The world junior champion will be in action tonight when the country’s first professional squash tournament continues at the QPCC (Queen’s Park Cricket Club) Indoor Racquet Centre, Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair.
Rowan Damming and the other top seven players will begin their campaign after being in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) QPCC (Queen’s Park Cricket Club) tournament.
The 18-year-old from the Netherlands, who is ranked no. 1 in the world in juniors and #205 on the PSA Tour, is third on the six-day tour.
Eight matches were played in yesterday’s schedule and the winners will face the eight seeds from 17:00 for places in tomorrow’s quarterfinals.
Corey McCartney is the second seed, as the Canadian is ranked just one place higher than Damming in the world. Colombian Andres Herrera tops the list at number 158. Players ranked between four and eight are separated by just 21 places on the computer.
New Zealand’s Elijah Thomas is ranked 244th and was seeded to secure the final spot in Friday night’s semifinals. Britain’s Noah Meredith is seven places back, but seven ahead of sixth man Anthony Lepper.
And incidentally, New Zealand is another seven places ahead of Mexico’s Carlos Vargas and France’s Maceo Levy, who are jointly ranked #265 and ranked seventh and eighth, respectively. Seven players from Trinidad and Tobago were included in last night’s first round.
There was also supposed to be a women’s event, but it was canceled after all participants withdrew over a month ago. Barbados, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands are the Caribbean countries that have hosted professional tournaments over the years.
Damming will not be the first squash player no. 1 in the world playing down here, but Amanda Sobhy had dropped to third in the rankings when she took part in a QPCC exhibition tour 11 years ago. The five-time US champion is currently ranked fourth in the world.
