10 countries in fray as HCL-SRFI PSA tourney begins tomorrow

Chennai, Sep 18 (Agency) Top Indian and International playersfrom 10 countries in the age group of Under-11 to Under-19will be seen in action in both the Boy’s and Girl’s sections asthe first of the four PSA Indian Tour squash tourney beginswith the Southern Slam here tomorrow.As part of its efforts to enhance the squash ecosystem inthe country, HCL and SRFI kick-started the HCL Indian Tour–a Professional Squash Association (PSA) multi-city circuitin the country. This tour aims to provide Indian players an opportunity tocompete against the world’s best on their home turf and gaininternational ranking points.

As part of this, SRFI plans to organize four PSA tournamentstill March 2023 across four cities in India, starting with atournament at the Indian Squash Academy here from tomorrowtill September 23. This tournament will witness participation from top Indian playersand international players from 10 countries including India, Egypt, Japan, England, Singapore and Spain among others.The tournament offers a prize money of USD 12K each for menand women.It aims at providing exposure for junior players to watch and learnfrom PSA players and increase their Asian rankings.

The PSA tournament beginning here tomorrow will be the SouthernSlam, a junior squash tournament for players in the Under-11 toUnder-19 age category. This will be a 5-Star tournament by SRFI and a Platinum event underthe Asian Squash Federation calendar.The top seeded players are Aly Abou Eleinen (Egypt, Rank-63)in the men’s category, Martin Svec (Czechoslovakia, Rank–83),Kenzy Ayman (Egypt, Rank–60) and Sunayna Kuruvilla (India,Rank-119) in the women’s category. With a world ranking of No.109, Abhay Singh and Tanvi Khanna(India, World Rank–92) will lead the Indian challenge in the men’sand women’s sections respectively.