Players jostle for ranking points at Lagos Prime Atlantic Squash Open
The second edition of the Prime Atlantic Squash Open commenced with great anticipation at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos on Tuesday.
Apart from the N2 million prize money, the tournament also presents a crucial opportunity for defending champions Onaopemipo Adegoke and Rofiat Abudulazeez to compete for valuable Professional Squash Association (PSA) ranking points.
Adegoke and Abudulazeez currently hold the top-ranking positions in the male and female categories, respectively, making their performances a focal point of interest in this prestigious event.
Adegoke, who won the maiden edition of the tournament in 2022, vowed to give his best and ensure he continued his winning streak and retain his title as well as shore up his PSA ranking.
“I hope I can repeat my 2022 performance again this year but I know it is not going to be easy because everybody is playing well.
“I’d like to applaud Lagos State for always putting together PSA ranking tournaments that help us increase our rankings.
“Winning cash prizes is good but for genuine development of squash, organising PSA certified tournaments is the ultimate,” he said.
In the opening matches of the U-16 category, Friday Daniel displayed his skills by defeating James Awotundun 3-0, while Umar Musa secured a 3-1 victory over Lanre Yusuf in a best-of-five games contest.
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Yusuf Ayomide delivered an impressive 3-0 win against David Opiye, and Timilehin Oladapo advanced with a walkover against Daniel Enaifoghe. Similarly, Emmanuel Itubo and Monday Bright both benefited from walkovers against their opponents, Ibrahim Abdulhameed and Okwomaro Sean.
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Sunkanmi Akere, the Vice Chairman of the Lagos State Squash Association (LSSA), who declared the tournament open, urged the players to maintain a high level of discipline and focus on improving their PSA rankings.
“This is what our players need to be at par with their foreign counterparts, to brush up their competitive skills,” he said.
Tomi Falase, LSSA’s chairman emphasised that the tournament would help the young players to showcase their talents as well as pick up ranking points.
“This is part of promoting squash as well as developing our players.
“We have been having tournaments back-to-back, we had the international classics through which we brought players from about nine countries; UK, France, Germany, India, amongst others.
“Our players have been able to showcase themselves, and we hope that this tournament will help them to shape up for major international tournaments as well as improve their ranking fortunes,” he said.
Falase applauded the management of Prime Atlantic for their support, while charging other corporate bodies and private individuals to key into sponsorship of sports to promote a sane society and give youths the platform to thrive.
