China Squash Open Kicks Off Tonight

New Zealand’s top squash players are in action this evening at the J.P. Morgan China Squash Open in Shanghai with both Paul Coll and Joelle King having tough draws first up.

It’s the first big PSA tournament since Paul Coll and Joelle King were part of the successful New Zealand team at the World Doubles Championships in Manchester earlier this month.

The China Open has US$100,000 prizemoney in each of the men’s and women’s draws and has the majority of top players in the world taking part.

Coll currently ranked 12 in the world and seeded sixth for the tournament has drawn Zahed Mohamed of Egypt who is ranked 22 in the world in the first round with a potential quarter-final clash against fourth seed and world No.10 Fares Dessouky also from Egypt. The men’s top seed is Egyptian world No.5 Ali Farag

In the women’s draw King ranked 12 in the world takes on English third seed Laura Massaro who is ranked eight places higher than the Kiwi. The pair have played three times in the last year with Massaro winning on all occasions including in the China Open semifinals in 2016, plus the world champs earlier this year.

Campbell Grayson was knocked out in the first round of qualifying losing 3-1 to Omar Mosaad. 

The tournament runs until Sunday night and results can be found on the tournament site here.