Professional Squash Association

Professional Squash Association

Sport	Professional Squash
Jurisdiction	International
Abbreviation	PSA
Founded	1975 (1975)
Location	Leeds, England, United Kingdom
President	Saurav Ghosal (Men) Sarah-Jane Perry (Women)
Chairman	Ziad Al-Turki (ATCO)
CEO	Alex Gough
Director	Ahmad Bassam Ashley Bernhard Claudia Schurmann Daryl Selby John Nimick Mike Puertas
Other key staff	Lee Beachill (Chief Operations Officer) Tommy Berden (Chief Commercial Officer) Lee Drew (Refereeing Director) Andy Malley (Tour Development)
Sponsor	Dunlop, Salming, ASB Squash Courts
Official website
www.psaworldtour.com
Current World Tour

Squash
World Championship Professional Squash Association PSA World Tour Finals PSA World Tour PSA Challenger Tour WSF & PSA Satellite Tour No PSA Rankings (WSF) World Team Championships World Games World Junior Championships World University World Masters

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) is the governing body for the men's and women's professional squash circuit. The body operates in a similar fashion to the ATP and the WTA for tennis. The PSA's highest professional level, the PSA World Tour involves over 250 tournaments annually around the world. Over 1200 players from all the 5 continents (over 60 countries represented ^[1][2]) are registered with the PSA and rankings are updated monthly based on players' performances.

PSA tours

There are hundreds of PSA tournaments throughout the course of a season, and they are classified into the following categories, based on prize money:

• World Tour (The most important tournaments in prize money for more experienced and higher-ranked players, including the World Championship and PSA World Tour Finals).
• Challenger Tour (Challenger tournaments are entry point for young and or up and coming professionals progressing through to a more international level of competition). Tournaments start with a total of $3,000:
• Satellite Tour (Closed Satellite tournaments can either be National Closed Championships or a tournament/series of tournaments whose entry is restricted to members of an association that promotes the tournament).

PSA World Tour

PSA World Tour (formerly PSA World Series) comprises the most important tournaments in prize money for more experienced and higher-ranked players, including PSA World Championships and PSA World Tour Finals, labelled as following:

• PSA World Tour Platinum — 48-player draws — $165,000
• PSA World Tour Gold — 24-player draws — $97,500–$100,000
• PSA World Tour Silver — 24-player draws — $67,500–$70,000
• PSA World Tour Bronze — 24-player draws — $45,000–$47,500

Every year, the top eight performers compete in the PSA World Tour Finals. The eight players are separated into two groups of four, and play a round robin. The top two from each group advance to the semifinals (A1 vs. B2 and B1 vs. A2). The winner of the event is crowned PSA World Tour champion.^[3]

PSA Challenger Tour

PSA Challenger Tour tournaments offer a $3,000–$30,000 prize-money, ideal circuit for less-experienced and upcoming players, that include the following tiers:

• PSA Challenger 30 — $30,000
• PSA Challenger 20 — $20,000
• PSA Challenger 15 — $15,000 (starting August 2023)
• PSA Challenger 12 — $12,000
• PSA Challenger 9 — $9,000 (starting August 2023)
• PSA Challenger 6 — $6,000
• PSA Challenger 3 — $3,000 (starting August 2020)

Satellite tour

Satellite tournaments can either be Regional or National Closed Championships or a tournament/series of tournaments whose entry is restricted to members of an association that promotes the tournament.

History

In January 2013, the PSA announced, along with U.S. Squash, the creation of a new tournament series called the US Pro Squash Series. This tournament series is used to support marketing activities for tournaments in the United States.^[4]

In November 2014, the WSA and the PSA announced a historic merger between the two associations.^[5] A decision was reached to designate the PSA operate as the governing body for both the women's and men's ranks from 1 January 2015.

On 7 December 2020 the PSA reached an agreement with Dunlop that extends Dunlop's tenure as the provider of official balls and official racquets for the PSA. The extension is three years.^[6]

World rankings

PSA publishes weekly rankings of professional players: PSA World Rankings (commonly known as the ‘World rankings’).

Current champions

Video game

Genre(s)Sport simulationMode(s)Single-player

A PSA-licensed video game titled PSA World Tour Squash 2015 has been developed and published by Alternative Software, and is released only in various European countries on 22 May 2015, exclusively for Nintendo's Wii console.^[9] The game features the likeness of several professional squash players such as Nick Matthew, Amr Shabana, Grégory Gaultier, Ramy Ashour, and many others, and takes place in many iconic, global squash courts. Players can compete in main World Tour, or set up their own tournaments with using custom player avatars and stats. The game also supports Wii MotionPlus, allowing users an enhanced, real-time squash motion control gameplay experience, (Official website) and is the last ever game for the console to do so.

See also

• PSA World Tour records
• Official Men's Squash World Ranking
• Official Women's Squash World Ranking
• World Squash Federation
• PSA Awards
• Women's Squash Association
• Squash TV

PSA World Tour Platinum events are a select group of high-profile squash tournaments easily recognised (they offer the largest prize money and attract the majority of the world's best players).

• World Championship (This is the ultimate tournament on the World Tour and to become World Champion is regarded the highest pinnacle of competitive achievement amongst PSA players. With a 64-person draw, this tournament is the most physically and mentally challenging of the season).

References

External links

• Official PSA Website
• PSA World Rankings