Rising Bury squash star Finnlay Withington will again benefit from home advantage after being handed a wildcard for April’s Manchester Open tournament.

Withington, whose dad and grandad both played the sport, will take part at the National Squash Centre at the Etihad Campus for the second successive year and look to gain more experience in front of a home crowd.

He faces English compatriot, Nick Wall, in his first match looking to go deeper into the competition.

The tournament takes place between April 2-6 where British number one Georgina Kennedy will defend fer crown and Egypt’s Youssef Soliman leads the seedings in the men’s draw.

Returning to the PSA Squash Tour calendar for the seventh consecutive year, the Bronze-level event has two glass courts in operation.

Women’s world number six Kennedy is set to return to the Manchester Open as top seed, chasing back-to-back titles and entering the event as one of the strong pre-tournament contenders.

The 27-year-old last year defeated Nour El Tayeb to capture her 13th PSA Tour title, and this year, will face competition from the likes of world number 10 Nele Gilis-Coll and number 13, Salma Hany, who have been named as the second and third seeds, respectively.

Belgium’s Gilis-Coll and Egypt’s Hany will both be looking to put in strong performances and capture their first titles of the 2024/25 PSA Tour season.

The pair are scheduled to meet at the semi-finals stage of the event if they were to come through their respective quarters of the draw

Elsewhere, there will be a number of home hopes looking to reach the latter stages of the event, with number five seed Jasmine Hutton one to watch after some terrific recent form, which included a maiden Platinum quarter-final finish at the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions.

Fellow England duo Sarah-Jane Perry and Katie Malliff, as well as Welsh number one, Tesni Murphy, will also pose threats from lower down the seedings.

In the men’s event, Egypt’s Soliman has been named as the top seed and will be looking to build upon an impressive 2024/25 season which has included runner-up finishes at both the Silicon Valley Open and ACE Malaysia Cup.

The 28-year-old will likely face stiff competition from compatriot Aly Abou Eleinen, though, who sits just two places behind Soliman in the world rankings and is the second seed in Manchester.

South American duo Leonel Cardenas and Miguel Rodriguez will both be looking to upturn these two Egyptian players from their third and fourth seeding positions, with Cardenas, in particular, riding a wave of confidence in recent months.

There will be 10 Englishmen competing in the men’s draw, including the likes of number five seed Declan James, seventh seed Nathan Lake and rising star Jonah Bryant.

Since recording his maiden victory on the PSA Squash Tour at the Manchester Open last year, 19-year-old Bryant has made significant strides in the men’s rankings, currently sitting at a career-high position of world number 36.

Four British Wildcards have been named across the two draws, with England’s Kiera Marshall and Wales’ Lowri Roberts featuring in the women’s event, and Bury’s Withington joined by compatriot Bailey Malik in the men’s draw.

* For more information about the Manchester Open 2025 and how to buy tickets, visit the tournament website at manchesteropensquash.com/info or follow the PSA on X, Facebook, Instagram,YouTube, TikTok, Threads, WhatsApp and LinkedIn.