As the Swedish Open prepares for its long-awaited return to the PSA calendar, tournament director Bolbol Aziz hopes the event can help reinvigorate squash across Scandinavia.
Taking place from 30 September - 4 October, the 2026 Champion Fiberglass Swedish Squash Open presented by Boka Bord (to give it its full title) will begin at Aziz's own eight-court club, Roslagshallen, before moving to an all-glass court at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in central Stockholm from the quarter-final stage onwards.
Inside Roslagshallen
Mohamed Zakaria is men's top seed, joined by the likes of Joel Makin, Marwan and Mohamed ElShorbagy and Mohamed Abouelghar. Fayrouz Aboelkheir leads the women's field, accompanied by Gina Kennedy, Tinne and Nele Gilis and Amanda Sobhy.
A host of grassroots initiatives are planned alongside the $218,000 PSA Silver level event, including junior, graded and masters tournaments which will conclude on the glass court.
"I really hope it has a nationwide impact," says Aziz, who was Swedish national coach for 12 years until leaving the role in June.
"Sometimes the squash climate here is quite polarised. I really hope all the clubs and centres in Stockholm and further afield can come together and benefit from this, that it will inspire juniors and that the federation can use it to showcase to the Sports Ministry to get more funding in the future.
"It's a super small sport here. I have friends who don't know what squash is. My heart is in Swedish squash and if we are all smart about this, the sport can definitely benefit through exposing people to these world-class players."
Tarek Momen v Greg Gaultier at the 2017 Swedish Open
With the exception of the British Open and Optasia Championships (England), World Tour Finals (France) and Grasshopper Cup (Switzerland), the Swedish Open will be the most lucrative PSA tournament to be held in Europe this year. It will be the biggest squash competition ever held in Scandinavia.
In the last few years, Aziz has invited Mohamed and Marwan ElShorbagy, Diego Elias, Baptiste Masotti, Tinne and Nele Gilis and Paul Coll to his Roslagshallen club for exhibitions.
"When we've done these exhibitions, it's really inspired our juniors," Aziz reveals. "It's rare to be able to get so close to world-class athletes. Our main court can seat 150 spectators and we always compare it to a UFC cage! The atmosphere is fantastic and the crowd love it."
The inspiring effect these events have had on the local squash-playing population is what motivated Aziz to bring the Swedish Open back to Stockholm for the first time since 1987, when Jahangir Khan was crowned champion.
Linkoping was the host of the Swedish Open for many years
Those with local knowledge and long memories say the first Swedish Open was in 1968.
The first one listed on SquashInfo was a women's event in 1985, won by the great Susan Devoy. In 1993, the event moved from the capital city to Linkoping and was for many years run by the legendary 12-time European Masters champion Fredrik Johnson.
It ran annually from 2007 to 2018, mostly as a PSA Tour men's event. The last champion was world no.1 Ali Farag, then the following season's event was downgraded to a $5k Challenger and moved to Skellefteå. Covid struck the year afterwards, then it disappeared.
The event's resurrection is partly down to Aziz's determination to promote the sport, but also to the support of US-based Swede, Goran Haag, founder of title sponsor Champion Fiberglass.
"I thought about organising this tournament for three years and tried to find a way to make it work," says Aziz.
"I thought we could maybe make it a Copper event, but my dad suggested contacting Goran, who we'd had contact with before the World Junior Championships in Houston in 2024.
"I reached out to him in May and it went immediately from a single Copper event to a double Silver event, all because of his ambition and his belief in the project.
"When we started making it bigger, I was very scared. But his belief in me really pushed me. If you have someone like that in your corner, it makes you much hungrier to do it bigger."
Aziz was born into a squash family. His uncle moved from Egypt to Sweden in 1968 and his father, Adel, followed three years later. Now aged 74, Adel still coaches juniors at Roslagshallen every week. Bolbol's brother Badr reached a highest world ranking of 66 in 2006 and was one of the last full-time Swedish professionals.
"Growing up in Sweden, we had a team that was always in Division One of the European Team Championships," recalls Aziz.
"A lot of the players in that era grew up watching the Swedish Open and being inspired by that week each year. I really hope we can do something similar this year."
