2019 Hong Kong Squash Open latest local sports event to fall victim to protests
- The popular tournament, which features the world’s top players, will not be held in 2019 after organisers decided to axe the event after ‘careful consideration’
- It’s only the second time in the event’s long and illustrious history that the event has been canned with the outbreak of SARS in 2003 also disrupting the tournament
The annual Hong Kong Squash Open, a platinum event on the world circuit and voted a favourite among overseas players for many years, has become the latest victim of the city’s social unrest.
The US$352,000 tournament, which features the world’s top 48 players in both the men’s and women’s categories, will not take place this year as Hong Kong continues to be hit by the ongoing anti-government protests which has entered its fourth month.
The Squash Open was supposed to take place at Squash Centre in Admiralty in early December. The semi-finals and finals were to be played in a glass court in West Kowloon Cultural District on December 7-8.
“In view of the current situation, Hong Kong Squash has decided, after careful consideration and extensive discussions with our key stakeholders, to postpone the 2019 tournament,” a spokesman of the organisers said on Tuesday. “We and the Professional Squash Association are in active discussion on identifying a best schedule for staging the event in 2020 before a further announcement can be made.”
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The Squash Open men’s event was first played in the city in 1985 and it’s only the second time in the tournament’s history that the event has been cancelled. The last time the event was axed was in 2003 because of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak.