Sports | Top squash players to compete in town

Up to 24 world-ranked squash players from around the globe will compete against each other to improve their ranking in the Macau Squash Open, to be played next week in a glass court that will be installed downtown.
The annual championship, inclusive of both a men’s and a women’s division and slated to run from Sept 15 to 20, will be recognized by the Professional Squash Association (PSA) as a four-star tournament. The organizer, the Macau Squash Association, also deployed five local sportsmen for the contest, consisting of qualifiers on Sept 15 and 16, the main draw between Sept 17 and 18, semi-finals on the following day and the final on Sept 20.
The champions of last year’s event, Omar Mosaad (world ranking: 6), Tarek Momen (world ranking: 10) and Malaysian female professional squash player Nicol David (world ranking: 2), will return to the arena together with three other players from the world’s top ten seeds.
Local sister-and-brother duo Ivy Liu (world ranking: 108) and Steven Liu (world ranking: 208), who made an appearance alongside three of their fellow players in a media briefing yesterday afternoon, told the media how they could not wait to take to the squash court.
Liu, in his early twenties having dabbled in the sport for at least 13 years, expressed his desire to achieve more in the six-day competition than he did last year, in a “learning manner.”
Asked for suggestions of what the government could do to encourage the squash scene, he said that the shortage of venues in the region has caused conflict between sportsmen and amateur squash players. “I think the government should develop more venues for squash as there’s always a strain,” he said.
Currently, government-owned squash facilities are located inside the Vitoria Sports Centre, Taipa Northeast Sports Centre and Bowling Centre.
According to the game’s regulations, squash players ranked in the world’s top 11 will go straight into the main draw of 16 players. Domestic players could also be included in the draw as wildcards.
The first half of the tournament will take place in the Bowling Center in Cotai, with the rest being held at the glass court in Amizade Square. The organizer will also hold a carnival on Sept 19 and 20 to mark the launch of what is considered a major event for domestic squash players, with free entry for local citizens. Aries Un