Our final weekly preview of the year takes us right up to the New Year, with ten events taking place across the next twelve days, with tournaments from Canada to Hong Kong in that period.
There are five tournaments taking place before Christmas, with then a further five events in the week between Christmas and the New Year, with the action coming to a conclusion in Pakistan on New Year’s Eve.
Here’s what is coming up on the Challenger Tour over the next twelve days.
Hong Kong Football Club Christmas PSA
The first of four tournaments beginning on Monday 20 December will be a domestically restricted Challenger 5 level tournament, the Hong Kong Football Club Christmas PSA.
Chi Him Wong and Cheng Nga Ching will be the top seeds for the event, which runs for four days at the Hong Kong Football Club. Harley Lam who secured his maiden Tour title last month, will also be in action.
QSF 3
The first of two events to be held at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex over the coming twelve days will be the QSF 3, which begins on Monday 20 December.
The Challenger 10 level men’s tournament will feature players from nine nations, the majority of which are in the Middle East, Egypt and India. Egypt’s Yahya Elnawasany and Mazen Gamal will be the top two seeds, with Qatari No.2 Syed Azlan Amjad as the leading home hope.
RFES Spanish Open Ciudad de Palencia
One of three European events taking place over the Christmas period will be the Challenger 10 level RFES Spanish Open Ciudad de Palencia, which also begins on Monday 20, and runs through to Thursday 23 December.
Spanish No.1 Iker Pajares Bernabeu will be the top seed for the regionally restricted event on home soil, with France’s Benjamin Aubert and Scotland’s Rory Stewart, also members of the world’s top 100, in action.
Cricket Club 10k
The last of those four events starting on Monday 20 December will be the Cricket Club 10k, with the Challenger 10 level tournament taking place at Toronto Cricket Club in Canada.
The event is regionally restricted, but all bar three players in the draw hail from Canada. The Canadian big four, in David Baillargeon, Shawn DeLierre, Michael McCue and Nick Sachvie, will be the top four seeds.
Punjab International Open
The Punjab International Open will be the first of two tournaments to take place at the Punjab Squash Complex in Lahore over the next two weeks, and the Challenger 10 level event will be domestically restricted due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Tayyab Aslam will be the tournament’…….