06 January,2011 08:22 AM IST | | Rohan Koli
Top international players from Malaysia and Egypt, including World No 37 Omar Abdel Aziz of Egypt in the men's category and Malaysia's World No 50 Suti Munirah Jusoh among the women will participate in the 100th squash tournament held by Indian Squash Professionals (ISP) under the aegis of the Squash Racquets Association of Maharashtra and scheduled to be played at the Khar and Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhanas from Feb 5-12.
However India's top men's player Sourav Ghosal and top two women players Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa, will not be part of the event given they are playing in the USA.
Gaurav Nandrajog, and Sidharth Suchde will lead the charge for India in the Squash Carnival that holds a collective winners' purse of Rs 11 lakh. The Women's open winner will take home Rs 75,000, with Rs 50,000 for the runner-up and the losing semi-finalists Rs 20,000 each.
Mahendra Agarwal, founder president of ISP, is fully focussed on his endeavour to raise the standard of the squash in the country. "We held such tournaments at least six times a year and the reason behind having it is to raise the standard of squash played in India. We want more and more children and youth of the country to play squash, and that's the reason this time we are introducing the U-7 age group category for boys and girls along with the existing U-9, U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 categories," said Agarwal.
