World University Squash Championship to be held in Chennai from 1-7 September 2014

Indian Squash Academy will play host to the World University Squash Championship

The eighth edition of the World University Squash Championship will be hosted by the SRFI in association with the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) from September 1 to 7, 2014 at the Indian Squash Academy. This is the first time that this event is coming to India and when AIU bid for it, it decided to seek SRFI’s assistance to host the competition.

Under the auspices of SRFI, the Tamil Nadu Squash Rackets Association supported fully by the Tamil Nadu government will conduct the championship. This is also the first time that India is participating in this event.

For the Indian Squash Academy, which since its inception in 2000 has hosted several world-class competitions over the years, the latest is one more feather in its cap.

It was in 1995 that the idea of organizing a squash event for University-level students first cropped up, basically seeing its worldwide popularity. The World Squash Federation gave its full support and promptly found dates in the international calendar for its launch in the August of 1996 in Maastricht in Netherlands. Since then, this Championship was conducted every two years till 2002 in Cardiff (GBR), Pilzen (Czech) and Linz (Austria).

The next edition came four years later in 2006 in Szeged (Hungary). Two years later, Cairo hosted it and the last one in 2010 was held in Melbourne. The event now comes to Asia, albeit after a four year gap. Expectedly, this championship has proved an additional forum for the top young squash players to exhibit their talent. Some of the top names who have graced this championship over the years include Thierry Lincou of France, Karim Darwish, Mohammed Abbas, Ramy Ashour (all Egypt) and the like and in the women, Raneem El Weleily, Omneya Abdel Kawy (both Egypt) and Annie Au (Hong Kong).

In all, 45 entries including 18 women have come in from 11 countries aside from India for the Championship, which will witness both individual and team events separately. The participating countries are: Canada, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Slovenia, South Africa , UK and Czech Republic.

Nour Nasser El Tayeb is the highest ranked female (world no. 25) while Mazen Sabri also from Egypt is highest ranked male (world no. 34) in the event.

The Indian team comprises Ravi Dixit (world ranked 148), Maninder Pal Singh Sandhu, Hiteswar Singh Riar, Aparajitha Balamurukan (world ranked 109) and Sachika Ingale (world ranked 154).

The individual championship phase (September 1 to 4), which precedes the team competition (September 5 to 7), will see three male and two female players from each country in the fray. The team championship is a mixed event with two male players and one female representing a country. In 2010, Great Britain was the team championship winner while Joel Hinds (GBR) men and women individual winners.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Country	Gender	Name	Given name	PSA Rank
CAN	Male	VAN STAVEREN	James Richard
CAN	Male	SETH	Cameron James Mitrapal
EGY	Male	SABRI	Mazen	34
EGY	Male	SALEM	Zahed	47
EGY	Male	MOAWAD	Karim
FRA	Male	VAEZ OLIVERA	MARC
FRA	Male	PARENT	THEO
FRA	Male	PETRUCCI	ANTOINE CAMILLE	432
GBR	Male	CHARLTON	EDWARD DAVID	52
GBR	Male	MAKIN	JOEL PATRICK	185
HKG	Male	YEUNG	Ho Wai
IND	Male	DIXIT	Ravi	148
IND	Male	RIAR	HITESHWAR SINGH
IND	Male	SANDHU	Maninder Pal Singh
MAS	Male	CHAN	TI LUNN
MAS	Male	CHAL	SANJAY SINGH	156
MAS	Male	BAHTIAR	MUHAMMAD ADDEEN
NEP	Male	THAPA MAGAR	AMRIT
NEP	Male	CHAUDHARY	GYANU
PAK	Male	GUL	RizwanUllah
PAK	Male	KHAN	Tariq
PAK	Male	KHAN	Babrak
PAK	Male	YOUSAF	Saqib	119
RSA	Male	MARTIN	Andrew
RSA	Male	OLIVIER	Ruan	416
RSA	Male	VAN DER MERWE	Nell	396
SLO	Male	MOŠNIK	MARTIN
Country	Gender	Name	Given name	WSA Rank
CAN	Female	YOUNGER	Alix Kelly
CZE	Female	ERTLOVA	Olga	57
EGY	Female	NASSER	Nour	25
EGY	Female	ABDELMEGUID	Farah	61
FRA	Female	MESIC	CHLOE	88
FRA	Female	DE LAVISON	GABRIELLE
GBR	Female	ELKALAAWY	Nada Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamed	100
GBR	Female	TOMLINSON	Camilla Sarah
HKG	Female	HO	Ka Po
IND	Female	BALAMURUKAN	Aparajitha	109
IND	Female	INGALE	Sachika	154
MAS	Female	AZAN	ZULHIJJAH	74
MAS	Female	JIE	MIN	91
PAK	Female	ZAFAR	Faiza
PAK	Female	ZAFAR	Ayesha
PAK	Female	ANJUM	Sammer	194
RSA	Female	TUCKER	Cheyna	72
RSA	Female	FULLER	Alexandra	94