World’s best players prepare to clash in Hong Kong at team squash championships
Men’s and women’s tournaments will be held alongside each other for the first time, week following the Hong Kong Squash Open
The world’s best squash players will descend on Hong Kong next month for men’s and women’s team world championships, with organisers expecting almost all of the top 20 to take part.
Headlined by world No 1 men’s and women’s players Ali Farag and Nour El Sherbini, both Egyptians, seven and nine of the men’s and women’s top 10 players will lead their respective nations at the tournaments, which are taking place alongside each other for the first time.
In total, some 49 teams – 26 men’s and 23 women’s – are scheduled to take part in the World Squash Federation competition, which runs from December 9 to 15. Hong Kong has entered teams in both categories, where they will take on the likes of Egypt, England and Malaysia.
The Hong Kong women’s team, who twice finished third in 2016 and 2018, have been drawn in Group F alongside Australia, South Africa and Finland, while the men’s team, whose best results came in 2017 with a tied third-placed finish alongside Australia, are in Group H with Pakistan, Peru and Italy. Each tie will consist of three singles matches.
Pakistan, however, are still waiting for visas, and so could miss the tournament at Hong Kong Football Club.
“As of now, they have yet to pull out of the tournament,” Dick Lau Siu-wai, interim director of squash, said. “But there was no precedence so we have no idea if it will be a bye for the teams in the group, or there will be a replacement team [in case the Pakistanis pulled out].”
