The World Squash Federation gives world junior squash a hearty boost today with the introduction of the WSF World Junior Circuit and accompanying World Junior Rankings.

The Under-19 age groups of countries' National Junior Opens, along with the regional championships that take place on the continents of the world - with the World Junior Championship titles at the pinnacle - will form the WSF World Junior Circuit.

Results from these events will be used to compute quarterly WSF World Junior Rankings for young men and women at Under-19 age level

Announcing the initiative, WSF President N Ramachandran pointed out: "Our member nations and regions go to great lengths to foster the development of young talent and we can now recognise their efforts at world level by linking together the calendar and providing world rankings.

"We already know that this principle has been well received within the sport and we look forward to seeing our talented youngsters from across the world benefitting from it."

WSF Chief Executive Andrew Shelley added: "Details on how the circuit and rankings work have been sent to the nations. Events, including July's World Junior Individual Championships, will come on stream from June onwards, in advance of the first WSF Junior Ranking Lists appearing in October.

The WSF will not be setting regulations for the events, but once the rankings are up and running they will certainly provide a strong guide for seedings, and for the world rankings that players can use to measure their progress."

Full details of the circuit and rankings system can be found at www.worldsquash.org