Women’s World No.18 Jasmine Hutton was pleased to progress to the quarter-finals of the Manchester Open Squash after beating fellow Brit Torrie Malik 3-0.
Hutton will face the tournament No.2 seed, Belgian Nele Gilis-Coll, at noon today on the third day of the competition.
She said: “It was a good win. Torrie is a really great, up-and-coming player, and this is the third time I’ve played her in about two weeks, so I knew how it was going to be.
“And I felt myself a bit flat and tired today, so I knew it was going to be mentally a lot tougher than it would be physically and I’m just really happy that I came through on it today.”
Hutton will be hoping to reach the latter stages of the event after some terrific recent form, which included a maiden Platinum quarter-final finish at the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions.
She said: “It’s a big goal of mine to do well here. I’d really like to try and make the final, even win it. We’ll see how that goes.
“I’ve got some tough competitors ahead of me, obviously some top 10 players and top 15 players, so it’s a good stepping stone to see where I’m at at the minute, so looking forward to it.”
Last month, Hutton won her ninth PSA title after securing victory in the Calgary Open.
She said: “It was nice. I went out to Calgary two weeks ago now, and I won it there.
“And it’s just good to get some matches under your belt against some people that are chasing you.
“It’s always nice in some of the other big events that I get to be the one chasing the other players, whereas it’s quite nice to get those wins under your belt against people that are chasing you, so I came in with a lot of confidence.”
Hutton also reached a career-high ranking of No.18 in the world last month.
She said: “I’m really happy with making the top 18. I hit top 20 a while ago and then kept dipping in and out, and it felt like my consistency wasn’t quite there yet in the odd scrappy against a player ranked below me where I maybe wouldn’t win or would have a tough match against.
“Whereas now I feel like I’m being a lot more solid against those players, and I feel like I’m coming into another pack of players now, which is quite nice.”
And the Manchester Open Squash holds a special place in her heart after creating some special memories in the city.
She added: “I love it. I’ve played it most years I’ve been on tour as long as I’ve been able to get in it. I love coming to Manchester.
“Obviously, we used to train here a lot as juniors and national juniors. I won the nationals here one year, so there’s a lot of fond memories here, so always like coming back.”
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