Pink court to return for Chicago World Championships after going ‘missing’

By Alan Thatcher

February 15, 2023 - 10:14pm

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The distinctive pink glass court last seen at the 2018 World Tour Finals in Dubai will return to the PSA World Tour at the World Championships in May – after going ‘missing’ for four years! 

Organisers of this year’s prestigious event in Chicago wanted the glass court, owned by PSA chairman Ziad Al-Turki, to be installed in Union Station, where it will host all matches from the third round onwards. 

UK-based Melior Sports was assigned the job of installing the court – but the company’s CEO Nick Thompson has had to travel to Saudi Arabia to find it! 

Thompson told Squash Mad: “We built the court for the 2018 PSA World Tour Finals at Emirates Golf Club. I think it was the best court we’ve ever done and everybody loved it. 

“Since then, I don’t think it’s been used for any other events. There was a point where nobody really knew where it was. 

“I travelled to Bahrain and then on to Saudi from there. I found it in a container. We needed to make sure everything was in there before it got shipped off to the US. There were a few bits and pieces missing, but thankfully nothing major.  

“You can’t buy glass court parts off the shelf, obviously, so it’s important that it reaches Chicago with everything present and correct.” 

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Thompson has very fond memories of the last time the court was seen in operation four and a half years ago, when Mohamed ElShorbagy and Nour El Sherbini were crowned World Tour Finals champions in the searing heat of Dubai. 

“Sometimes when we build a PSA Tour court, we’re asked to stay on site for the duration of the tournament just in case something goes wrong with it,” he explained. “Nothing went wrong in Dubai, so I spent all week in the hotel pool, bar and gym and playing squash!” 

However, Thompson’s memories of the last time the World Championships took place at Chicago’s Union Station in 2019 are somewhat less comfortable.

“A freak winter storm was raging through parts of the US and Canada,” he recalls. “It was incredibly cold. Any colder and we wouldn’t have been able to complete the build. We had to take it in turns to go inside every 15 minutes just to warm up. It was tough.” 

Freezing temperatures shouldn’t be a problem in May in the ‘windy city’ where Ali Farag and El Sherbini will seek to defend their world titles.  

There, Thompson is looking forward to showcasing the eye-catching pink court after its long hiatus in a Saudi shipping container. 

“It makes a lot of sense to bring the court to the US and bring it back into circulation,” he says. “It looks really cool and should be really popular.” 

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