5 good reasons to attend
You were thousands of people having a blast in the stands at the Palais de Tokyo during the Paris Squash 2023. The second edition, which will take place from September 15 to 21 at the Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione, promises to be amazing, here are 5 good reasons not to miss it!
1 – ALL THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE WORLD WILL BE THERE
A sporting event is a puzzle and its success depends on putting all of its pieces together, but the players are the number one asset. As far as the Paris Squash 2024 goes, we are talking about the 64 top athletes who will be in the French capital from September 15. With the Platinum tournaments new format – 32-player draws with 8 seeds – no more warmup, we could have two top 10 players going head-to-head on the first day! With the exception of Mostafa Asal, who was banned at the time but still spotted in the stands, la crème de la crème was on the court at the Palais de Tokyo in 2023 and should be at the Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione again. “I love Parisian life and the crowd was amazing,” said Ali Farag after his win last year. It was the starting point of an extraordinary season for the world No. 1, who made the final in 13 of the 14 tournaments he played. However, his supremacy was challenged at the end of the season by new world champion Diego Elias as well as British Open winner Mostafa Asal. If you add Paul Coll, you have a quartet that left the others nothing but scraps in 2023-24, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them play a leading role at the Cirque d’Hiver.
Winners of the first édition of the Paris Squash in 2023, Egypt’s Ali Farag and Nour El Sherbini will try and retain their title in September (Photo credit: Paris Squash Project)
Winner of the 1st edition of the Paris Squash, Nour El Sherbini is still number 1 in the world but was beaten in the final of the last 4 tournaments by her rival Nouran Gohar! There is no doubt that Grégory Gaultier’s protégé will want to turn the tables, but the “Terminator” was absolutely brilliant at the end of the season and will try and carry the momentum forward. Since Amanda Sobhy’s injury, Hania El Hammamy has been the only player capable of troubling the Big 2 at major tournaments. Matches between her and Gohar are usually exceptional in their intensity, and we can only hope to watch another episode of this saga in a few weeks.
2 - SQUASH FROM A NEW ANGLE AT THE CIRQUE D’HIVER-BOUGLIONE
In last week's column, we took you through the twists and turns of the Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione. As we all know, one of the main advantages of squash is the possibility to set up a glass court in various places. After the Palais de Tokyo in 2023, the Paris Squash Project members changed their mindset to choose an indoor venue, which had already hosted squash in the 80s and 90s. It is a place filled with history, both recent and more distant, and a perfect match to the will of mixing culture and sport. There are other advantages, such as better hosting for the spectators, but above all a 360 degree view of the glass court, a unique feature on the PSA World Tour. “This year we will have height, and that changes everything,” recenly said tournament director Philippe Signoret to the French website Sports Marketing, explaining that they will be releasing 3D images to encourage people to buy seats in other locations than the conventional ones. In other words, the Paris Squash 2024 will be an opportunity to discover squash from new angles!
Thanks to the 360-degree seating plan at Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione, the crowd is going to discover squash in unusual angles (Photo credit: Paris Squash Project)
3 – COME AND SUPPORT FRENCH PLAYERS!
The excitement around a sporting event, whether it’s the crowd’s or the media’s, tends to grow when athletes from the host nation shine. Last year, Victor Crouin’s run to the quarterfinal was one of the week’s highlights. But the Toulon-born no longer belongs to the world top 8 and will have as much risk to get a tough draw in Paris as the other French contenders: Baptiste Masotti, Grégoire Marche, Sébastien Bonmalais, Mélissa Alves, Auguste Dussourd (provided that his ranking allows him to make the main draw), as well as youngsters Melvil Scianimanico and Lauren Baltayan who received a wildcard from the organizers. Two spots are remaining, and they will awarded after the qualifying tournaments from the 11th to the 13th of September. If she plays at the same level than in the French League playoffs in mid-June, Camille Serme should grab one of them and make her big comeback on the PSA World Tour. For her, as for the other French players, the draw will be crucial as far as their ambitions go.
In 2023, Ali Farag (on the right) ended Victor Crouin’s run in the quarters (Photo credit: PSA World Tour)
4 – ONE OF THE RARE MAJOR TOURNAMENTS OF THE YEAR IN EUROPE
In recent times, there has been an undeniable willingness to organize PSA tournaments from French promoters, and there were 9 Challenger Tour events in France in 2023-24 - with the prize money going as high as $30,000 in Lagord. Having said that, Platinum events – as well as Diamond ones as of next season - are the showcase of our sport, and nowadays most of them are held in the United States, Egypt as well as Asia for a couple of them, Qatar and Hong Kong. The Internationaux de France are one of the two majors on the so-called Old Continent, and the only one before the British Open which will only take place in June 2025. If you live in Europe and want to watch the best players in the world live without increasing your carbon footprint, it’s time to get tickets!
Hania El Hammamy and Nouran Gohar rivalry may be the more exciting one on the tour at the moment, and the Parisian crowd may be treated with another of their showdowns at the Cirque d’Hiver (Photo credit: PSA World Tour)
5 – COME AND DISCOVER A FUTURE OLYMPIC SPORT
This summer, sport will be at the forefront everywhere, whether it’s in Paris, France and the whole world, with the Olympic Games from July 26 to August 11, and then the Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 11. A few days later, the Paris Squash 2024 will be an opportunity to discover a sport that is not Olympic yet but is about to be. Along cricket, baseball/softball, flag football and lacrosse, squash will be one of the five additional sports in Los Angeles in 2028. “Squash is about to be an Olympic sport and its importance is going to increase from 2025,” says Philippe Signoret, also on Sports Marketing, and as a result the tournament could be a real launching platform. Qualifying criteria for the Olympics are yet to be unveiled, but the event is already in the athletes’ minds, whether they are in their thirties and looking to extend their career - or even come out of retirement for Camille Serme - or to put extra effort in training for the youngsters. These are speculations for now, but the Platinum tournaments new structure, with 32-player draws instead of 48 previously, may be an indication of what the future Olympic format could be for squash.
Squash will be one of the 5 additional sports at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (Photo credit: Olympics)
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