World’s Best Players to Descend on Manchester in April
The second PSA World Tour event of 2021 will see the world’s best male and female squash players head to Manchester’s National Squash Centre between 19th and 25th April to compete for the Manchester Open, PSA Silver titles.
32 men and 32 women will go head-to-head in the first PSA World Tour event to take place in Europe since the 2020 edition of the Manchester Open last September. Men’s World #2 Mohamed ElShorbagy and women’s World #4 Nour El Tayeb – who announced her pregnancy in December – took the titles on that occasion.
Delivered in partnership with Manchester City Council, the Manchester Open will feature a prize purse of $170,000 which will be split equally across the men’s and women’s draws.
“We are delighted to confirm that Manchester will host our second PSA World Tour event of 2021, said PSA Chief Executive Alex Gough.
“I’d like to thank Manchester City Council for their support in enabling us to put on this tournament, which initially marked the return of the PSA World Tour back in September when we held the 2020 edition following a six-month hiatus due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“This news follows our announcement earlier this month that March’s CIB PSA Black Ball Squash Open will kickstart our schedule for 2021, and I look forward to sharing our full calendar for the rest of the 2020-21 season shortly.”
Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Skills, Culture and Leisure, Councillor Luthfur Rahman OBE, said:
“As a world-leading sporting city, Manchester is looking forward to hosting the Manchester Open, in line with all essential COVID-safety protocols and government guidelines. Supporting the world’s best squash players within the safest possible environment is our priority and we look forward to working with the PSA to ensure the success of this prestigious event.”
Action from the Manchester Open will be shown live worldwide on SQUASHTV as well as on the PSA Facebook page (excluding Europe and Japan). The semi-finals and finals will also be shown live on the channels of contracted broadcast partners.
The Manchester Open will be held in accordance with strict COVID-19 protocols. All players and staff will operate in a bubble environment and are required to provide a negative PCR-RT COVID-19 test prior to travelling to the tournament and a subsequent negative test upon arrival.