The ATCO Super Series Finals - Manchester 2007 squash championships will bring together the top eight qualifiers from the annual PSA Super Series World Tour and will be staged on the stunning all-glass show court at the National Squash Centre in Manchester, England, from the 9th to 12th August.

There is no event as significant as a tour-end championship. By providing a finishing tape it makes the World Tour a race, creates a home straight, and links the world from New York's Grand Central Terminal to the shimmering Gulf of Arabia and beyond.

The Super Series Finals are thus simultaneously one of the Tour's best ingredients and its glossy wrapping. Yet there has been a hint of make-do and mend about it.

From its first moments at the Vitis Club in Zurich, with its enormous art nouveau quarter-racket insignia, through to its experimental years at the Galleria shopping centre in Hatfield, England and even during its attractive time at London's Broadgate Arena, the event has lived with uncertainty.

Sure, it has had its great moments, notably the supercharged 2000 final between Peter Nicol and Simon Parke when sports minister Kate Hoey became so exhilarated as they chased the wind for an hour and a half, as many were, that she was almost prepared to embrace the duo in all their sweatiness.



But it has had its oddities too, from members of the public threatening to drop things from the arcade above, to Jansher Khan mixing in criticism with his four titles, and Broadgate's attractively cascading foliage occasionally being accompanied by the noise of falling rain on the court's tent.

Recently it looked as though the event was going under. Instead the charismatic Ziad Al-Turki, Vice-President of the ATCO Group, and the ubiquitous Paul Walters, founder of internationalSPORTgroup™, have taken it on for five years with every prospect of transforming it.

The deal they struck with the Professional Squash Association includes an option for two further years, with a minimum prize fund over that period of $675,000. Not only has the flagship of the World Tour been saved, it has been towed into harbour amidst fireworks.

As before, it contains the eight top points scorers from Super Series events throughout the 2006 season. Now though it has a modified format, the winners of two four-man groups going straight into the finals.

Who will do so? Can the spectacular 19 year-old Ramy Ashour, take over as the leading man from his supremely gifted compatriot Amr Shabana? Or will the elegant Karim Darwish become a third Egyptian to scale the pinnacle?

Will the courageous David Palmer, who snatched the World Championships title for Australia before the pharaohs' pyramids, out-do the trio again? Will the two best ever Frenchmen, Thierry Lincou and Gregory Gaultier, delight us again with their style and versatility?

And will England's Nick Matthew repeat the brilliance which last year saw him crowned British National, British Grand Prix and British Open Champion? Or will his compatriot James Willstrop rediscover the form to allow him to steal past everyone without them realising?

They are impenetrable questions. What is certain is the event is now at one of the world's worthiest venues. That is Manchester's SportCity, venue for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, venue for the British National Championships, and soon to be the venue for the Dunlop British Open.

It is purpose built and feels like a squash home. That right now is just the sort of security the Super Series Finals need.

Super Series
Events 2006

Windy City Open
David Palmer
 

ToC New York
Amr Shabana
 

Bermuda Masters
Amr Shabana
 

Liverpool 08 Open
Thierry Lincou
 

Men's World Open
David Palmer
 

Hong Kong Open
Amr Shabana
  

US Open
Gregory Gaultier
 

Pakistan Open
Thierry Lincou
 

Saudi International
Amr Shabana

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