Inverness hosts biggest squash event in Scotland for 15 years
By Squash Mad Scottish Reporter
The biggest PSA tournament to be held in Scotland for 15 years heads to the North of Scotland this week in the capital of the Highlands, Inverness.
Inverness Tennis and Squash club will be hosting their first ever PSA event the “Loch Ness Challenger” having found the sponsors including BePersonnel to boast a total prize fund of $15,000.
Qualification kicks off on Tuesday June 17 which will see 16 players battle it out for only four spaces in the main draw.
Four of Inverness’ most skilled members are eager to give it their best against some of the PSA players who have travelled in from Pakistan and Belgium to compete in qualifying, my prediction is they are going to find this a little tougher than the usual Thursday night league match against Nairn or Forres!
There is Scottish interest in qualifying with our number 3 and 4 players Dougie Kempsell and Kevin Moran, who will be wanting to finish their PSA seasons on a high and make it into the main draw as a minimum.
Inverness Tennis and Squash club have produced Scotland’s current number one and number two players in the country Alan Clyne and Greg Lobban.
Clyne tops the seeding for this event and goes in as favourite on his ranking but with the top 4 seeds all ranked within the top 50 in the world this will certainly be an exciting challenge for the World Number 35.
Clyne opens his campaign on Thursday against one of the successful qualifiers. Lobban (right) goes into the event unseeded and faces the second seed from Egypt Omar, Abdel Aziz, in the first round.
Steve Finitsis from Australia is the number 3 seed and he will be looking to continue his form from last weekend as a Kent Open finalist.
Jaymie Haycocks completes the seeding as the events number 4 and be will open his tournament with a match against Irish number 1, Arthur Gaskin.
The fifth Scotsman in the draw is Jamie Henderson who has been given the wildcard for this event and he will be looking to cause an upset in his biggest PSA tournament to date.
With the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer the event has landed at a very exciting time for Scottish sport.
Clyne and Lobban will be looking for some success on the courts that they grew up on in front of friends and family who will hopefully be making a lot of noise to help them prepare for the atmosphere that is to be expected at a home Games!
Follow the event on twitter @squash_ness