Challenger Tour Weekly Preview: Zakaria and Aslam in Karachi Draw, Dowling Heads to Darwin

There are four events on the Challenger Tour this week, headlined by the 20k 16th CNS International Squash in the Pakistani city of Karachi. 

Read on below for our preview of all four events. 

Kiva Club Open 2024 

Kicking off the week is the Kiva Club Open in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a men’s 6k event featuring a pair of talented young Pakistani players who train with Jahanzeb Khan in Houston. 

19-year-old Muhammad Ashab Irfan is the No.1 seed, looking to claim a second PSA Tour title following his victory at the Rochester ProAm less than two weeks ago, his maiden trophy on the Challenger Tour. 

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Muhammad Huzaifa Ibrahim makes his first appearance on the PSA Tour since playing as a wildcard at the Gold-level HSC Houston Men’s Squash Open, when he gave a good account for himself against Timothy Brownell. 

The pair have been drawn in the same quarter of the draw, meaning they will face off in the quarter-finals should they both win in round two. 

Canada’s Connor Turk and Colombia’s Ronald Palomino are the No.2 and 3 seeds respectively, with Turk looking to reach his first PSA Tour final, while Palomino is seeking a third title of the season. 

16th CNS International Squash 2024 

24 hours later and more than 8,000 miles away, the 16th CNS International Squash begins, with home favourites Muhammad Asim Khan and Tayyab Aslam the top two seeds. 

Aslam is playing his first Challenger Tour event since 2022, having made his return to the World Tour level earlier this year after missing all of 2023 with an ACL injury. 

His second-round opponent will be either the Netherlands’ Sebastiaan Hofman or Hong Kong’s Wong Chi Him, while Asim Khan will face the winner of the all-Malaysian clash between Ong Sai Hung and Hafiz Zhafri. 

Mohamad Zakaria is also among the seeds, and is actually the highest-ranked player in the draw at No.70, after his run to the Cannon Kirk Gillen Markets Irish Open less than two weeks ago. 

He will now look to go one better than that result, with No.7 seed Noor Zaman the other seeded player in his quarter of the draw. 

Elsewhere in the draw, Perry Malik and Darren Pragasam are on a collision course for what could be an entertaining second-round clash, should the Malaysian beat wildcard Nasir Iqbal. 

Bendigo Bank NT Open 2024 

For the second week in a row, there’s a Challenger Tour event on Australian soil, this time in the upper reaches of the Northern Territory, as the Darwin Squash Centre hosts the Bendigo Bank NT Open. 

Perhaps surprisingly, there are only two Australian players among the top eight seeds, though top seed Rhys Dowling will start the event as the overwhelming final. 

Dowling, the World No.137, is the only player in the draw that is currently inside the top 200, and is targeting a second successive Challenger Tour crown after winning the Logan City Queensland Open in the first half of this season. 

Japanese pair Shota Yasunari and Naoki Hayashi are the second and third seeds, with Hong Kong’s Wilson Chan at No.4. 

The Poona Club LTD Open Squash Tournament 2024 

Ravindu Laksiri will hope to make it third-time lucky at on Indian soil, as he enters as the men’s No.1 seed at The Poona Club LTD Open Squash Tournament. 

The Sri Lankan has lost 3-2 in the final of his last two Challenger Tour events, both in India, but returns once again to try and get over the final hurdle this time around. 

He does, however, enter the competition knowing that his conqueror in the most recent of those finals – Suraj Kumar Chand – is once again the No.2 seed here, just as he was when he beat Laksiri to the title in Delhi a fortnight ago. 

Fellow Sri Lankan players Shamil Wakeel and Nevindu Lakman are the No.3 and 4 seeds, while seventh seed Tuwin Nilakshana Herath – also from Sri Lanka – is the only other player not from India. 

In the women’s draw, 20 of the 24 players will be playing on home soil, led by the top two seeds Urwashi Joshi and Sunita Patel. 

Neither player has ever won a Challenger Tour event, though Patel did reach the final of the JSW 9th Sunil Verma Memorial Open at the end of last year, where she was beaten Pooja Arthi Raghu, the 19-year-old who is the No.7 seed here. 

You can stay up to date with all the results on the PSA Challenger Tour throughout the week here.