Squash: The Essentials
Last Updated: Friday, October 1, 2010 | 8:58 AM ET
By Jesse Campigotto, CBC Sports
Men's singles favourite Nick Matthew, left, captains a loaded England squad. (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images)
A recently added core sport, squash has been included in every Commonwealth Games since the event's introduction in 1998.
Canada had a star player at the first two competitions. Montreal's Jonathan Power won the men's singles title in 2002, and the silver medal in 1998 — still the only two squash medals Canada has won at the Commonwealth Games.
The 2006 tournament in Melbourne belonged to two players. England's Peter Nicol won gold in men's singles and doubles, while Australia's Natalie Grinham swept the two women's events and added a third gold in mixed doubles.
Good news for the 2010 field: Nicol is retired, and Grinham is taking time off for the birth of her first child.
Who to watch
Nick Matthew (England): The top Commonwealth player in the men's world rankings (he's the only non-Egyptian in the top three), Matthew, 30, wants to improve upon his showing from 2006, when he lost the bronze-medal match to countryman Lee Beachill. Matthew captains a loaded England men's squad that also includes three other players in the world's top 10.
Alana Miller (Canada): The Canadians lost their best hope for a squash medal in Delhi when Shahier Razik, the country's top-ranked player and a four-time national champion, withdrew from the men's tournament just two days before the opening ceremony due to injury. In Razik's absence, Canada turns to Winnipeg's Miller, who's seeded 16th for the Commonwealth tournament. She'll be chasing consensus favourite Nicol David of Malaysia.
When to watch (finals)
Day 5 (Oct. 8)
- Men's singles, women's singles
Day 10 (Oct. 13)
- Men's doubles, women's doubles, mixed doubles
