For the first time in the history of squash in Sri Lanka an Open Doubles squash tournament began yesterday and will go on till April 3 at two venues. Sri Lanka Squash (SLS) revealed that a Junior squash tournament is also being conducted concurrently.
The two venues are the Army Squash Complex in Engineer Park in Mattegoda and the SSC courts at Maitland Place.
There were 75 entries for the doubles tournament while 250 players entered the Junior tournament for boys and girls in the age categories of under-9, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19. The Doubles will comprise men’s, women’s and mixed events.
All leading squash players are expected to enter the fray and SLS have obtained a generous sponsor in Edinborough products to spice up the tournaments. “We came forward to support squash as we believe that this sport can be developed further and reach higher levels,” said RPM Zalmy the Managing Director of Edinborough Products. Sri Lanka Squash is in a major drive to promote the game in the rural areas which is their main plan. They are now ready to build courts in Kurunegala, Galle, Kandy and Jaffna.
Speaking at the media briefing Suren Kahambange the president of SLS said that squash in fast spreading in the USA and China.
“We too can improve our standards as our players too have the same physical structure as the players in other countries. We also want to improve our Doubles players so that they can take part in the international arena. There is a high performance team too and all medical, fitness and nutrition needs will be met by SLS,” added Kahambange.
Sri Lanka also have some players who are already participating in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournaments where they can earn ranking points and get promoted to perform in the higher levels of the PSA.
Already Sri Lanka’s leading squash players in Ravindu Laksiri and Fathoum Issadeen are participating in the PSA tournament that was held in Bangladesh and have finished well.