Mubure leaves for Holland

became the first black Zimbabwean player to turn professional after he joined the Professional Squash Association.
And the 24-year-old player, who is a member of Premier Belgravia Sports Club in Harare, is today set to embark in his first journey as a professional squash player when he leaves the country for a three-month stay in the Netherlands.
Mubure was, in fact, scheduled to leave for the Netherlands in the early hours of today aboard a Kenyan Airways flight which will first take him to Amsterdam before he connects to the other Dutch city of Eindhoven where he will be based for the next three months.
Speaking before he left for Europe yesterday, Mubure said he was invited to stay and play squash in the Netherlands by that country’s national coach Sjef van der Eijden.
This came after Mubure recently joined the Professional Squash Association and this makes him eligible to play in the professional circuit in Europe.
“I joined the Professional Squash Association two weeks ago and this basically mean that I’ve turned into a professional squash player.
“And I think I’m the first black Zimbabwean player to make this move which I think will make me or turn me into a better player as I’ll be playing frequently in Europe and in other parts of the world.
“My main aim at the moment is to play in as many tournaments as I can in Europe inorder for me to get PSA Tour points and a world ranking as I currently do not have a world ranking,” Mubure said.
Apart from playing squash in the Netherlands, Mubure said he will also take part in a number of professional tournaments in Belgium and Germany during his three-month stay in Europe.
This will be Mubure’s third visit to the Netherlands as he has been in that country in 2008 and 2009 but as an amateur player.
But he is now set to write his own piece of history by playing squash as a professional in the European circuit under the Professional Squash Association.
The Professional Squash Association (PSA) is the governing body for the men’s professional squash circuit.
The body operates in a similar fashion to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for tennis.
The PSA tour involves over 100 tournaments annually all over the globe.
Over 300 players are registered with the PSA and rankings are updated monthly based on players’ performances.
There are hundreds of PSA tournaments throughout the course of a season, and they are classified into the following categories, based on prize money:
l Challenger (very small events, such as regional championships).
l Satellite (Super Satellite, Closed Satellite, and Satellite, with total prize money under US$10 000)
l Star (rated from 1 to 5, 5 being the most elite. Total prize money is greater than US$10 000. The higher the star level, the more top level players will compete)
l Super Series (the highest level of squash in the world, categorized into silver, gold, and platinum)
Every year, the top eight performers from the various Super Series events gather for the Super Series Finals.
The eight players are separated into two groups of four, and play a round-robin. The top two from each group advance to the semi-finals (A1 v B2 and B1 v A2). The winner of the event is crowned Super Series champion.
On January 17, 2006, the PSA reached an agreement with Dunlop that extends Dunlop’s tenure as the provider of official balls and official racquets for the PSA. The extension is five years.