The Belbin Malta International Squash Open 2012 got under way Tuesday with the finals played yesterday.

Malta Squash, fresh from the very successful European Team Championships held last month, have nearly 60 participants in this year’s Open with athletes hailing from France, Italy, Australia, United Kingdom, Sweden , Denmark and South Africa.

Three events were held in the senior category with the Men Open which has Gary Nitschke and Matheus Antunes as its top seeds.

Malta national players include Mark Lupi and Carl Camilleri and in the ladies Colette Sultana , Johanna Rizzo and Sarah de Cesare .

Sultana was seeking to win this tournament for the first time but had to beat her aunty Johanna to claim the prize. Theresa Brousson (last year’s winner) was out with injury .

The B and C events were also highly contested with 16 players battling out for the top places.

Twenty seven Juniors participated in the open in the Under 17, Under 15 and Under 13 events .

Kim Cauchi, fresh from her win in this category in Luxembourg, looked to keep her place as top under 13 Junior, the Under 15 saw national team player Steven Schranz’s son Mark taking part for the first time and battled it out with another 11 athletes in this category.

Colette Sultana, queen of Juniors for the past five years, was set to make sure she keeps her top place in the Under 17.

All in all, over 120 matches were played at the Marsa Squash Courts.