KUALA LUMPUR — An epic opening encounter between Malaysia's top two is set to get the 2018 Malaysian Open Squash Championships underway from July 19 at the Bukit Jalil Squash Centre.

Ivan Yuen Chee Wern's looking to continue his return to form that saw him winning the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour tournaments in June — the New Zealand International Classic and the NZ Southern Open — when he takes on national No 1 Nafiizwan Adnan in the first round.

It's a repeat of the national championship finals last week where Ivan triumphed over Adnan 11-6, 12-14, 11-9, 11-9 to defend his crown and win his second title.

“This is the PSA so it’s definitely going to be interesting and challenging to face Nafiizwan in the first round,” Ivan said.

“It will be tough as usual but I feel that playing Nafiizwan in the nationals or in the PSA isn’t that much different. Both of us want to win and we'll give it our best shot.

“I’m playing well right now and I’m targeting to go far in the tournament. But Nafiizwan is not going to back down especially with the Asian Games in mind so it will be a very good matchup,” added the world No 64.

Nafiizwan holds the advantage over Ivan, with a 10-1 record on the PSA Tour.

However, Ivan has won their last three meetings, two of the those meetings coming in the final of the national meets.

Besides them 2016 World Junior Champion Ng Eain Yow will be looking to reach the final for the second straight year. He lost to Leo Au 11-6, 11-2, 11-4 in last years finals and takes on Rex Hendrick of Australia at 5.30pm while Nafiizwan and Ivan play at 4pm.

The men's competition is a PSA35 tournament which offers a total prize money of USD$35,000 (RM142,012).

The top seeds are Hong Kong's Leo Au (world No. 20), Yip Tsz Fung (world No. 29) and Qatar’s Abdulla Al Tamimi (world No. 33) who are making an appearance as they're tuning up for the Asian Games as well.

The women’s event is a PSA15 with a total prize money of USD$15,000 (RM60,862).

The top seed for the event is Egypt’s former world No. 4 Omneya Abdel Kawy while there is also a strong Hong Kong presence featuring Liu Tsz Ling (No. 33), Ho Tze Lok (No. 51), Tong Tsz Wing (No. 53), Vanessa Chu (No. 56) and Lee Ka Yi (No. 67).