Jamaica Invitational squash tourney on court at Liguanea Club

The Jamaica Squash Association rearranged its competition calendar while introducing a new event to replace its signature end-of-year competition - the All Jamaica squash tournament, which would normally be held at this time of year. The new event is the Inaugural Jamaica Invitational squash tournament, which began Wednesday night with all matches playing at the Liguanea Club in Kingston. An important feature of the new event is the introduction of two overseas players in the local competition.

The new competition will see six female players and 12 male players on the court during the four-day competition which ends tomorrow. The females will play on a round-robin basis while the males will play on a knockout basis. Additionally, the players will compete to determine all place positions, so that the players get as many matches as possible.

Karen Anderson, president of the Jamaica Squash Association, outlined the reasons for the new competition.

“This is our first year of having the Jamaica Invitational. In the past, we would have All Jamaica usually during this week, but we wanted to move All Jamaica to March of every year, because it gives us a better indicator of where our athletes are closer to the events that they will be playing, which are usually in the summer. Not ideal but it is better than what it is, knowing that they are nine months out from a tournament. Our trials, which were usually held in March, we flip-flopped them. We wanted it to have a different feel and a different flair to it, so we rebranded it as the Jamaica Invitational and invited some overseas players for the event. We are looking forward to the competition. Tonight (Wednesday), it started very well and we expect that it will continue to grow as people see what’s happening with the tournament.”

Results from Wednesday’s first night of competition:

Women’s draw

Number one seed Mehar Trehan defeated Priya Stoddart 11-5, 11-1, 11-2.

Number two seed Sanjana Nallapati beat Kerry-Gray Wright 11-7, 11-5, 11-5.

Number three seed Tracey Binnie got the better of Elle Wilson 11-1, 11-4, 11-7.

Men’s draw

Number six seed Tobias Levy defeated Andre Wright 11-5, 11-6, 11-4.

Number four seed Stephan Morrison defeated Mario O’Connor 11-7, 11-6, 11-7.

Number eight seed Fitzroy Smith defeated Adam Lee 11-9, 11-5, 3-11, 11-6.

Number five seed Jonathan Hope of The Bahamas defeated Elthan Miller 11-3, 11-2, 11-3.

Number Three seed Jerazeno Bell defeated Allan Roper 11-6, 11-8, 11-6.