Vijay Kumar, Urwashi Joshi top seeds in PSA Satellite event

Vijay Kumar, the Chennai-based player from Services, and Urwashi Joshi of Maharashtra have been seeded number one in the men's and women's categories respectively in the Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open, a PSA Satellite event, to be held here from April 9-13.

India no 7 Vijay Kumar is followed by his Services teammate and no 9 Ranjit Singh in the men's seedings while Abhishek Agarwal of Maharashtra is seeded in the 3/4 bracket.

In the women's seedings, India no 3 Urvashi is followed by no 5 Sachika Balvani of Maharashtra in second place. Number 12 Aradhana Kasturiraj is the 3rd seed.

Concurrently, an all India three star tournament for juniors is also being held, according to 5 Sports, the organisers, who announced the details at a media conference on Friday.

Both the events are being held under the aegis of Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI), Maharashtra Squash Rackets Association (MSRA) and Professional Squash Association (PSA).

The two events have attracted 446 entries in all in Under 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19 age group for juniors and in the senior categories.

In the boys U-19 draw, India no 4 and 5, Veer Chotrani and Tushar Sahani of Maharashtra, lead the field while Jannia Singh of Chandigarh, who won an Otters Club tournament last August, will lead the girls U-19 field followed by Tanaya M Parakh of West Bengal.

The tournament has a total prize fund of Rs 5 lakh, from which Rs 3 lakh is allotted for the juniors, while Rs 2 lakh is up for grabs in men's and women's event.

Maharashtra has the highest number of participants with 262 entries, while the tournament has also attracted sizable participation from Delhi, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, among others.