Squash tournament in Chennai postponed after two players test Covid positive

CHENNAI: The

Squash Rackets Federation of India

(SRFI) has postponed the start of the 2nd HCL

SRFI

Indian Tour - a PSA Challenger event - to Monday after two Indian players tested positive for

Covid-19

here on Saturday morning. The tournament was originally scheduled to start at the

Indian Squash Academy

(ISA) here on Saturday. The two Indian players who have tested positive are

Abhishek Pradhan

and Abhishek Agarwal. While both of them are asymptomatic, they have now been removed from the draw.


All the other players will undergo another round of testing on Monday morning. Provided that there is no positive case, the tournament will begin on Monday evening with the finals being held on Thursday. All the players had entered the bio-bubble in Chennai on Friday and were subsequently tested.

The tournament is the first Challenger event that is being held since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the two positive cases are a setback, SRFI general secretary Cyrus Poncha said they haven’t contemplated cancelling the event.

"A lot of hard work has gone into putting the tournament together. There are players from countries like Egypt, US, Russia here. We are hopeful that there will be no further cases and the tournament can be held smoothly," he said on Saturday.

As per the protocols before the tournament, a few spectators were going to be allowed at the venue to watch the matches, but Poncha said that the tournament will now be held behind closed doors in all likelihood.