Challenger Events
Challenger Tour Weekly Preview: Fuller Leads Hope Hopes in SA, Mueller Defends Czech Titles
There are four events on the PSA Challenger Tour this week, with two of them streaming live on the PSA Live Streaming YouTube channel.
The SA Open in Johannesburg is already underway, with round one’s matches having been completed.
Round two will see the seeded players enter the draw, with some big names among them, not least home favourite Alexandra Fuller.
Fuller is the No.3 seed in the women’s draw and enters play with hopes of home success resting on her shoulders, as the only South African inside the world’s top 100 in either the men’s or women’s rankings.
England’s Jasmine Hutton and Lucy Turmel are top two seeds and will play Lojayn Gohary and Awande Malinga, respectively, on the glass court.
Malinga is one of five South Africans in round two of the women’s draw, with one at least guaranteed to be in the last eight, as Fuller is set to play Hayley Ward in her round-two matchup.
On the men’s side, Dewald van Niekerk is one of two South Africans among the seeds, at No.4, with Jean-Pierre Brits the other at No.8.
Van Niekerk first assignment will be a round-two meeting with France’s Paul Gonzalez, while Brits plays Hazem Hossam.
Top seed Ibrahim Elkabbani faces Sohail El Shenawy in an all-Egyptian battle, before No.2 seed Ben Smith rounds out the day’s play against South Africa’s Tristan Worth, the World No.374 who upset Baptiste Bouin 3-2 in round one.
Round two will be split across three courts, all of which will stream live on the PSA Live Streaming YouTube channel. All matches from the quarter-finals will take place on the glass court, which will be available to watch live with commentary and multiple camera angles.
Elsewhere, the Oregon Open and PSA Gradignan both take place this week, with Faraz Khan and Spencer Lovejoy the top two seeds in the USA.
Khan and Lovejoy both had tournaments to forget last week, with Khan losing out to 16-year-old and eventual winner Mohamad Zakaria in round two of the Local World LA Open, while Lovejoy was beaten by Ireland’s Sam Buckley in the quarter-finals of the PVD Squash RI Open.
The No.1 seed in Gradignan will be England’s Curtis Malik, who is looking to claim back-to-back titles after winning The St Louis Open 2023 presented by The King Family a fortnight ago, when he beat Lovejoy in the final.
Edwin Clain is the highest-seeded French player in the draw, at No.3, hoping to follow in Baptiste Masotti’s footsteps in claiming glory on home soil in the Green Squash Tour.
The week is rounded out by the Czech Open, a 30k event in the men’s draw, and a 9k in the women’s.
The men’s field features a host of top-50 stars, headlined by World No.15 and two-time defending champion Nicolas Mueller.
Mueller lifted this trophy in 2021 and 2022, beating compatriot Dimitri Steinmann on both occasions, but the younger of the two Swiss players is not featuring this time around.
Patrick Rooney is the No.2 seed – looking to win the fifth PSA Tour title of his career – and is one two English players among the seeds, with George Parker the other.
Declan James is just outside the seeds as he continues his return from injury, while Martin Svec is the highest-ranked homegrown player on show.
In the women’s draw, Asia Harris will hope to go one better than she did in the Swiss Open last week, when she was a beaten finalist.
Harris is the No.2 seed, sitting only below Egypt’s Haya Ali, who has reached at least the semi-finals in seven of the eight tournaments she’s entered this year, with the Swiss Open the only exception.
You can watch the Czech Open live on the PSA Live Streaming YouTube channel from November 2nd-6th.
