Surbhi Misra feels that the junior players should have more confidence in their game

Surbhi Misra during her playing days

The Provogue Jaipur Junior Open will get underway in the pink city of Jaipur from September 2nd and the Surbhi Misra Sports Foundation( SMSF) will stage the tournament in association with the Squash and Rackets Federation of India(SRFI).

The Provogue Jaipur Junior Open will see a total of 400 participants this year and the tournament has also been elevated to 4 Star from 3 Star and the prize money has also risen from Rupees 3 lakhs to 6 lakhs from last year.

The founder of SMSF, Surbhi Misra was herself one of India’s best squash players during her playing career and in 2012, decided to give something back to the sport by establishing the foundation which helps in nurturing budding talent in sport.

Talking about the foundation’s involvement in the tournament, Surbhi said that they intend to attract more viewers to the sport by putting forth many activities on social media and are also looking to do work at the ground level as well.

“In this tournament we are doing a lot of different on ground activities for players and spectators to make it more entertaining and for online activities we will be running a lot of social media activities with our sponsors to a lot of awareness with people regarding the sport,” she said in an interview to Sportskeeda.

When asked why the Indian junior players failed to put up a good performance at the recent World juniors, Surbhi said that they needed to work harder and develop confidence in their game and in themselves.

“I think the juniors have to work hard a little bit more and basically they are lacking confidence in themselves other than anything else. They all are good players it's just the confidence level is a bit low compared to their counterparts,” she added.

Akanksha and Abhay players to watch out for: Surbhi

Surbhi further said that she expected a close Jaipur Open this time around and picked Akanksha Salunkhe and Abhay Singh in the Boys U19 category as the players to watch out for.

“It's going to be a very tight tournament as all the categories have the top players fighting with each other for the title. But in the boys u-19 I think Abhay Singh will be the players to look out for,” the member of the 2010 Commonwealth Games squash contingent said.

She also felt that Indian squash had taken giant strides in recent times and credited it to the availability of more courts and coaches and the participation of more players.

“Indian squash has taken a big step ahead in the recent times. The availability of courts and coaches have become better and the participation has increased in number. The sport is growing in popularity in think that is the biggest thing in favor of squash right now” she said.

When she was asked about her general expectations from the tournament, Surbhi hoped that the players enjoy the competition and expressed satisfaction over the increase in the number of participants each year.

“I am hoping that this year the players enjoy the tournament much more than ever in the Indian squash circuit as we are doing a lot of fun activities with sponsors online and at the venue. The tournament every year is getting better in terms of participation so it's kind of very satisfying as an organizer,” she said.

She also had some advice for budding squash players. “Work hard, be disciplined and believe in yourself. There is no shortcut to success,” she concluded.

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