Saudi Arabia hosts its first professional women's squash tournament

The National -- The tournament, which began on Sunday and will end on Friday, is the first women's squash World Series event of 2018 and comes amid a slew of reforms spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that include a lifting of restrictions on women.

The Saudi Women's Masters squash tournament has no qualifying rounds meaning that the 32 players taking part go straight into the draw, including the Saudi wild card, Nada Abo Al Naja. The top seed is Egyptian world number one Nour El Sherbini (on the photo).

The players will be battling it out for the tournament's lucrative prize fund of US$165,000 (Dh605,962).

Ziad Al Turki, the chairman of the Professional Squash Association (PSA), the sport's global governing body, is Saudi himself.

According to the PSA, at a dinner ahead of the Saudi women's tournament hosted by Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, president of the Saudi Federation for Community Sports, Mr Al Turki said: "Things are changing in Saudi, and they are changing fast. Win or lose, you are making history."

On Friday, Saudi women will for the first time be allowed to enter sports stadiums to watch football matches between local teams. It follows the lifting of a ban on women driving which is set to be implemented in June.

 “The first match that women will be allowed to watch will be Al Ahli versus Al Batin on Friday January 12, followed by Al Hilal versus Al Ittihad the following day, and then a match between Al Ittifaq and Al Faisali on Thursday January 18,” said the ministry of information on Monday.

The first match will be held in the capital Riyadh, the second in Jeddah on the Red Sea and the third in the eastern city of Dammam.