The PSA World Tour Finals would head back to the United States for the first time in a decade when Bellevue, Washington hosts the season-ending tournament from June 18 to 22.
The PSA World Tour Finals was the final event of the 2023-24 season and includes both a men’s and women’s tournament featuring eight players each, bringing together all Platinum title winners as well as the reigning PSA World Champions, said a press release.
Any remaining places were allocated to the highest-ranked players on the PSA World Tour Finals Leaderboard, with points on offer at all PSA World Tour events during the season.
A round-robin, best-of-three games format was used in the group stage, with the top two from each group qualifying for the knockout semi-finals. The finals revert to the traditional best-of-five games format used in the majority of regular PSA World Tour events.
Bellevue will host the showpiece tournament for the first time, while it will become the first US city to stage the PSA World Tour Finals since Richmond, Virginia in 2014.
Bellevue also hosted the men’s 2015 PSA World Championships, which was the first time the World Championships had taken place in the United States.
Only two spots in both the men’s and women’s PSA World Tour Finals draws have been decided, with Egyptian trio Ali Farag, Nour El Sherbini and Hania El Hammamy guaranteed their spots in Bellevue alongside New Zealand’s Paul Coll following their Platinum title wins earlier this season.
There were just five tournaments left before the PSA World Tour Finals commenced, with the winners of the upcoming El Gouna International Squash Open, PSA World Championships and the British Open all qualifying automatically. Points were also on offer at both the Manchester Open and QSF 3 event, meaning the battle for qualification is set to go right down to the wire.—APP