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The Nash Cup is a professional level squash tournament that has players from all around the world participate in it. It is held every year since 2008 in London, Ontario. The organizer of the tournament Jay Nash took over back in 2008 and has helped the event grow ever since from not event being a professional event to a professional challenger tournament and now a professional tournament that is part of the PSA world tour.
“The reason in part was to involve the Western players, to teach them that they have more to learn.” Says Nash. “Their coach back then was Jack Fairs, he passed away a couple of years ago now.” he added.
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However Western University students and alumni will have the chance to take part in a different tournament this year. The Jack Fair Open is a tournament being held in Chatham and Sarnia, with the great final taking place in London. It is the first time this tournament is being held alongside the Nash Cup as a sort of sister tournament. The event is to honour the late squash coach Jack Fairs.
The 2024 Nash Cup has officially joined the Professional Squash Association world tour. This means that it is considered a professional tournament at a Copper level which increases the points and prize money for each player. This could help the athletes with their world ranking which might contribute to qualification for the Olympics. Since in October 2023 the Olympics announced that Squash will be considered an Olympic sport for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Professionals can use the PSA world tour tournaments to qualify to the Olympic games.
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Professional Canadian squash player Iman Shaheen participated in this years Nash Cup that took place at the London Squash Club.
“I think this is one of Canada’s like bigger tournaments now too and its a tournament quite a few people a starting to know as well so.” Says Shaheen “I think for Squash Canada as a whole the Nash Cup is quite important.” Shaheen continues.
With the growth of the sport around the world and specially in Canada, The Nash Cup is getting more and more traction. Having a bigger prize pot has helped the event reach professional athletes from around the world. Like Sanjay Jeeva who represents Malaysia in the tournament.
“If anyone asks about the Nash Cup, I would always be like yeah that’s a tournament you should definitely go to. Like I definitely recommend. Doesn’t matter where you’re from as you can see there is.” Says Jeeva.
“We have 21 or maybe more countries that are participating in this event so far and it’s been going on for many years and it’s just been upping in level and prize money.” Jeeva added.
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“Yeah but, I would definitely recommend and say like it’s not just for squash you get more than just squash in this event which I think is a good thing.” Jeeva stated
Many flooded to watch the final games of both the Nash Cup and the Jack Fairs Open. First up were the finals to the Nash Cup’s sister tournament the Jack Fair Open. Brett Schille from Calgary, Alberta was up against Connor Turk from Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was a close match at the start after Turk took game one 11-9, but after that Western University alumni Brett Schille dominated the rest of the match winning his three next games by at least a four-point difference.
After this came the 2024 Nash Cup women’s final. Where two Englishwomen would be facing off for the trophy. Katie Malliff seeded third was up against eighth seeded Torrie Malik. The match was a tight one being decided in the final game five. Malik won game one, but short after Malliff responded with a win in game two. Game three was a long one where Malik took the lead of the match winning the game 14-12. However, Malliff bounced back taking game four and five to win it all.
Finally, the 2024 Nash Cup men’s final saw Mohamad Zakaria from Egypt go up against Curtis Malik from England. Malik had taken a confident lead winning game one and two, but Zakaria pulled one of the hardest comebacks in sport history. He won games three and four and then comfortably claimed his trophy in game five after the game finished with a score of 11-1 in his favour. Zakaria was able to score 9 points in a row to pull off the full comeback at the end.
(Daniel Hernandez/XFM)
The Nash Cup could be the first professional squash tournament that takes place after the 2028 Olympics. The Canadian participants of this event prepare to be the first in history to represent Canada at the world stage in Squash. You can find more information about the Nash Cup in their website. If you missed the action packed squash week then you could also find all of the matches live recorded and commentated on YouTube.
