With a small, hollow rubber ball, squash is a racket-and-ball sport played by two to four players in a court with four walls. The four walls of the court are the playable surfaces on which the players alternately strike the ball with their rackets. The typical dimensions of a squash court are as follows: The court is 9.75 meters long. The court’s width is 6.4 meters. 11.665 meters define the diagonal.
San Francisco
San Francisco, a global center for start-ups and one of the coolest and most “hip” cities in the world, added squash to its sporting vocabulary in 2011 with the first NetSuite Open. This tournament introduced west coast squash fans to Gregory Gaultier, Amr Shabana, and Ramy Ashour.
The first tournament, which offered $70,000, drew players in for what promised to be a big payday. However, the location that truly captivated the squash community was the glass court in Justin Herman plaza, located in the shadow of the Oakland-Bay Bridge and the San Francisco Ferry Building. This made the court an instant addition to the list of iconic squash venues.
Grand Central Terminal, New York
Grand Central Terminal, New York Since the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions first brought squash into the heart of one of New York’s most iconic buildings in 1995, it has become a firm favorite for PSA World Tour players and fans alike.
Due to the 250,000 commuters who pass by the court every day, the location, with the glass court nestled inside Grand Central Terminal’s extravagant and beautiful Vanderbilt Hall, provides one of the most elegant and captivating backdrops ever used to welcome a squash court.
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Open, which first took place in 1985 and is the PSA World Series’ longest-running event, is a fixture on the travel schedules of the best squash players in the world. The nondescript Hong Kong Squash Club hosts the first 100 matches, from qualification to the quarterfinals, but in 2005, the Women’s World Championship moved to the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront.
Squash enjoyed one of the most impressive scene-setters in all of the sports until it was last held in 2013 when it was held on the banks of Kowloon amid Hong Kong’s breathtaking skyline, which was filled with skyscrapers and the dazzling lights of the financial district.
The Great Pyramid of Giza
An ambitious plan to stage a tournament in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the world, came to fruition in 1997 with a young Ahmed Barada pioneering Egyptian squash. This provided squash with some of the most stunning sporting images ever seen. The Al Ahram International of 1997 set the standard for all subsequent tournaments by attracting media attention across the globe. The tournament was held every year until civil unrest in 2006 made it impossible to continue. In September 2016, it will return to the PSA World Tour for the first time in a decade, and squash fans from all over the world are sure to be amazed once more.
The Shanghai Bund
The China Open, which was first held in 2014, quickly established itself as one of the most breathtaking squash tournaments due to its prime location on the Shanghai Bund, the city’s waterfront area on the Huangpu River. The court itself is set up on the upper decks of the five-star Peninsula Hotel. From there, you can see Shanghai’s Financial District, which is full of architectural wonders, modern skyscrapers, and the bright neon lights of one of the most advanced cities in the world.
