Canada victories see Cornett and Khan qualify for World Championships

Canada’s Samantha Cornett and Pakistan’s Shahjahan Khan have booked their places at the PSA World Championships following their victories at the Alliance Fabricating Ltd. Simon Warder Memorial Prostate Cancer Open.

Qualification for February’s World Championships was one of the rewards for Cornett and Khan who will be joined in Chicago by Egypt’s Menna Hammed and Youssef Ibrahim after their respective wins at the PWC Open in Frick, Switzerland and the Romanian Open.

Top seed Cornett followed up her triumph at the JC Women’s Open to defeat England’s Lucy Turmel in straight games in the PSA Challenger Tour event in Sarnai, Canada, to qualify for Chicago.

Although Turmel turned in a gutsy performance she could not combat the Canadian’s precision as the home favourite ran out the winner 11-5, 11-6, 11-7.

Khan, the number four seed, found the going tougher in the men’s event as he was forced to dig deep to defeat Finland’s Henrik Mustonen 11-6, 9-11, 3-11, 11-3, 7-11 in 47 minutes.

Second seed Hamed, the 20-year-old Egyptian, was on top form to claim The 2nd PWC Open in Switzerland, defeating unseeded surprise package Lily Taylor, from England, 11-8, 5-11, 11-3, 11-7 in 41 minutes.

She will be joined in Chicago by Romanian Open victor Ibrahim who beat top seed Bernat Jaume, from Spain, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6 in the final in Cluj.

Following the announcement of the new PSA structure at the beginning of April, the 2018/19 PSA World Championships – which will become the first tournament in professional squash to offer a prize purse of $1 million – will be held in February with a 64-player draw.