The Evergreen Squash Club has invited some of the world's top female squash players for a professional tournament at the club this week.
The club is hosting the Pro Women's Challenge as part of their 2014 Evergreen Squashes Cancer fundraiser. The event will include four of the world's top female squash players competing in a round robin format. There will be two matches each day from Thursday, Jan. 9 to Saturday, Jan. 11 with the final on Sunday, Jan. 12.
"This is the highest calibre of women's squash that's been in Vancouver for 20 years," said Phil Arthur, event co-ordinator. "That's pretty cool."
Visiting pros Natalie Grinham from the Netherlands and Rachael Grinham, Donna Urquhart and Kasey Brown, all from Australia, are ranked between sixth and 22nd in the world.
Arthur said he came up with the idea for the event after one of the club's junior members died from cancer and the organizer of the men's pro event was diagnosed with the disease.
"He's on the mend, he's doing a bit better," said Arthur, adding the club decided to cancel the men's pro event last year with the organizer being sick. "We decided not to run it when he wasn't able to pitch in."
The men's pro event had been running for about nine years prior to that. The club hosted Brown and another women's pro in September, but has never had a women's event like this one "We thought if we're going to run an event, why not do a cancer fundraiser," said Arthur. "This year we were going to try and run a men's pro event but we decided not to do it again. We thought we'd bring the women on board for a women's pro event."
Arthur said they hope in the future to have both a men's and women's pro event.
Seats for the challenge are $40 each or $120 for all four games. Guests are asked to pay an extra amount, which will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. The club raised approximately $15,000 last year and Arthur said that although a goal has not yet been set for this year, he's hoping they can match or surpass the previous year.
The top two players will receive prize money to make the final. Arthur said the top players have already stated they will donate five per cent of their winnings to cancer as well.
Besides the women's event, the fundraiser also includes an amateur tournament and coaching clinics with Arthur and each of the pros, both starting on Wednesday, Jan. 8. The amateur tournament is open to people of any age or skill level, with an entry fee of $50 for adults and $30 for children. The clinics are available for advanced and intermediate juniors and adults. Each clinic is $50 per person and runs for two hours.
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