PSA New Tour Structure to Begin This Week

       
The Professional Squash Association’s (PSA) new tour structure will come into effect tomorrow (August 1) with the Australian Open becoming the first tournament to be held in this new era for professional squash.

The new tour structure will establish a new and exciting image for the PSA World Tour, which will continue to showcase the sport’s biggest tournaments and best players. The PSA Challenger Tour will be launched alongside the PSA World Tour to create a strong identity for lower-tier tournaments and will feature aspiring youngsters working their way up the PSA World Rankings.

The new tour structure has been put in place with the aim of increasing earnings and playing opportunities across both tours, while the PSA will offer more support for tournament promoters to assist them with the successful delivery of tournaments.

The world’s greatest players will continue to compete at the sport’s most prestigious tournaments on the PSA World Tour - such as the PSA World Championships and PSA World Tour Finals - across all four corners of the globe and prize money will range from $47,500 – $1,000,000. By the 2022-2023 season, it is envisaged that the PSA World Tour will feature up to 35 tournaments for men and women.

New tournament tiers have been created on the PSA World Tour. The first PSA World Tour Platinum tournament will be the FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships in October, while the J.P. Morgan China Open will be the first PSA World Tour Gold event in September.

The women’s Oracle NetSuite Open later that month will be the first PSA World Tour Silver event, while the prestigious Carol Weymuller Open, which takes place in October, has the honour of being the first ever PSA World Tour Bronze tournament.

PSA World Tour events held on all-glass courts will be broadcast live around the world, while in September the Open International de squash de Nantes will become the first PSA Challenger Tour event to be broadcast live.

On the PSA World Tour, Platinum tournaments will feature 48-player draws, and Gold, Silver and Bronze tournaments will feature 24-player draws. Tournaments on the PSA Challenger Tour will range from 16-24 player draws, while qualification rounds will be scrapped on both tours.

The 2018/19 PSA World Championships in Chicago - which will become the first tournament in professional squash to offer a prize purse of $1 million - will be held in February and will feature a 64-player draw. The draw will consist of 56 PSA entrants and a wildcard, with the other places being granted to winners of selected ‘qualifier’ tournaments on the PSA Challenger Tour and WSF invitees.

Prize money on the PSA Challenger Tour ranges from $5,500-$28,000 and tiers consist of PSA Challenger Tour 30, 20, 10 and 5. A round robin format will be available for use at Challenger Tour 5 tournaments throughout the 2018/19 season.

As part of the new tour structure, the PSA have also formed the WSF & PSA Satellite Tour in partnership with the World Squash Federation, designed to ease the transition from World, Regional, National and Junior tournaments to professional squash. In addition, the creation of a global ranking system for U19 and U17 players will create a pathway for the best up-and-coming juniors from across the globe.

"We are delighted to officially begin using our new tour structure and are confident that it will have a hugely positive impact on the growth of professional squash," said PSA Chief Executive Alex Gough.

"A record prize money total of $6.4 million was on offer during the 2017/18 season - an 11% increase on the previous season - while memberships are at an all-high, with over 900 registered members of the PSA. We are confident that the changes to our tour structure will help us continue along the same trajectory."

PSA Tour Director Hannah Ridgard-Mason said: "These changes will help us to market the PSA World Tour as the sport’s pinnacle, while the introduction of the PSA Challenger Tour and WSF & PSA Satellite Tours will enable us to increase earnings and playing opportunities for up-and-coming players, in addition to giving them a natural pathway to the PSA World Tour.

"We are also pleased to be able to offer tournament promoters more support than ever before and look forward to working with them in the coming years as we continue to grow professional squash."

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ElShorbagy Becomes Longest Reigning Egyptian World No.1

World Champion Mohamed ElShorbagy has overtaken the legendary Amr Shabana to become the longest-reigning Egyptian World No.1 after the PSA Men’s World Rankings for August were released today (August 1).

ElShorbagy, 27, has now held top spot for 34 months overall - one more than four-time World Champion Shabana - across three spells atop the World Rankings and the Bristol-based Egyptian has 33 PSA Tour titles to his name.

ElShorbagy is part of a six-man Egyptian contingent in the top 10, which also includes Ali Farag (No.2), Marwan ElShorbagy (No.3), Tarek Momen (No.4), Karim Abdel Gawad (No.8) and Ramy Ashour (No.9).

Germany’s Simon Rösner (No.5), Colombia’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez (No.6), France’s Gregory Gaultier (No.7) and New Zealand’s Paul Coll are the other players inside the top 10.

The rest of the top 20 is unchanged with the exception of the No.20 position, Australia’s Cameron Pilley leapfrogging Hong Kong’s Leo Au to return to the top 20 after a three-month absence.

The biggest movers on the men’s tour are Japan’s Tomotaka Endo - who rises 146 places to No.337 courtesy of a first ever PSA Tour semi-final appearance at the South Australian Open last month - and Mexico’s Alejandro Reyes, who moves up 110 places to No.373.

PSA Men's World Rankings Top 20 - August 2018

RANK	NAME	NATIONALITY	POINTS	UP/DOWN
1	Mohamed ElShorbagy	EGY	2,061.500	=
2	Ali Farag	EGY	1,355.500	=
3	Marwan ElShorbagy	EGY	1,208.000	=
4	Tarek Momen	EGY	871.000	=
5	Simon Rösner	GER	833.000	=
6	Miguel Angel Rodriguez	COL	727.500	=
7	Gregory Gaultier	FRA	669.500	=
8	Karim Abdel Gawad	EGY	592.500	=
9	Ramy Ashour	EGY	530.500	=
10	Paul Coll	NZL	524.000	=
11	Diego Elias	PER	484.000	=
12	Saurav Ghosal	IND	461.500	=
13	Mohamed Abouelghar	EGY	419.091	=
14	Omar Mosaad	EGY	396.364	=
15	Ryan Cuskelly	AUS	375.500	=
16	Daryl Selby	ENG	370.500	=
17	James Willstrop	ENG	369.500	=
18	Nicolas Mueller	SUI	355.455	=
19	Max Lee	HKG	349.000	=
20	Cameron Pilley	AUS	317.000	↑1

El Sherbini Heads Up Unchanged Top 20 in Women’s World Rankings

       

Egypt’s Nour El Sherbini has topped the PSA Women’s World Rankings for a 28th successive month as she heads up an unchanged top 20 in the August World Rankings, released today (August 1).

The 22-year-old is the fifth longest reigning World No.1 of all time in the women’s game and she is followed in the rankings by World Champion Raneem El Welily, World No.3 Nour El Tayeb, World No.4 Camille Serme and New Zealand’s Joelle King, who completes the top five.

Egypt’s Nouran Gohar stays at No.6, while England’s Laura Massaro (No.7), her compatriot Sarah-Jane Perry (No.8), Malaysia’s Nicol David (No.9) and Alison Waters round out the top 10.

Hong Kong’s Annie Au comes next at No.11, followed by Tesni Evans (No.12), Victoria Lust (No.13), Olivia Blatchford (No.14) and Salma Hany (No.15).

India’s Joshna Chinappa (No.16), Australia’s Donna Lobban (No.17), United States’ Amanda Sobhy (No.18), India's Dipika Pallikal Karthik (No.19) and Egypt’s Hania El Hammamy take the final spots in the top 20.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s former World No.5 Low Wee Wern was the biggest mover on the women’s tour after a sensational comeback from injury that saw her win two PSA Tour titles in July.

Three surgeries and a host of injury-layoffs saw her forced into a 21-month absence, with her last PSA Tour appearance before last month coming back in October 2016.

However, Low captured the Malaysian Open title three days before her 28th birthday in July and followed that up with victory at the Tasmanian Open a week later to ensure that she has moved up 184 places to No.70 on the World Rankings.

PSA Women's World Rankings Top 20 - August 2018

RANK	NAME	NATIONALITY	POINTS	UP/DOWN
1	Nour El Sherbini	EGY	1,932.222	=
2	Raneem El Welily	EGY	1,631.111	=
3	Nour El Tayeb	EGY	1,304.444	=
4	Joelle King	NZL	831.111	=
5	Camille Serme	FRA	781.667	=
6	Nouran Gohar	EGY	771.667	=
7	Laura Massaro	ENG	737.222	=
8	Sarah-Jane Perry	ENG	583.889	=
9	Nicol David	MAS	507.222	=
10	Alison Waters	ENG	502.778	=
11	Annie Au	HKG	441.000	=
12	Tesni Evans	WAL	438.333	=
13	Victoria Lust	ENG	333.889	=
14	Olivia Blatchford	USA	329.444	=
15	Salma Hany	EGY	325.556	=
16	Joshna Chinappa	IND	321.111	=
17	Donna Urquhart	AUS	314.444	=
18	Amanda Sobhy	USA	283.889	=
19	Dipika Pallikal Karthik	IND	255.000	=
20	Hania El Hammamy	EGY	252.778	=

Team Nigeria set for Zim Squash Open

THIS year’s edition of the Safeguard Zimbabwe Open Squash Tournament will be played from Friday to Sunday at the Suburbs Squash Club in Bulawayo.

Nigeria Players going to the Safeguard open Squash tournament are Yemisi Olatunji the defending female champion, Lanre Abdulrahman the runner up, Idowu Enimakure , Busayo Olatunji who came 5th last year and Onaopemipo Adegoke the national under 19 champion. They left today on South African airways to connect to Bulawayo tomorrow morning the competition starts on the 3rd and ends on the 5th of August the players are due back on the 6th except for Lanre Abdulrahman who has a PSA tournament on Pretoria South Africa.

Olanrewaju Abdulrahman

The draw for the competition will be held on Friday and only players present at registration on Thursday will qualify for the draw, according to the registration form.

Locals struggled last year, with the men’s finals won by Nigerian Sodiq Taiwo, who walked away with $1 000 and a trophy after beating fellow countryman Olanrewaju Abulrahaman 3-2.

South African Christo Potgieter did not turn up to defend his title last year due to other commitments after the competition had been dominated by Zambia since the beginning in 2004.

Last year, Zimbabwe’s Admire Magwaza came position five in the men’s competition.



The women’s title was also won by Nigerian Yemisi Olatunji who beat Zimbabwe’s Yvonne Mubure 3-0.

The tournament features the men and women’s editions, the doubles and veterans’ contests and last year young squash sensation Ryan Gwidzima, then aged 11, beat 16-year-old Brighton Nyakabawo in the plate final.
Registration for the singles is $25 and $40 per team for the doubles.

However, if each member of the doubles team is also playing in the singles, the doubles team is expected to pay $30.
The entry fees were due to be paid on July 25.

The Zimbabwe Open Squash Tournament was brought back to life by the Matabeleland Squash Association in 2004 and is an annual event at Bulawayo Squash Club.