Women's Pro Tour to Try Low Tin by Nathan Clarke July 6, 2015 -
The Professional Squash Association (PSA) have today announced that
they will conduct a four month trial, beginning in September 2015, into
the suitability of reducing the height of the tin in competitive
women’s matches from 19” to 17” - the current standard in the men’s
professional game.
The trial will take place across the professional game with some of the
sport’s most prestigious events to feature an all-glass show-court,
such as the Women’s World Championship, taking part in the trial with
September’s 2015 China Open becoming the first event ever to see the
world’s top female players compete with the lower tin.
The PSA joined forces with the Women’s Squash Association earlier this
year to create a unified governing body for the first time in the
history of professional squash and this latest initiative is part of a
series of changes aimed at increasing equality between the tours and
bringing both the men’s and women’s tours into line.
“The tin height is currently one of the main fundamental differences
between the men’s and women’s games, with the men having competed on a
17” tin as standard for several years,” said PSA Chief Operations
Officer Lee Beachill.
‘We feel that aligning the tin height is an important step to take in
order to achieve our goals of increasing parity and offering both men
and women the same playing opportunities.
“This change will encourage more attacking play and add a new dimension
to the women’s game and we look forward to watching with interest the
impact the change will have during the next few months.”
Former Women’s World Champion Laura Massaro has backed the move, saying
that she thinks the decision will lead to a positive change in the
women’s game and is looking forward to competing under the new rules
come September.
“I think it’s important that the sport tries to move in different
directions at times and this change is a good move and one I’m looking
forward to,” said Massaro.
“I believe it will make the women’s game more attacking and will have a
positive impact with more winners winning points and rallies as opposed
to errors, and that will also help with the television coverage as the
shots will look better.
“It’s also important that there’s no difference between the women’s and
the men’s tin in order to make the game easier to understand for the
public and to remove the complication of changing tin heights during
joint competitions.”
