Even almost two decades on, Lisa Aitken remembers the first time she ever saw squash played professionally.

It was at the Scottish Open, Aitken was only ten years old and her ambition of becoming Scotland’s top squash player was, at that time, a mere pipe dream.

She managed to get a taste of the tournament just in time as that year turned out to be the event’s last for eighteen years.

However, the news that next April, the Springfield Scottish Squash Open will be on the calendar once again was welcomed by Aitken and the announcement has rekindled a raft of memories for the 28-year-old.

“The last time the tournament was held, I was just beginning to get really interested in squash and I remember thinking: this is amazing!,” she recalls.

“It was held in Perth and everything looked fantastic – there was a massive glass court and disco lights and everything so for me to see this sport that I’d only been playing a year, being played on a stage like that was unbelievable."

And Aitken hopes that the return of the tournament, which will have a prize fund of $20,000, will spark something in young players just as it did for her all those years ago.

“Watching that tournament gave me so much motivation to rise up the ranks,” she said.

“For me to see an event like that at a young age was a massive thing so to have gone so long without it is a real shame and it’s brilliant to have it back.”

The return of the tournament is a motivator for Aitken herself but it is also a significant boost for the sport as a whole and chief executive of Scottish Squash, Maggie Still, admits she is thrilled at the prospect of moving squash in this country to a new level.

“To have a tournament that will attract some of the best squash players in the world to Scotland is brilliant," Still said of the Edinburgh event.

"It’ll hopefully inspire the next generation of players and that’s exactly what we want, we want more people playing squash.

"We have a lot of great partners and great support. There’s a lot going on in the sport and we’re starting to attract people to squash who might not normally have taken an interest.

"And in the top players, we have some fantastic role models. Things are really on the up for squash and it’s a very exciting time for the sport."

Aitken is likely to be one of the main contenders for the title next year but it has not been an easy journey to this point. Having been struck down by dengue fever, the Edinburgh-based Montrose native was forced out of the sport for over two years and has only been back on court for around eighteen months.

However, the former top-40 player’s return has been impressive and she has notched up a number of tournament wins, including at the Bangor Classic in Wales last month and a semi-final appearance at the Des Pyramids Open in Paris a few weeks ago.

Those tournaments marked the end of the season and with Aitken returning to her best-ever form, she is excited about undertaking a block of heavy training before the season restarts again.

“Things are going well," she said.

"The first half of the year was a little bit quiet just because I was trying to keep myself in a bubble to make sure I was in the best shape possible for the Commonwealth Games.

"So by the time the Games were over, I was dying to get stuck into some World Tour events.

"When you win a tournament, you don’t want it to be too long before you win another in case you lose that momentum.

"I had a good few weeks training leading up to Wales and so when I got there, I felt really comfortable and I played really well. Paris was a few tiers above so I knew it was going to be tough but I managed to beat the third seed and then the girl I played in the semi-final was top-25 in the world and watching it back, there were some shots I was thinking to myself, why did you do that?!

"At the top level, it’s such fine margins and I think I’m still getting used to that. So it’s just about turning those semi-final losses into wins. It’s experience too – I’ve only been back for a year-and-a-half so it’s just getting the feeling back of being comfortable in that environment.

"It’s good to be in a block of hard training – when I’m away competing, I actually miss the grind of hard training. So it’s really good to have the chance to work on things I need to improve going into next season.”