Hong Kong, with its dramatic harbour backdrop, has been chosen to showcase squash and the sport's bid to enter the Olympic Games in 2020.
The Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open will carry the hopes of the future after it was named as the tournament which the International Olympic Committee will use to judge the sport's credentials for becoming a medals event.
'A lot will be riding on the Hong Kong Open this time,' Heather Deayton, vice-president of the World Squash Federation, said. 'It has always been a wonderful success in the past and we hope to once again use this event to prove to the IOC that our sport is worthy of inclusion in the Olympics.'
One of the richest events on the world calendar, the US$150,000 Hong Kong Open (November 25-December 2) will feature the world's leading men and women professionals, including six-time Hong Kong champion Nicol David of Malaysia. But even she will have to share the limelight with two IOC officials who will be here to inspect all aspects of the tournament, from its organisation to the interest it generates in the media.
'We will have an IOC member, plus one member of its sports programme commission, for the last two days of the Hong Kong Open, which is the semi-finals and the final,' Deayton said yesterday. 'This is normal practice. They will be doing it with every other sport bidding to enter the Olympics.'
Squash will be up against eight other sports in the fight for one place at the 2020 Olympics. Seven of the eight are known - baseball, softball, karate, wakeboarding, wushu, rollersports and sport climbing - with the eighth being decided after the London Olympics this summer when the IOC drops one sport from its programme.
There are only 26 sports in London with the full complement of 28 - the limit set by the IOC - to be reached at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro when golf and rugby sevens join the roster.