Kobayashi and Azman Named PSA Players of the Month for August

Japan’s Ryosei Kobayashi and Malaysia’s Aifa Azman have been named the respective men’s and women’s PSA Players of the Month for August.

World No.184 Kobayashi reigned victorious at the Roberts & Morrow North Coast Open tournament last month, when the No.5 seed defeated Malaysia’s Addeen Idrakie to claim his maiden PSA title.

The tournament was also a World Championship qualifier event, which means that the 25-year-old has secured his place at the prestigious tournament in Qatar in November and makes history as the first player from Japan to play at the men’s PSA World Championships.

Elsewhere, World No.164 Azman is the women’s Player of the Month after she won the women’s title at the North Coast Open and also books her place at the women’s PSA World Championships, which will be held in Cairo, Egypt in October.

The Malaysian was unseeded at the event and defeated the No.3 seed Australia’s Jessica Turnbull in the final, before going on to conquer No.1 seed Hong Kong’s Vanessa Chu by an 11-4, 11-7, 11-4 scoreline in 23 minutes.

That victory also sees 17-year-old Azman maintain her 100{d0587469e8933ea5fce14b556fa40d44c2813bf7740605b59885b5a8c24d5885} PSA final win rate.