Motor City Open 2025: Preview

Paul Coll (PSA Photo)

The DR21 Motor City Open 2025 gets underway tomorrow, the second PSA Squash Tour Silver-level event of 2025. The event will take place at the Birmingham Athletic Club between February 4-8. With action available to watch live on SQUASHTV, with live scores also available here. To enquire about tickets and availabilities, contact jwellings@bacmi.net

Reigning World Champion Diego Elias will return to the DR21 Motor City Open 2025 as the top seed in a bid to claim his fifth consecutive title. Elias, whose unbeaten run at the event stretches 16 matches all the way back to February 2019, will be joined by the likes of last year’s runner-up and current World No.4 Paul Coll, World No.13 Eain Yow Ng and World No.14 Aly Abou Eleinen in a stacked 24-man field.

Coll had three titles to his name at this stage of last season but is still searching for his first piece of silverware of the 24/25 campaign. He’ll be hoping for a strong performance to re-assert himself at the top of the PSA Squash Tour World Rankings and break the run of the Peruvian.

Three and four seeds Eain Yow Ng and Aly Abou Eleinen will be looking to upset the top seeds as they both look to reach their second finals of the 24/25 season. Yow Ng has a maturity to his game which has seen him trouble many of the world’s top 10 but wins against them have been rare, a stat that he’ll be looking to change. Abou Eleinen scored a huge win over World No.2 Mostafa Asal earlier this season and will need to produce a similar performance if he is to upset the seedings this week. He’s in the same half as Coll and would set up a first meeting between the two if the pair successfully advance.

Day one’s action gets underway at 16:00 (GMT-5) across two courts with four Europeans all looking to claim places in round two. Switzerland’s Yannick Wilhelmi takes on Baptiste Masotti on court2 whilst Patrick Rooney will face Simon Herbert on court 3.

The only home hope in the draw, Timothy Brownell, features later in the day as he faces Japan’s Ryunosuke Tsukue at 18:00. The up and coming Jonah Bryant is in action at the same time, taking on Hong Kong, China’s Alex Lau. With the winner set to face No.2 seed Coll.

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Full Draw:

[1] Diego Elias (PER) [bye]

Henry Leung (HKG) v Juan Camilo Vargas (COL)

Nathan Lake (ENG) v Cesar Salazar (MEX)

[7] Leonel Cardenas (MEX) [bye]

[5] Miguel Rodriguez (COL) [bye]

Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI) v Baptiste Masotti (FRA)

Patrick Rooney (ENG) v Simon Herbert (ENG)

[3] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) [bye]

[4] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) [bye]

Yahya Elnawasany (EGY) v Leandro Romiglio (ARG)

Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) v Rui Soares (POR)