THE first-ever professional squash tournament taking place at Hereford's Whitecross Club gets underway this evening.

Club chairman Sam Miller hopes The Companion allpay.net Open, which runs until Sunday, will progress on to the PSA tour.

Miller said: "We should witness a level of squash rarely seen in this neck of the woods and our aim is to change that. This maiden event will run under the watchful eye of the BSPA."

The preliminary qualifying round starts at 6pm tonight, with the grand final scheduled for 3pm on Sunday.