For the first time, there will be a Professional Squash Association (PSA) domestic Challenger-10 squash tournament for men and women exclusively for Indians.
The “domestic PSA event” will be held at Indian Squash Academy here from August 23 to 26. The prize money for the tournament is $12,000.
In June, PSA wrote to all the National Federations asking them to host domestic tournaments with a 50% reduction in prize money.
Reduced prize money
“With international travel remaining difficult, we are extending the option of hosting domestic and cross-border events with a 50% reduction in prize money until December 31. This applies to Satellite and Challenger Tour 3, 5, and 10 tournaments,” it said.
PSA added it would give permission to host domestic-only tournaments on a case-by-case basis. “We do encourage all hosts, where possible, to hold regional tournaments.
“However, domestic-only tournaments will still be granted on a case-by-case basis,” it said.
Abhay Singh, Harinderpal Singh Sandhu, S. Velavan, Rounak Yadav, Abhishek Pradhan, Abhishek Agarwal, Aadit Zaveri and Rahul Baitha will take part in the men’s section.
In the women’s category, Sunayna Kuruvilla, Tanvi Khanna, Urwashi Joshi, Sanika Choudhari, Sachika Balwani, Aparajitha Balamurukan, Abhisheka Shannon and Janet Vidhi, among others, will compete.
Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) secretary Cyrus Poncha said since SRFI was not able to hold any tournaments for nearly two-and-a-half months due to the lockdown, this tournament will be of immense help to Indians who are looking for PSA ranking points.
“We last conducted a PSA event in Chennai (March 29-April 2) and after that, till July, we didn’t have any major activity,” he told The Hindu here on Tuesday.
