has reached back-to-back finals in Qatar and the Paris Squash event so far this season.
Hoping to secure her biggest title is US No.2 Olivia Fiechter, who reached the last eight in 2022. Egypt’s World No.11 Salma Hany is seeded fourth an achieved a quarter-final finish recently in Qatar, showing signs she is approaching the kind of form that took her to the top 10 in the world last year.
Hany is seeded to meet El Tayeb in the semi-finals later this week, with Sobhy and Fiechter predicted to meet in an all-American last four clash.
The full South Western Women’s Open draw can be found here, with 24 women battling out for a share of the $110,000 prize purse.
By Nadeem Faisal Baiga