South African squash star Tenille Swartz has signed to Prince Sports and will make her WISPA World Tour debut with her new O3 Tour racquet at the Alexandria Sporting Club Open in Egypt in August.

Swartz first came to international attention when she made her debut for South Africa in the 2004 Women's World Team Championships, aged 17.  The impressive schoolgirl from Parys in Free State won three matches and went on to receive the 'Player of the Championships' award from the Alderman of the City of Amsterdam.

In November last year, in only her second appearance on the WISPA Tour, Tenille won her maiden professional title, at the Meersquash Open in the Netherlands - as a qualifier.  In May this year, Tenille claimed her third successive South African National title to confirm her status as one of the brightest prospects the country has produced.

"I am very happy and excited about my new sponsorship with Prince," said Swartz, who broke into the world's top 40 in May.  "There's a saying 'it's not the racquet but the person behind the racquet that does the work'.  Well, it's not the case with my new 03 Tour racquet.  This racquet makes all the difference!

"Now that I'm with Prince, I'm really looking forward to the rest of my squash career!"

Tenille Swartz joins a distinguished group of squash players who have chosen Prince's pioneering O3 technology - including Malaysia's world number one Nicol David and England's former world No1 Peter Nicol, both of whom won major international titles on their O3 Tour debuts.

"The O3 Tour is the No1 selling squash racquet retailing in excess of €150, which boasts a 60%+ market share in Europe," said Mike Ballardie, Vice President & Managing Director of Prince Sports Europe.  "The new range is regenerating squash racquet sales globally because of its unique properties, visual technology and awesome playability."

Prince's new O3 breakthrough is the first significant development in racquet technology since the late eighties when racquets changed from wood to graphite.  The O3-engineered racquets provide a large sweet spot in a manoeuvrable and aerodynamic frame.  Prince re-engineered traditional pin-sized string holes into giant O-Ports, providing total string freedom for a livelier response across the entire string bed.  This expands the conventional sweet spot in racquets by up to 54%, turning it into a Sweet Zone!

O3 technology was first introduced in tennis, with unprecedented player response.  There are currently close to 100 ATP and WTA touring pros, including Maria Sharapova, Nikolay Davydenko, Jelena Jankovic, Marion Bartoli and Mike and Bob Bryan who have made the switch to O3 technology.