Challenger Tour Weekly Preview: ElSherbini and Eleinen in Action

There’s a distinctly North American feel to this week’s Challenger Tour schedule, with five events all taking place across the USA and Canada. 

The standout events take place in Chicago and Lancaster, with a men’s 30k in the Windy City and a women’s 20k in Pennsylvania. 

The Life Time Chicago Open – The Hussain Family is headlined by World No.17 Mohamed ElSherbini, who is looking to win his first tour title since 2019, and his first ever 30k tournament. 

ElSherbini is joined in the draw by fellow Egyptian Aly Abou Eleinen, who tops the bottom half of the draw as the second seed, with fellow top-50 players Nathan Lake and Cesar Salazar also in the hat. 

Less than 700 miles east, the Hamilton Open will take centre stage in Lancaster, where another Egyptian tops the field in Jana Shiha.

Shiha is joined in the seedings by compatriots Malak Khafagy at No.4, Haya Ali at No.7 and Rana Ismail, who moved into the No.8 spot following the withdrawal of Salma Eltayeb.

September’s PSA Challenger Tour Player of the Month, Alicia Mead, is also in the draw, moving up to the No.6 seed following Eltayeb’s withdrawal, aiming to build on her first 12k event win at the Pader Open last month. 

The runner-up to Mead in that Player of the Month vote was Menna Walid, who will be hoping to make a splash as an unseeded player here, having won her last tour tournaments as the No.1 seed. 

Elsewhere, Curtis Malik will look to follow up a quarter-final run in the QSF 3 as he tops the seedings at the St Louis Open Presented by the King Family. 

Malik and the USA’s Spencer Lovejoy are the only top-100 players in the draw, so both will be feeling confident of a deep run in Missouri. 

The only event on the Challenger Tour this week to feature both a men’s and women’s draw is the Greenwich Open, which boasts some rising stars of the game. 

Teenagers Rowan Damming and Finnlay Withington are seeded first and fourth in the men’s side respectively, while 18-year-old American Caroline Fouts and 17-year-old Nour Khafagy are among the women’s seeds. 

The final event of the week is La Classique de Gatineau in Quebec, a men’s 3k event in which all but four of the entrants are Canadian.

You can get updates on all the events on the PSA Challenger Tour Facebook and X pages.