Challenger Tour Weekly Preview: Khafagy, Damming, Lyon & Lash All in Action

The CIB PSA World Championships may be heading for an exciting climax in Cairo, but the Challenger Tour rolls on nonetheless this week, with three events on three different continents. 

Click here to stay up to date with all the action from Egypt, or read on below to see what’s happening on the Challenger Tour across the next seven days. 

ECP Open 2024 

Kicking off the week is the ECP Open in Sao Paolo, Brazil, a men’s 9k and a women’s 6k event, running from May 14-18. 

Headlining the men’s draw is top seed and former world junior champion Rowan Damming, who continues his return from injury is what is just his second event of 2024. 

The young Dutchman has surgery in February for a cracked meniscus he suffered on New Year’s Day, and made his return to action at the BRESS Breda Open in April. 

He reached the semi-finals there but will be hoping to go all the way this week in South America, entering the week as the only player inside the top 100 on the men’s entry list. 

Colombia’s Andres Herrera and England’s Stuart MacGregor are the No.2 and 3 seeds respectively, while hopes of home success will rest primarily with fourth seed Diego Gobbi and sixth seed Pedro Mometto. 

Both Gobbi and Mometto have claimed Challenger Tour titles on home soil already this season, with Gobbi winning the RGSA Open De Squash and Mometto the Curitiba Squash Center Brazil Open. 

Ironically, they knocked each other out in the semi-finals en route to their respective victories, and they are on a collision course to meet once again here, this time in the last eight having been placed in the same quarter of the draw. 

In the women’s competition, Colombia’s Catalina Pelaez will be looking to go one better than in Bermuda a few weeks ago, when she finished as runner-up to Margot Prow. 

The 32-year-old is the No.1 seed here and opens her quest for glory in round one against Carolina Raucci, one of nine local players in the 16-player draw. 

She will face stiff competition for the title from 16-year-old Laura Silva, the reigning Brazilian national champion. 

Silva is playing her first tournament of 2024 and just her second event on the Challenger Tour, but comes into this one having won four Satellite competitions on the bounce in 2023, as well as the national title. 

ACE Challenger 6K 2024 

Nearly 10,000 miles away and starting a day later in the Malaysian city of Johor is the ACE Challenger 6K. 

The men’s draw is topped by Egypt’s Mohamed Nasser, with Vladislav Titov the No.2 seed, playing his first event on Tour since 2022. 

Ong Sai Hung and Hafiz Zhafri are the highest-seeded Malaysian players on show as No.4 and 5 seeds respectively, while wildcard Joachim Chuah could be another home favourite to keep an eye on. 

The 19-year-old was a quarter-finalist at last year’s World Junior Championships and recently won a Satelite event in New York, his second successive success at that level in 2024. 

The women’s draw also boasts its fair share of talented young players hoping to make their mark, including No.2 seed Nour Khafagy and fifth seed Sehveetrraa Kumar. 

Khafagy was a semi-finalist at this year’s British Junior Open while Kumar already has a 6k title to her name, having won the Bondi Open earlier this season. 

The teenage pair are in opposite halves of the draw, so could meet in what would be a mouthwatering final should both get that far, though Kumar would likely have to get past top seed Ching Hei Fung in the quarters to do so. 

India’s Urwashi Joshi is also in the field, fresh from winning the The Poona Club LTD Open Squash Tournament – her maiden Tour title – just a few days ago. 

Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Open 2024 

The third and final event to get underway this week is the Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Open in New Zealand, where two of Australasia’s most talented junior stars headline the women’s draw. 

Top seed Madison Lyon of Australia makes the short trip across the Tasman Sea from Brisbane with hopes of adding her first Challenger Tour title to the Oceania Junior Championships crown she won in April. 

The runner-up in that Oceania event was New Zealand’s own Ella Lash, who is the No.2 seed here in her hometown of Auckland. 

Lash won both the Australian and New Zealand Junior Opens either side of that defeat to Lyon, and will be hoping to use home support to spur her on towards what would be a first Challenger Tour title. 

There will be plenty of Kiwi players for the crowd to cheer on in the men’s draw too, with Temwa Chileshe, Anthony Lepper and William Donnelly the top three seeds, while Samoa’s Mason Smales – the No.4 seed – was also born in Auckland. 

Top seed Chileshe finished as runner-up here in each of the last three years, but will fancy his chances of going one better this year after a recent run to the final of the AGL Hunter Singleton Open 6k event. 

The Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Open runs from May 16-19, with main court matches streaming live on the Squash Auckland Facebook page. Click here to watch.

You can stay up to date with all the results from the PSA Challenger Tour here.