PSA’s Andy Whipp guides you through all the levels of PSA Tournaments, and how we describe them on SquashSite …
Current Events / Coming Up / Just Finished
On the right-hand side of this website, under ‘Current Events’ (and further down on Coming up and Just Finished) we see things like M9, W15, and MW120 …
but what do they mean ?
Here’s a (hopefully) simple explanation …
PSA Events Classifications
The PSA has three “tours” – they involve tournaments classified as World, Challenger or Satellite.
The World tournaments are the biggest ones, serving players generally with a world ranking of 1 – 70. Within this “World Tour” there are eight tournament types; each tournament ranked by their total prize-money on offer. The simple break down is :
| World Tour | Prize Fund | Challenger Tour | Prize Fund |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Championships | $700k | Challenger 18 | $18k |
| Tour Finals | $350k | Challenger 15 | $15k |
| Diamond | $350k | Challenger 12 | $12k |
| Platinum | $220k | Challenger 9 | $9k |
| Gold | $120k | Challenger 6 | $6k |
| Silver | $90k | Challenger 3 | $3k |
| Bronze | $60k | ||
| Copper | $30k |
Obviously we only have one World Championships each season, and one Tour Finals, which is the invitational event for the top eight performing men and women across the world tour that season.
We have two Diamond events – the Egyptian Open and The British Open.
The other levels all have many per season, as well as the “Satellite Tour” which has a minimum prize fund of $1,000 and a maximum of $2,999.
How SquashSite shows them
On “Current Events”, “Tournament Centre” and the Calendar, we don’t differentiate between the different Tours and Levels, we simply show the Prize Pot(s) and whether the tournament is for Men, Women or both (MW), Hence M9, W15, and MW120 on the current listing.
There is more detail on the Calendar
Breaking down the Prize Pots
Each amount is per discipline, ie. Men’s or women’s.
Gold, Platinum, Diamond, the Tour Finals and World Championships must all feature a men’s and women’s event. The other sizes of tournament can choose to have either gender, or both.
When an event has Men’s and Women’s draws the Prize Pot is for each of the draws, if they are different (not often) we quote both.
So some of the current ‘current events’ are :
Silicon Valley USA MW120 – Men and Women $120k Gold events in the USA
Venus ABC Open PAK MW30 – Men and Women $30k Copper events in Karachi
Chicago Open M18 – Men’s $18k Challenger in USA
Couzeix/Limoges FRA W15 – Women’s Challenger $15k in France
Joburg Open RSA M12W9 – Men’s $12k and Women’s $9k Challengers in South Africa.
Prize Pots and Ranking Points
The more prize money there is, the more PSA ranking points are on offer. For example, winning a Challenger 12 gives you slightly less ranking points than losing in the first round of a Platinum (round 17-32).
Appearing in round one (Last 16) of a Challenger 18 is almost the same as winning a Challenger 3.
Satellite tournaments are essential for PSA players starting out, and draws are filled with PSA and non-PSA players. They are a great way to get off the bottom of the world ranking list, acting as a ‘stepping-stone’ to enable a player to start getting into the main draw of Challenger 3’s.
Challenger tournaments are for players ranked around 350 in the world and upwards, with players up to 40 in the world tempted to play the highest Challenger 18 level.
World tournaments are often spectacular. They are the ones we see on SQUASHTV with multi-coloured glass courts on beaches, in shopping malls, theatres, or nestled between skyscrapers in a city’s financial district; these include our sports super-iconic venues like Grand Central Terminal in New York, the Hong Kong Waterfront, and of course, immediately outside the great pyramids of Egypt.
The Challenger Feel
I feel the “Challenger Tour” is the beating heart of our sport – as these tournaments are almost always in squash clubs. It brings phenomenal professional squash players onto local courts all over the world, while still allowing room to support that local player mixing it up on the professional circuit.
These tournaments feel accessible and you can get up close and personal to the action, pressing your nose against the back wall to truly immerse yourself into the match.
Watching squash this way truly gives you an appreciation of the power, skills, fitness and determination required to compete at this level. These tournaments feel real. Not many sports can offer this closeness to such elite athletes.
We do sometimes see Copper, Bronze and Silver tournaments played on club courts too, which is a real treat for their local members.
I hope this helps and next time you are on SquashSite and you see a new tournament on the right hand side, you’ll know exactly what it is!
Find out more
If you want to know more about PSA tournaments or are interested in hosting one, there is a team of experts who would love to help and guide you.
You can contact myself andy.whipp@psasquashtour.com, or the office Tour Team tour@psasquashtour.com
Andy Whipp
