The 77th Senior National squash championships will be held at the Indian Squash Academy (ISA) here from February 9 to 15. The event is being organised as part of the 20th anniversary of the ISA.
The national championship returns to the city and to ISA after a gap of nine years.
The event was last held at the Academy in 2011. This will also be the fifth time the ISA stages this prestigious Championship after 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2011. This time, the performance here will be a criteria for the selection of the men’s and women’s squads for the Asian team championship scheduled in Kuala Lumpur from March 25 to 29.
In all, there are 402 entries from 25 States — including the top 10 ranked women in the country and top seven in the men’s section. Competitions include regular men’s and women’s sections, pro-Coaches, men-over 35, over 40, over 45, over 50, over 55, over 60 and over 65 sections.
The two leading men and women contenders are 17-time record holder and defending champion Joshna Chinappa, and 12-time record winner Saurav Ghosal.
Defending champion Mahesh Mangaonkar is not participating. Other contenders include Ramit Tandon, Abhishek Pradhan and Harinder Pal Sandhu among men, and last year’s runner up Sunayna Kuruvilla, SAG gold medallist Tanvi Khanna and Urwashi Joshi among women.
For three days from February 9, qualification events will be held. The main draw begins on February 12.
