By IANS,
Chennai : The Squash Racquets Federation of India (SRFI) will conduct Indian Challenger 3 and WISPA Indian Challenger 1 events Sep 7-12 at the Indian Squash Academy here.
According to a SRFI press release, players from Europe and Asia will be vying for honours in both the groups along with a host of Indians who will be making their debut in both PSA (Professional Squash Association) and WISPA (Women’s International Squash Players Association) in this tournament.
The tournaments offer a prize fund of $4,750 for the PSA Indian Challenger and $4,000 for WISPA Challenger. Qualifying rounds will be played September 7 and 8.
The field in the PSA event boasts of Dylan Bennett of the Netherlands, ranked 71 in the world, and the depth could be assessed from the cut with the eighth player Harinderpal Sandhu of India is ranked 141.
Indian stars Siddharth Suchde, Gaurav Nandrajog and Ravi Dixit (wild card) will also participate.
The PSA qualifying phase also has a comprehensive line up with several overseas players, from Italy, Egypt, Hong Kong and Japan.
Among the Indians are Karan Malik, Ramit Tandon, Mahesh Mangaonkar, Abhishek Pradhan, Vikas Jangra and Sandeep Jangra.
The Indian challenge in women will comprise Anaka Alankamony, Aparajitha Balamurukan and Ankita Sharma who have just enrolled as WISPA members and will be playing their maiden tour event.
The top seed in the WISPA event is Irina Assal from Russia.
The main draw PSA players (countries are in brackets followed by PSA world ranking):
Dylan Bennett (NED) 71, Mazen Gamal (EGY) 105, James Snell (ENG) 106 , Siddharth Suchde (IND) 111, Ahmed Hawas (J) (EGY) 120, Aqeel Rehman (AUT) 124, Ansong Kwong (HKG) 140, Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) 141, Naresh Kumar (IND) 158, Leo Au (J) (HKG) 197, Gaurav Nandrajog (IND) 206 and Ravi Dixit (J) (IND) 305- Wild card.
The main draw WISPA players comprises:
Irina Assal (RUS) 75, Pushpa Devi (MAS) 77, Carmen Lee (HKG) 136, Anwesha Reddy (IND) 209, Surbhi Misra (IND) 240, Anaka Alankamony (IND) 240, Aparajitha Balamurukan (IND) 240, Ankita Sharma (IND) 240, Saumya Karki (IND), Harita Omprakash (IND) and Shira Khatri (IND).