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It’s like a cage match for squash players.
Elite squash players from around the world will battle for US$50,000 this week during Windsor’s World Tour Bronze event, and the scene of the showdown is a massive glass-walled court set up inside Devonshire Mall.
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“You can expect to see some high quality of squash, some very high level of squash that the Windsor crowd has never witnessed,” said tournament CEO Anis Khan. “Typically you can see this quality of squash on television or YouTube. But seeing it live will be a treat to watch.”
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The tournament runs Tuesday to Saturday. Most of the matches will take place at the all-glass power court set up inside Devonshire Mall, which allows hundreds of spectators to watch from all angles. There will also be some action at the Windsor Squash and Fitness Club.
This year, the tournament is held under the umbrella of the Professional Squash Association, the international governing body for the professional squash circuit. It is a World Tour Bronze event, which means the top prize is US$50,000.
“That attracts some top quality players from across the world,” said Khan.
There will be 72 players from 20 different countries. The top 24 of those players will compete for the $50,000, including just two Canadians. One of those players, from Windsor, is Khan’s son, Amin. The other player, from Toronto, is Salah El Torgman.
The tournament will also include challenger level prizes of $9,000 for women and $6,000 for men. Challenger tournaments are essentially stepping stones for up and coming pros.
“We wanted to promote squash in Canada and for our youth,” said Khan. “That’s the whole intent behind it. We want more and more juniors, more and more youth to get involved in this lovely sport. In that process we have started doing all these tournaments so people can watch, the parents can watch, and they can have the little ones join sport.”
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Introducing the sport to more people was the reason for staging the tournament at Devonshire Mall.
“Last year at the invitational there was a lot of enthusiasm in the community,” said Khan. “We had a lot of parents inquiring about the sport. And so many new juniors were able to start playing squash. That was very encouraging and that was one of the reasons we took it one step further and started doing this bronze event.”
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Last year’s event, also held at Devonshire Mall, was a challenger and satellite tournament. The next level up from the Bronze event is Silver with a $70,000 purse, then the Gold with $100,000 purse.
“So, hopefully, if we get the encouragement this year we will do a $70,000 or $100,000 purse U.S. dollars next year, which will attract more high-quality squash players to come and play this event,” said Khan.
“We want to see this sport grow, and see more and more youth involvement. Hopefully, next year we can do a bigger event, even bigger than this one.”
twilhelm@postmedia.com
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