Women’s squash: Pakistan hosting $10,000 event for the first time

Six nations to take part in International Squash Championship.

KARACHI: Female squash players from as many as six countries will participate in the $10,000 2nd Bahria Town International WSA Squash Championship, which will be hosted by the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) during April-May in Rawalpindi.

This will be the first time in the history of Pakistan squash that a $10,000 women’s squash tournament will be staged. The qualifying round of the event will be played from March 30-31 while the main round will begin from April 1.

Maria Toorpakai is the only Pakistani player to feature in the main draw and is seeded seventh for the competition.



“The $10,000 women event shows that PSF is keen to promote women’s squash in Pakistan,” PSF secretary Amir Nawaz told The Express Tribune. “It’s an opportunity for local players to compete against much better players than themselves. There have been small satellite WSA events previously, but nothing of this kind. ”

Two players from South Africa — top-seed Siyoli Waters and fourth-seed Cheyna Tucker — and two from Egypt — second-seed Naidne Shahin and eighth-seed Farah Abdel Meguid — will take part in the tournament.

Three players from Hong Kong — Liu Tsz-Ling, Carmen Lee and Vanessa Chu — and the same number of players from Malaysia — Zulhijjah Binti Azan, Rachel Arnold and Teh Min Jie — are also set to compete, while Linda Hruzikova and Sachita Ingle are the lone participants from Slovakia and India respectively.

“There are a number of top-ranked players in the event and one of them will certainly win the competition, but yet it will be a good learning curve for our players,” commented Nawaz.

The official added that the men’s training camp for the Asian Individual Championship will resume from next week, where the players will undergo extensive training to get physically fit ahead of the continental event. Nasir Iqbal and Farhan Zaman have qualified for the competition after trials.

“The camp will certainly begin in the next few days. It won’t be routine training, but an extensive one so that the players can attain maximum fitness at the right time before heading into the Asian event,” concluded Nawaz.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  28^th,  2015.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.