Squash Canada Announces Jonathon Power and Vanessa Atkinson as Women's World Teams Broadcasters by Danny Da Costa September 30, 2014 - Ottawa (ON)
– Squash Canada announced that two former World one squash players,
Jonathon Power of Canada and England’s Vanessa Atkinson, will take part
in the 2014 Shop.ca Women’s World Team Squash Championship as
broadcasters and match presenters. The event will take place December 1
– 6, 2014 at White Oaks Resort & Spa in Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON.
Atkinson, 38, born in
Newcastle, England and moved to the Netherlands at a young age,
represented the Netherlands at both the junior and senior level,
winning 12 Dutch National senior titles. Atkinson’s accomplished career
includes 25 Women’s Squash Association (WSA) women’s titles; including
major events such as Qatar Classic, The KL Open, Tournament of
Champions in New York, and Dutch Open. The pinnacle moment in her
career came in 2004 when Atkinson captured the World Open in Kuala
Lumpur. In 2005, Atkinson reached the number one ranking in the
world for the first time. Since her retirement in 2011, Atkinson
has been busy working as a Master of Ceremonies and commentator at a
number of squash events including the 2011 World Open in Rotterdam, the
2012 Hong Kong Classic, the World Series of Squash finals in 2011 &
2012 as well as the 2013 and 2014 British Open events.
Power, one of the most
iconic names in squash worldwide, is Canada’s most decorated squash
professionals. He captured 36 Professional Squash Association
(PSA) World Titles in 58 finals, as well as winning the World Open
(1998), the British Open (1999), the Super Series Finals
(2003 & 2005), the PSA Masters (2001, 2002 & 2005),
the Tournament of Champions (1996, 1999, 2000 & 2002),
men's singles Gold Medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and
was a three time champion of the PACE Canadian Squash Classic in his
career. In August, Power was hired to lead Squash Canada’s Centre
of Excellence Program based at the National Squash Academy in
Toronto.
Power and Atkinson
will serve as broadcast commentators during the quarterfinals,
semi-final and final round matches (December 4 – 6) on SQUASH TV’s
broadcast. They will be joined by Squash Canada Performance
Director Jamie Hickox a former World #15 and the former coach of the
Malaysian National Team as well as Women’s World Team Squash
Championship Master of Ceremonies Don Goodwin who was recently inducted
into the Rogers Cup Tennis Hall of Fame.
Goodwin has often been
called the ‘the voice of squash’ in North America with his over 35 year
association with major tennis and squash events in Canada, the US and
in England including the Pace Canadian Classic and the Tournament of
Champions in New York. Since concluding his long and
distinguished career with the CBC 25 years ago, Don has maintained his
base of operations in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Championship Director,
Danny Da Costa said, “It's an honour and privilege to have some of the
biggest names in squash at this year’s World Team Championships.
We are looking forward to further enhancing what will be a spectacle
and celebration of women in sport”.
The Championship will
be streamed by Sportscanada.tv and Squash TV around the world on the
http://wsfwomensteams.com website. This year’s Shop.ca Women’s
World Team Squash Championship will feature 9 of the Top 10 female
players in the world as well as the best female squash players from 20
countries on 6 continents. Tickets start as low as $10.00 and are on
sale at www.squash.ca or www.wsfwomensteams.com
