2022 Australian Open the biggest in a decade as part of a long-term plan to achieve Platinum World Tour status

The 2022 City Tattersalls Club Australian Open will be the biggest edition of the prestigious tournament in over a decade with 48 of the best squash players in the world facing off for the title next week in Sydney.

For the first time in ten years the Australian Open has been elevated to a PSA Challenger status with a $100,000 prize money attracting a number of the top-20 athletes in the world and some of the best Aussie players like Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games athlete Rex Hedrick and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Donna Lobban. The event will run from October 26 to 30, alongside a strong series of graded events, featuring hundreds of participants. 

This year’s upgrade is just a stepping stone on a longer journey towards establishing the Australian Open as one of the elite squash events in the world, explained Squash Australia CEO, Robert Donaghue. 

“We can’t wait to welcome back international players this year for what will be the best festival of squash Australian fans have seen in a long time,” he said. 

“Even more so, we are excited about the future of the event and the opportunities it will provide to grow the sport in our country.”

The long-term aspiration for the Australian Open is to continue to develop and eventually reach PSA Platinum status, the highest level on the World Tour.

“Elevating the Australian Open to become one of the Platinum events of the World Tour would allow us to raise our profile as a sport and extend our reach across the broader Australian sporting landscape.

“We also want to provide our younger talents an aspirational pathway towards the highest levels of the sport. There is nothing more inspiring than seeing your sporting heroes up close and personal. 

“In our vision, the Australian Open can become that showcase event that can drive participation and inspire the next generation of players.”

Achieving PSA 30 Challenger status is just the first step of a longer journey which will see the Australian Open becoming a Bronze World Tour event next year and eventually grow to the same level of the most iconic tournaments in the circuit like the British Open, the USA Open, the PSA World Championships and the World Tour Finals.

“We think that’s an achievable goal in the long term, but there are quite a few steps to reach that status,” continued Donaghue. 

“By 2024 we’d like for the Australian Open to have found an established and iconic home, similar to what Melbourne is for Australian tennis. It will also be important for us to find and maintain a strategic spot in the World Tour calendar to ensure that the Australian Open becomes a natural stop for top-level players as they embark on a tour of major and satellite tournaments in Asia and Oceania.

“We’re working with the PSA World Tour to achieve this outcome as this would provide benefits across sport at large, including to players, organisers and squash fans. 

“From our perspective, it would also contribute to building a solid commercial model and provide the necessary financial returns to continue our investments in the sport to support its growth at all levels. 

Squash Australia is committed to embark on this ambitious journey and keep working to attract investments from different levels of Government and private equity to secure the long-term development of the event and of squash in Australia. 

“We have a great opportunity for growth in the next 10 years with Australian cities able to attract major international events as part of the green and gold runway towards the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the 2032 Olympics,” Donaghue said. 

“Elevating the Australian Open to the top level of the World Tour fits perfectly within this landscape and is a great opportunity to grow the profile of Australian squash domestically and internationally,” he concluded.