Women’s $6k Men’s $3k PSA Challengers, 04-08 Feb, Springfield, USA
Lowri Roberts and Omar Azzam claimed glory on finals day at the Bee Squash Expression Open 2026, beating Akaisha Bhatia and Abdelrehman Nassar respectively at The St. James in Springfield, Virginia.
Welsh No.2 Roberts was the No.2 seed and opened the week by beating the USA’s Mariam Masud in just 15 minutes.
Four-game wins over Savannah Moxham and Charlotte Sze followed, setting her up for a showdown with 16-year-old Bhatia in the final.
Bhatia was playing in just her eighth Challenger event but had never won a match on Tour before this week, losing in round one of her previous seven.
But having broken that streak with a round-one win over Willa Haberl, she went on to defeat Busy Olatunji and Kenny Abou Eleven before recording a stunning victory over top seed Laila Sedky in the semi-finals.
That left her within one win of glory, but that win would prove to be a step too far, as Roberts made her experience count, closing out a 3-0 victory, 11-6, 11-6, 11-5, to secure the biggest title of her career so far.
That was followed by victory in the men’s event for Egypt’s Azzam, his first title on the PSA Tour.
The 20-year-old – a junior at Harvard who has a win over Nicolas Mueller on his record – was unseeded for the event, but booked his spot in the final with a win over Maddox Moxham in the semi-finals.
He then went head-to-head with fellow Egyptian Nassar and came out on top after just under an hour, winning 11-7, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6 to get his hands on his first piece of PSA Tour silverware.
