Challenger Tour Weekly Preview: Five Events, Four Host Nations

It’s a busy week on the Challenger Tour this week, with five tournaments being played across four nations in the next seven days.

There was just the one competition played last week, with Mexico’s Cesar Salazar and Egypt’s Salma Eltayeb coming away victorious from the RC Pro Series in St Louis, United States.

This week, the five tournaments are spread across four continents. Two of them will be played in the United States, with both the Kiva Open and the Hyder Trophy being played.

The Tour de las Americas also gets underway for 2023, with the Villa la Angostura Patagonia Open taking place in Argentina. The week starts in Japan, with the Dynam Cup SQ-Cube Open, with the Open des Bretzels also returning to the calendar.

Here is what is taking place on the Tour this week…

Dynam Cup PSA SQ-Cube Open
The opening tournament of this week’s action sees the Tour visit Japan for the first time in 2023. The Dynam Cup SQ-Cube Open returns to the Tour calendar for the third time, getting underway on Tuesday, May 2.

The Yokohama Squash Stadium SQ-Cube will play host to the competition, which will feature a Challenger 10 level men’s event and a Challenger 5 level women’s draw. 

Ryunosuke Tsukue will return to defend his title, as the only winner of the men’s event, having claimed the victory in the two previous editions of the tournament. Malaysia’s Addeen Idrakie will be the top seed, joined by compatriot Mohammad Syafiq Kamal and Darren Rahul Pragasam among the eight seeds.

Former World No.5 Low Wee Wern will lead the way in the women’s draw. The Malaysian will be joined by the Hong Kong quartet of Cheng Nga Ching, Ching Hei Fung, Wai Sze Wing and Toby Tse, while Risa Sugimoto will be the leading home hope in the women’s event.

The Kiva Open
The first of two competitions taking place on American soil this week will be the Kiva Open. The Challenger 5 level men’s tournament will take place from Wednesday, May 3 at the Kiva Club in Santa Few, New Mexico.

Mexico’s Alejandro Reyes will be the top seed this week in a multi-national top eight seeds. Pakistan’s Nasir Iqbal, Englishman Lewis Doughty, Egypt’s Abdelaziz Hegazy, Frenchman Laszlo Godde and Guatemalan Luis Quisquinay will all be seeded.

Allan Nunez will be the second Mexican among the top eight seeds, with Dillon Huang being the leading American in the competition. He will be joined by Jesse Giron, the tournament wildcard, in Santa Fe.

Open des Bretzels – 2nd Edition
The only event taking place in Europe this week will be the Open des Bretzels, which will return to the calendar for the first time since 2021. The Challenger 5 level women’s event will be played in Mulhouse, France, beginning on Wednesday, May 3.

Espace Squash 3000 will play host, with home hope Elise Romba as the top seed. She will be one of 11 Frenchwoman featuring on home soil, with four of those being seeds. Lea Barbeau, Ella Galova and Taba Taghavi join Romba in the top eight seeds, with Taghavi also being the tournament’s promoter.

The Swiss duo of Ambre Allinckx and Celine Walser will also be seeded for the competition, with Englishwoman Asia Harris and Egypt’s Nour Ramy making up the rest of the top eight. Rose Lucas Marcuzzo, Sara Bonmalais and Ines Guyot will all be wildcards for the tournament on home soil.

Tour De Las Americas Villa la Angostura Patagonia Open
The renowned Tour de las Americas returns to the Tour calendar for the first time since 2019, and this year’s Tour gets underway in Argentina with the Villa la Angostura Patagonia Open.

The top seed for the Challenger 10 level event will be American Spencer Lovejoy, who recently made the final of the U.S. National Championships. Germany’s Yannik Omlor, England’s Tom Walsh and Switzerland’s Yannick Wilhelmi will make up the top four seeds.

Jeremias Azana will be the No.5 seed for the competition, and he will be one of nine Argentinians featuring on home soil, with Segundo Portabales among them. He will playing for the first time on Tour. Brazil’s Diego Gobbi, Frenchman Toufik Mekhalfi and Colombia’s Edgar Ramirez Bautista the rest of the top eight seeds.

Hyder Trophy
The final event of the week gets underway on Thursday, May 4. The Hyder Trophy will take place at Equinox in New York City, and with both a men’s and women’s Challenger 10 level title on offer.

After winning twice in April, Yassin Elshafei will be the top seed in the men’s draw. He is joined by compatriot Aly Hussein, the man he beat to win both of those tournaments, and the Spanish duo of Edmon Lopez and Ivan Perez among the top four seeds.

New Zealand’s Kaitlyn Watts will lead the way in the women’s event. India’s Akanksha Salunkhe, Egypt’s Rana Ismail and England’s Alicia Mead will all be in contention. Lucie Stefanoni will be the leading American in the competition, with Jhansi Bhavsar and Hollis Robertson, the latter in the men’s event, as the tournament wildcards.

This Week’s Schedule:
Dynam Cup PSA SQ-Cube Open: Tuesday, May 2 – Saturday, May 6
The Kiva Open: Wednesday, May 3 – Saturday, May 6
Open des Bretzels – 2nd Edition: Wednesday, May 3 – Sunday, May 7
Tour De Las Americas Villa la Angostura Patagonia Open: Wednesday, May 3 – Sunday, May 7
Hyder Trophy: Thursday, May 4 – Sunday, May 7