Scottish Circuit Event Preview: Richards Seeing Improvements

The Scottish Circuit Event is the first of five tournaments on the Challenger Tour this week, with 16 players in action over the next few days at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Challenger 5 level tournament features only Scottish-based players, with all 16 men in action representing Scotland.

World No.91 Rory Stewart, who is currently at his highest ever World Rankings, will be the top seed for the tournament, with Fergus Richards as the No.2 seed for this event.

We spoke to the World No.286 ahead of the tournament, and the 25-year-old is seeing improvements in his game, thanks to some back-to-back weeks on Tour.

“I’m really happy with my game at the moment. I feel that although COVID has been hugely frustrating, I’ve been able to make some really good improvements to my game and now feel ready to translate that into results in tournaments,” the Scot explained.

“I was very lucky to be able to train well for the majority of the time at Oriam with Scottish Squash and also the Scottish Institute of Sports help. Also I have great sponsors in Unsquashable and Springfield backing me, and thankfully they have stuck by me during this difficult time.

“I was very happy to be able to transfer some of the form I’ve shown in training into competition. I felt like I haven’t managed to consistently produce my form in training in matches since events have started so I’m pleased to have done that and hopefully I can carry that form and momentum with me into the next event next week.”

He is hoping that his good form can continue and see him rise up the rankings. After spending four years at university in England, Richards is looking for some positive results over the next few months.

“I was a little bit late to tour as I went to university in Loughborough for four years before committing to full time squash. So hopefully over the coming months I will get some more events on my ranking and hopefully some positive results will push me up the rankings.”

The event takes place from Monday 16 to Wednesday 18 August at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Follow the PSA Challenger Tour on Twitter and Facebook for daily updates from the event.

First Round Draw: Scottish Circuit Event
[1] Rory Stewart (SCO) v Douglas Kempsell (SCO)
Daniel O’Sullivan (SCO) v [8] James Singh (SCO)
[6] John Meehan (SCO) v Jamie Henderson (SCO)
Rory Richmond (SCO) v [3] Alasdair Prott (SCO)
[4] Chris Leiper (SCO) v James Taylor (SCO)
Kyle Penman (SCO) v [7] Andrew Glen (SCO)
[5] Martin Ross (SCO) v Adam Hunter (SCO)
Fraser Steven (SCO) v [2] Fergus Richards (SCO)