The CIB PSA World Tour Finals will take place at Cairo’s EDNC SODIC venue between June 20-25 and two exciting rule changes will be trialled at the season-ending tournament.
Power Plays
Players will be given the opportunity to use Power Plays – first introduced in November’s Carrus Nations Cup – where he or she can win two points. Each player will be granted two Power Plays per match in the group stage matches as well as the semi-finals, while three Power Plays will be available in the finals. The player that requested the Power Play will be given the opportunity to win two points during the next rally, if the player that did not request the Power Play wins the rally, they will receive one point.
Both players can request a Power Play on the same rally. If a Let is called, the rally is replayed under the same circumstances. Players have the opportunity to win a game on a Power Play – for example, if the scores are locked at 9-9 and both players request a Power Play, then the winner of that rally will win the game.
Sudden Death
Meanwhile, games that are poised at 10-10 will now be subject to a sudden death rally, with the winner of that point taking the game, as opposed to the traditional tie-break used at regular PSA World Tour events, which requires players to go two points clear to convert the game.
The exception will be in the final game where the traditional tie-break does come back into play. In the group matches and semi-finals – which use best of three games scoring – this would mean that the first two games are subject to a sudden death rally, with the third game requiring the use of the traditional tie-break format.
In the best of five finals, the first four games would use the sudden death decider, with the fifth game reverting back to the use of the usual tie-break format.
The PSA are committed to trialling innovative new formats and rules which can create more excitement in the sport, delivering a new experience to players, spectators and viewers watching at home on SQUASHTV.
How the Groups Work
The CIB PSA World Tour Finals brings together the top eight players on the CIB Road to Egypt Standings for an event which will bring the curtain down on the 2022-23 PSA World Tour season.
Points for the CIB Road to Egypt Standings were on offer at all PSA World Tour events throughout the campaign, while winning a PSA World Tour Platinum trophy or the PSA World Championship trophy secured automatic qualification.
Those eight players have then been split into two groups, with one of each of the 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 seeding brackets allocated into each group. In the group stages, each player will play the other three members of their group over the first four days of the event, with the top two from each group going through to the semi-finals.
The points earned from each match are as follows :
- 2-0 win: 4 points
- 2-1 win: 3 points
- 1-2 loss: 1 point
- 0-2 loss: 0 points
The final standings of each group are decided by the following methods :
- Greatest number of points
- Greatest number of wins
If two players are tied, they will be separated by :
- Head-to-head result
- Highest percentage of points won
The winners of Group A will face the runners-up from Group B – and vice versa – before the winners of the semi-final matches will face off in the final, which will be best of five. The entirety of the group stages and the semi-finals will be played using a best of three format.
It promises to be an enthralling week in Cairo – sign up to SQUASHTV now to watch the action unfold.
