El Hindi Marks Return To PSA World Tour At ToC

After taking a break for almost the whole of last year "to try playing PST", Egypt's former world top ten squash star Wael El Hindi makes his return to the PSA World Tour at this week's J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York City.

"When I joined PST, I wanted to do the best for my family and wanted to spend more time with my new born daughter," explained the New York-based 32-year-old from Cairo. "After joining the PST, I realised that it's not an organisation, but a one man show. The ranking that PST was fighting for had nothing to do with a real ranking system as he was making up a ranking and seeding for every event.

"The 'No Let' rule, which seemed like a good idea at first, made it really difficult especially when you have high level (pro) squash players playing against average or amateur squash players, including juniors," added the former world No8.

The J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions, the first PSA World Series championship of the year, gets underway at Grand Central Terminal on Friday (18 January) after two days of qualifying.

El Hindi, whose world ranking has now plummeted to 178, will compete in the qualifiers of the famous New York championship in which he made his first appearance in 2002 - when he went on to make the first of three subsequent appearances in the quarter-finals.

"I'm very happy to be back to PSA and look forward catching up with my friends from the tour," said El Hindi. "There will not be a return to the PST for me.

"I also would like thank John Nimick for giving to the opportunity to make my first comeback in the world's favourite event!"

PSA COO Lee Beachill added: "We are delighted to welcome Wael back to the PSA Tour. As a professional squash player we feel he is back where he belongs."

For all the latest Tour news: www.psaworldtour.com