In a unique approach to the men’s World Open, scheduled for Dec. 2-10 in Saudi Arabia, the PSA has just completed the qualifier for the event—and it’s only early September. When asked about the decision to host the qualifier nearly three months before the Championship, PSA CEO Alex Gough said, “We have historically done the Saudi qualifying a couple of months before mainly due to the visa situation. It is a very complicated procedure and the more we can cut down on which players need to go to Saudi then the better for the players.”
Players from 20 countries gathered at St. George’s Hill Lawn Tennis & Squash Club in Weybridge, England, on Sep. 8, to whittle down a list of 32 to 16 qualifiers for the $327,500 Saudi PSA World Open—the largest purse ever for a squash tournament.
The United States was represented in qualifying by Gilly Lane and Chris Gordon. Though Lane pushed England’s Joe Lee to four games (including 14-12 in the fourth), neither he nor Gordon secured a spot in the main draw (Gordon succumbed to another Englishman, Chris Simpson, in three).
Two players of note who have been mainstays on the PSA tour in recent years, Egyptian Mohammed Abbas and Borja Golan of Spain, both qualified. Abbas had been sidelined due to a lengthy foot injury, and Golan had major knee surgery eight months ago.
Watch for the World Open on SquashTV in December (psasquashtv.com).
