Quote:

"While next week’s Virtual Spectator Bermuda Masters will showcase the very best in men’s professional squash, it emerged yesterday that the women’s game is also to get its day in the limelight.

Tournament organisers have revealed that the world’s best two female players, Nicol David of Malaysia and Vanessa Atkinson of the Netherlands, will battle it out in an exhibition match on April 8 – the last day of the championships.

The supremely talented David is the current world number one and World Open champion while Atkinson, the world number two, triumphed in the latter event two years ago.

Officials at the Bermuda Squash Racquet Association have been concerned for some time with the relatively modest number of young girls playing the sport – certainly in comparison to the boys.

This fact was underlined during the Fast Forward Freight National Championships last month when Denise Kyme and Liz Martin contested both the veterans and the main draw final.

And tournament director Ross Triffitt is hopeful that bringing the best the women’s game has to offer to the Island will help to entice more women into the sport.

“There’s no doubt that we’d like to boost the number of women playing squash,” he said.

“To be honest, when you compare squash to a number of other multi-gender sports, female participation levels are around 25 to 30 percent which is actually reasonably high. But obviously our men’s game is very strong and we would like to encourage more women to get involved.

“We’re delighted to have Nicol and Vanessa playing an exhibition match right here in Bermuda. They are two tremendous players who are currently battling it out for the number one spot so everybody who is there on finals night is in for a real treat.”

The exhibition is part of an entire day sponsored by PartnerRe where local girls will be able to watch the match for free before taking part in a coaching clinic with the two players.

Finals day will also be the culmination of Children’s Health Week which is running simultaneously with the Masters.

Under this initiative, the Island’s schoolchildren are being offered free courtside seats to watch the action over the first three days while one lucky junior will receive a scholarship from the BSRA, including free coaching for a year, free membership of the BSRA and their junior programme and free squash equipment.

Free tickets for CHW are being distributed to many of the Island’s youth groups and are available both to the children and their chaperones.
Anyone interested in obtaining tickets can contact Dave Elliot on 292-6881."

http://www.squashsite.co.uk/bermuda2006.htm

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