Boston to welcome the pros
World #53 Millie Tomlinson and Lincolnshire’s young world top 100 player Ben Smith lead the draws for the 25th annual Boston Open at Boston Squash and Racketball Club next weekend (16th-18th December).
The tournament will see some of the country’s best players compete for their share of a £4000 prize pot. As ever, the whole event will be open to the public and free to attend. The bar which looks overlooks the club’s two glass back courts will be open throughout the three days serving food and drinks.
The event will begin at 1pm on Friday. The day’s play is expected to finish at around 9pm. Saturday’s quarter-finals will take place from 11am to 2pm before the semi-finals from 4.30-7.30pm. The finals will begin earlier than usual - at midday on Sunday – to ensure they’ve concluded before the men’s football World Cup final.
There’ll be two whole extra rounds of play compared to last year thanks to a big increase in the number of entries. The men’s draw has grown to include a round of 32, and the women’s to include a round of 16.
20-year-old Ben Smith is the favourite to win the men’s event. He has previously been a runner-up and a semi-finalist at the Boston Open, but will be hoping to better those finishes having risen to world #92 and recently won the Swiss Open and the Romanian Open. He may well face second seed Owain Taylor, the Welsh #3, in Sunday’s final.
Owain plays in the Premier Squash League for Nottingham, as does the women’s top seed Millie Tomlinson. Millie is a familiar face in Lincolnshire having won the Boston Open for a record five times between 2014 and 2018, prior to reaching a career-high ranking of world #20 in 2019.
The women’s second seed, Torrie Malik, is already the world #84 at the age of 18. She has been England #1 in all age groups from under 11 to under 19. This year she’s won tournaments including the Czech Open, the Charing Cross Classic and the British Junior Under 19 Open.
Tournament organiser Mark Hildred said: “It’s really pleasing to have such strong numbers for the 25th edition of our annual professional tournament.
“We have a lot of up-and-coming talent this year who have made very promising starts to their careers.
“A few of the younger players we’ve welcomed to the club in years gone by have gone on to become world number ones, so it’s exciting to think about the heights some of the players competing in Boston this year will go on to achieve.”
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