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Alex Gough
 On
behalf of The Professional Squash Association I am delighted to
welcome you to the Saudi International Squash Tournament 2009.
Amazingly we are already in the fifth year of this fantastic
event. The PSA players are very lucky to have an event such as
this where they are treated so well and I am sure this is why
there have been so many amazing matches in this event over the
last few years.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can be very proud of the main reason
why we are all here this week and why we are playing the biggest
event on the squash calendar. It is because of one man, Ziad
Al-Turki. His passion for the game of squash and his passion for
squash’s future success are unwavering and relentless and will,
I am sure, be the major catalyst behind us all achieving our
goals.
Thank you again to Sunset Beach for their fantastic hospitality
and last but certainly not least, we are all extremely grateful
to Emad Zirky who keeps the whole event team running like
clockwork.
Good luck to everyone involved and I hope you enjoy another
fantastic ATCO Saudi International Squash tournament.
CEO, Professional Squash Association |
Robert
Edwards
 When
I first met Ziad Al-Turki in his offices in London during 2005,
I knew straight away that The Saudi International was going to
be a success story -but I had no idea of how BIG a success.
Ziad impressed me greatly in our meeting - his enthusiasm and
obvious professionalism shone through. Now four years down the
road there have been four mighty tournaments played in Al Khobar
and in 2008 it became the biggest professional squash tournament
ever played in the history of the game. What an amazing
achievement in just four short years.
For the last four years the international sports media have
attended the event and sent their reports – pictures and film of
the sports action worldwide. The colour and the hospitality of
Saudi Arabia have been highlighted & chronicled to millions of
viewers and readers in nearly every country in the world.
Mr. Ziad’s input has been simply extraordinary and our game is
proud to have him accept the appointment of Chairman of the PSA.
This success story is not ending it is simply beginning and will
continue to flourish.
All of the players rate this event as the number one Super
Series Tournament. A must for the top players who will all enter
and a goal for the lower ranked PSA members to improve their
world ranking so that they can be part of this special event. Of
the four events since we began in 2005 – no less than THREE have
decided who would be the world number one player – Jonathon
Power, Amr Shabana and Karim Darwish – have all done the double
and become the Saudi International Champion and the World’s No 1
player.
The Saudi International has become a beacon of sporting
excellence and this year will see that beacon once again light
up the skies over Al Khobar as the Saudi International 2009 gets
under way in December – the penultimate event before the World
Open showcases in Saudi Arabia in 2010 – who would have
thought!!!!
Join us again as we continue to raise the standards of sporting
presentation – you know that the best of the best will be
fighting it out for the ultimate Super Series title…………Champion
of The Saudi International Squash Tournament 2009.
Tournament Director |
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In
2005 when we launched the first Saudi International Squash
Tournament none of us involved dreamed of reaching the level of
success this tournament has achieved in such a short span of
time. We were merely eager to bring the sport we loved to the
country we loved.
We
began to see the fruits of our labour last year, when for the
first time Saudi Arabia had a top three finish in the Arab
League Championships, taking second place overall, and also
taking second place in the GCC Finals.
