U.S. Open Squash

The qualifying draw for the 2012 Delaware Investments U.S. Open, to be played out over four Philadelphia locations on October 4 and 5, has thrown up some intriguing, some unfortunate, and some downright exciting matchups that are sure to kick off the PSA $115,000 World Series event in style.

Drexel University, which will be hosting all the main draw U.S. Open matches from Saturday, gets a wonderful selection as local Philadelphian (British ex-pat) pre-qualifiers Jamie Macaulay and Joe Russell take on New Zealand #1 one and Indian #2 Siddarth Suchde respectively.

Those matches are followed by the undoubtebly gripping match of the day as Drexel’s own head coach John White, the hard-hitting former world number one, meets Colombia’s in-form and athletic Miguel Angel Rodriguez. One of the fastest players around, with a host of unconventional shots and an entertaining propensity to dive for the ball, sometimes several times in a rally, Rodriguez like White is a crowd favourite wherever he plays.  The match is sure to draw some enthusiastic spectators.

South African Steve Coppinger and Englishman Adrian Waller will have a hard act to follow to round off the action at Drexel, but they'll certainly be up for it.

Fans at the historic Racquet Club of Philadelphia will also get to see two locals in action, as USA’s Chris Hansen and Graham Bassett meet stylish young Frenchman Greg Marche and Hong Kong’s Max Lee. Preceding that Canadian #1 Shahier Razik meets Pakistani Yasir Butt and an all-Aussie clash finished off the evening as Zac Alexander - who qualified from the same venue with two hour-long wins last year - meets compatriot Matthew Karwalski.

First up at Merion Cricket Club is another ex-pat Englishman, the club’s head coach Alex Stait, who faces another Aussie in Ryan Cuskelly. After a potentially long meeting between Karim Abdel Gawad and Campbell Grayson the home crowd then gets to cheer on the USA’s Todd Harrity against all-action Scot Alan Clyne, finishing off ith a potentially explosive match between Canada’s Shawn Delierre and Egyptian Omar Abdel Aziz.

Matches at Germantown Cricket Club start with two rather unfortunate ‘local derbies’, Englishmen Chris Simpson and Joe Lee, followed by home stars Julian Illingworth and Dylan Murray.

Julian Illingworth is current USA number one star, world ranked #28 and playing on the professional circuit.  He will take on Dylan Murray, the up-and-coming youngster of the USA, current junior national champion and future star.  The game is sure to be a good one, and it's unfortunate that the match up means that only one of these national squash champions will continue through the event.

Both should be good matches, and two more follow with world junior champion Marwan El Shorbagy facing Mexico’s tenacious Cesar Salazar - world ranking 26 v 52 but don’t let that fool you into thinking it will be quick - and Aamir Atlas Kan versus Henrik Mustonen, speedy Pakistani against fast-improving Finn.

So there you have it - one of the most interesting qualifying draws, ever, but you can only be in one place at a time. All we can say is you won’t be disappointed if you can get to any of the venues, or of course you follow it all here ...

As they say in Philly, stay tuned ...

To view the full qualifying draw, click here.

04-Oct, Qualifying Round One

DREXEL UNIVERSITY:
17.00 Martin Knight (Nzl) v Jamie Macaulay (Sco)
18.00 Siddharth Suchde (Ind) v Joe Russell (Eng)
19.00 Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Col) v John White (Sco)
20.00 Steve Coppinger (Rsa) v Adrian Waller (Eng)

RACQUET CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA:
17.00 Shahier Razik (Can) v Yasir Butt (Pak)
18.00 Gregoire Marche (Fra) v Christopher Hanson (Usa)
19.00 Max Lee (Hkg) v Graham Bassett (Usa)
20.00 Zac Alexander (Aus) v Matthew Karwalski (Aus)

MERION CRICKET CLUB:
17.00 Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) v Alex Stait (Eng)
18.00 Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) v Campbell Grayson (Nzl)
19.00 Alan Clyne (Sco) v Todd Harrity (Usa)
20.00 Shawn Delierre (Can) v Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy)

GERMANTOWN CRICKET CLUB:
17.00 Chris Simpson (Eng) v Joe Lee (Eng)
18.00 Julian Illingworth (Usa) v Dylan Murray (Usa)
19.00 Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy) v Cesar Salazar (Mex)
20.00 Aamir Atlas Khan (Pak) v Henrik Mustonen (Fin)

 

 

 

 

The lead up to the 2012 Delaware Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships has kicked off with the men’s and women’s local pre-qualifiers currently underway.

U.S. Open pre-qualifiers will be held at clubs across Philadelphia through July and August to determine the local Philadelphia professionals who will compete in the U.S. Open qualifiers on October 4 and 5.

The Men’s draw contains 12 players led by first seed Jamie Macaulay, a Scottish pro player who now coaches at the Fairmount Athletic Club and who competed in last year’s U.S. Open after qualifying through the 2011 pre-qualifiers, and second seed Alex Stait who is a former English professional player and now a full-time squash coach at the Merion Cricket Club.

The draw also includes two American hopefuls.  Matthew Domenick graduated this spring from the University of Rochester where he played for the varsity college squash team and captained the team during his final season.  During his junior squash career he was the U.S. Boys U17 National Champion, and represented the United States at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Zurich, Switzerland.  Dent Wilkens is a graduate of Princeton University where he played on the varsity squash team for four years, and now works for the sport he loves as Program Director at U.S. SQUASH.

The Women’s Draw contains eight players. First seed Alex Clark is a Scottish native who now coaches at the Fairmount Athletic Club in Philadelphia and competed in the U.S. Open in 2011 through last year’s pre-qualifiers.  Second seed is Karen Kronemeyer, who was born in Australia but is a citizen of the Netherlands.  Kronemeyer competes on the professional women’s squash tour and reached a career high singles world ranking of #40 in March 2004.  She is now the varsity squash coach and teaching professional at the Baldwin school in Bryn Mawr, Philadelphia.

There are also four Americans competing in the women’s draw, including University of Pennsylvania rising Senior Stephanie Vogel, and former Bowdoin College star Niki Clement, now head varsity coach for the men’s and women’s squash teams at Haverford College. Amy Gross, a graduate of Yale University and the current Assistant Coach of the University of Pennsylvania varsity women’s team will also be playing.  During her junior squash career, Amy represented the United States at two Word Junior Team Championships, Antwerp, Belgium in 1999 and Penang, Malaysia in 2001.  During her college squash career at Yale, her team won 3 National Championships, and as an individual she was a First-Team All-American for each of her four years.

The Women’s draw also includes local junior phenomenon Olivia Fiechter, a Philadelphia native who made it through last year’s pre-qualifiers to the 2011 U.S. Open.  Olivia recently returned from Doha, Qatar where she represented the United States in the 2012 World Junior Championships, an event she also competed in last year.  Olivia is currently a high school student at the Germantown Friends School in her junior year and has played #1 on her varsity high school squash team since she was in eighth grade.

Olivia is the current Girls U17 National Champion, as well as the 2010 U.S. Junior Open U17 champion and has been training hard for months in preparation for the World Championships held earlier in July, and although she is taking some time to relax and recharge after the competition, she is looking forward to the pre-qualifiers.

“I am most excited to play people that I haven't before. In junior tournaments, I often end up playing the same players over and over again so I am excited to face players with new styles and more experience than I have,” she says.

The U.S. Open local pre-qualifiers will wrap up by mid-August, with the top three male professionals and top female professional winning their places into the draw for the qualifiers of the 2012 Delaware Investments U.S. Open.

Article by Todd Harrity.

Top seeds crash out in marathon qualifying finals

Day two of the Delaware Investments US Open Squash Championships saw the conclusion of the men's qualifying competition, with two matches in each of four Philadelphia Clubs. At Drexel University Nicolas Mueller had to withstand a fast-paced attack from India's Siddarth Suchde, who took the game to the young Swiss from the outset, taking the first game 11/7 and opening up a good lead in the second. Unfazed, Mueller fought back to take the second and third games 11/8, 11/5, but in the fourth Suchde again attacked at pace and led 7/4. His strategy was high risk though, and several clips of the tin brought Mueller back into the game, and from 9-all two more errors brought relief to the Swiss and disappointment to the Indian. "It was a tough first two games," said Mueller. "He played well to go 1-0 and 5/2 up, but I was just too loose. I managed to get some quick points to get back into it, and started to control it better in the third. The last was point for point, he hit a few winners but fortunately he hit more tins. "I'm happy to be in the main draw - I don't mind who I get, you have to beat everyone to win the tournament!" Further disappointment followed for the Indian camp as top seed Saurav Ghosal found Ryan Cuskelly just too steady and too determined as the Australian battled his way to an 80-minute upset win. The first two games were shared, then Cuskelly took a crucial lead after saving a game ball in the third game. Ghosal's renowned speed around court was much in evidence, but Cuskelly was controlling the rallies well, and more often than not it was the Indian who was going for the risky shot to try to finish the rallies. Midway through the fourth the effort seemed to be telling on Cuskelly as, for the first time, he looked fatigued and from 4-all he fell 8/4 behind with Ghosal seeming to be taking charge.  But the left-handed Aussie found some extra reserves to level at 9-all and force two final errors from the Indian racket. "I found a couple of extra gears," said Cuskelly after the match. "It's called training," quipped coach Rodney Martin, the former World Champion who has been working with Cuskelly in New York. "I wouldn't have minded a shorter match," added the winner, "but I have to be happy with taking out the top qualifying seed to make the main draw. "The work I've been doing with Rodney is starting to pay off now, I'm able to play the type of game I want to play, keeping it tight, forcing the loose ball out of them and attacking when the opportunity comes. I felt my game was struggling, but he's really given me a boost. Cuskelly's reward is a meeting with fellow Aussie David Palmer, the eighth seed, while Mueller drew Englishman Jon Kemp. Over at Merion Cricket Club Chris Ryder and Shawn Delierre enjoyed straight game victories, as did Simon Rosner at the Germantown Cricket Club, where Tarek Momen took 71 minutes for his five-game win over Robbie Temple. The Racquet Club of Philadelphia saw two brutal matches, as Scotland's Alan Clyne beat qualifying second seed Ong Beng Hee in four games and 84 minutes, the longest match of the two day qualifying competition. Zac Alexander, the last-minute entrant who upset Steve Coppinger last night, continued his run with a 3/1 victory over world junior champion Marwan El Shorbagy in exactly an hour. Alexander drew the short straw ah he came out of the hat of qualifiers first, to be slotted against top seed, world champion and world number one Nick Matthew.

Men's Qualifying Finals: Drexel University Nicolas Mueller (Sui) bt Siddarth Suchde (Ind)    7/11, 11/8, 11/5, 11/9 (58m) Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) bt Saurav Ghosal (Ind)       11/7, 6/11, 13/11, 11/9 (80m) Merion Cricket Club Chris Ryder (Eng) bt  Martin Knight (Nzl)    11/3, 11/7, 11/5 (56m) Shawn Delierre (Can) bt Julien Balbo (Fra)   11/5, 11/7, 11/6 (45m) Germantown Cricket Club Tarek Momen (Egy) bt  Robbie Temple (Eng)   11/4, 9/11, 11/3, 8/11, 11/7 (71m) Simon Rosner (Ger) bt Joey Barrington (Eng)     11/4, 11/8, 11/4 (41m) Racquet Club of Philadelphia Alan Clyne (Sco) bt  Ong Beng Hee (Mas)      10/12, 11/8, 12/10, 11/9 (84m) Zac Alexander (Aus) bt Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy)   11/2, 12/10, 3/11, 11/8 (60m) Main Draw Matchups: Matthew v Alexander, Richards v Momen, Hisham v Clyne, Selby v Rosner, Grant v Delierre, Anjema v Ryder, Palmer v Cuskelly, Kemp v Mueller

Action continues on Friday with eight men's first round matches (top half) on the Glass Court, and eight women's qualifying round one matches on the traditional courts at Drexel University. Both start at 12.00.

Impressive progress in the arena

During the day, preparations in the Daskalakis Athletic Centre moved on apace, with yesterday's essentially bare auditorium rapidly filling up and being transformed into what promises to be one of the best venues ever, catering for spectators, players, organisers and media in nicely-partitioned sections and making very good use of the impressive space available.  

Alexander makes the most of late entry as Americans bow out The 2011 Delaware Investments US Open Squash Championships kicked off in Philadelphia with four matches at each of four Philly clubs, including Drexel University's Daskalakis Athletic Center where all the main draw matches (and all the women's matches) will be held on the all-glass court that is in the finishing stages of being erected. It wasn't a good day for the hosts as all six US competitors fell at the first hurdle, but in the final match of the day young Australian Zac Alexander made the most of a late callup to the competition.

First on the traditional court at Drexel were Australian Ryan Cuskelly and young Finn Henrik Mustonen. After a tough opening game which Cuskelly led throughout and took 11/8, he closed out the match with increasing authority, taking the next two games 11/6, 11/3. "I'm pretty happy with how I played my first match for two months," said New York based Cuskelly, who was being coached by former world champion Rodney Martin. "He's very fit and gutsy and gets a lot back, so I was rying to control things with good length to force the openings, and in the end he started making a few errors. "After the Australian Open I came back to enjoy the New York Summer and a couple of good months training with Rod. We've been working on a few things and it's nice to see them coming together, hopefully it will continue to pay off in this tournament." India's Siddarth Suchde enjoyed a similar style of win, recovering from 6/0 down in taking the first game against 'local' entrant Jaymie Macaulay 12/10 and the next two more comfortably as the Scottish International, now based in nearby Fairmount, tired. "It wasn't the greatest of starts," admitted Suchde, who studied at Edinburgh University with Macaulay. "I was probably too relaxed and a bit complacent, but he surprised me and played really well at the start, getting everything right. "Tomorrow will be a really tough match, I have to make sure I'm ready right from the start!" Then came the main event of the evening as John White, the former world number one who is head coach at Drexel, took on qualifying top seed Saurav Ghosal. The audience had swelled as many of White's admirers and students strained to watch, and he made a good enough start, catching the young Indian out with the power of his shots and his ability to kill the ball - especially in the front right corner of the court - and taking an 8/6 lead in the opening game. Cries of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" followed winning points from White, the Australian who represented Scortland before moving to coach in the US four years ago. As the match wore on Ghosal, whose speed around court drew admiring gasps from the audience, became more and able to counter White's shotmaking, and after taking the first game 11/8 courtesy of a series of White errors, took the next two - both entertaining - 11/6, 11/4 to move into tomorrow's finals. "He's a speedy boy," said White of his opoponent. "He gets everything back and it's hard to find a way past when you haven't played in that standard of match for a while. I enjoyed it though, it was a good match and fun for the crowd, hopefully they'll all be back for the rest of the tournament over the next few days." "I played John once before, when he was still on tour," said Ghosal, "so I knew what I was going to get. He hits the ball so hard, especially on the forehand, and you have no idea where it's going. I tried to keep it on the backhand but he found winners from elsewhere, so I just had to try to get the ball straight and as tight as I could. "I'm pleased to get off 3/0, he's the draw nobody wanted but I was really looking forward to playing him, he's such a fair player and a crowd pleaser - I always tell the kids in India if you want someone to look up to and emulate John White is the one to look at." The final match at Drexel saw Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller beat Kamran Khan, the Malaysian who is the son of Pakistan's squash legend Jansher Khan, 11/6, 11/6, 11/8. Meanwhile the matches at Merion Cricket Club all featured home players, but the USA's Graham Bassett and Julian Illingworth, fell at the first hurdle,with  USA number one Julian Illingworth losing in straight-games to Canadian Shawn Delierre, winner of last week's Nash Cup in Ontario. At Germantown Cricket Club there were wins for Joey Barrington, Simon Rosner, Tarek Momen and Robbie Temple. Back in Downtown Philadelphia at the long-established (1898) Racquet Club of Philadelphia, World Junior Champion Marwan El Shorbagy produced a signigicant upset as he beat Czech #1 Jan Koukal, ranked some 17 places above the 18-year-old Egyptian. The final match of the day saw 22-year-old Zac Alexander, a late callup to qualifying competition yesterday, also produce an upset in beating South Africa's Steve Coppinger in four  hotly-contested games. "I only heard on Tuesday morning that I was in the draw," explained Alexander, "after the Salazar twins were apparently involved in a car accident. It's not the best way to make the draw, I hope they're ok, but I'm very happy with the win. Steve's a big guy, and with it being so hot and bouncy on that court it was tough to get the ball away from him." Alexander plays El Shorbagy for a place in the main draw. "I've never seen Marwan play," concluded Alexander, "but it's about time I played someone younger than myself!"

Drexel University 16.30   Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) bt Henrik Mustonen (Fin)              11/8, 11/6, 11/2 (44m) 17.30   Siddarth Suchde (Ind) bt  Jamie Macaulay (Sco)          12/10, 11/6, 11/4 (42m) 18.30   Saurav Ghosal (Ind) bt  John White (Sco)                             11/8, 11/6, 11/4 ( 36m) 19.30   Nicolas Mueller (Sui) bt Kamran Khan (Mas)                       11/6, 11/6, 11/8 (37m) Merion Cricket Club 17.30  Chris Ryder (Eng) bt  Graham Bassett (Usa)                   11/4, 11/3, 11/6 (28m) 18.30  Shawn Delierre (Can) bt Julian Illingworth (Usa)      11/4, 11/5, 11/6 (31m) 19.30   Julien Balbo (Fra) bt Todd Harrity (Usa)                   11/8, 16/14, 11/7 (46m) 20.30 Martin Knight (Nzl) bt Dylan Murray (Usa)          11/3, 11/6, 11/5 (28m) Germantown Cricket Club 17.30   Joey Barrington (Eng) bt Iago Cornes (Esp)          11/8, 11/7, 11/8 (33m) 18.30   Simon Rosner (Ger) bt Matthew Karwalski (Aus)     11/6, 11/6, 12/10 (39m) 19.30   Tarek Momen (Egy) bt  Adrian Waller (Eng)        11/7, 12/10, 8/11, 11/9 (60m) 20.30   Robbie Temple (Eng) bt Joe Russell (Eng)            9/11, 11/7, 11/5, 11/4 (45m) Racquet Club of Philadelphia 17.30   Alan Clyne (Sco) bt Chris Hansom (Usa)            11/3, 11/1, 11/3 (32m) 18.30 Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy) bt Jan Koukal Cze)   11/7, 6/11, 11/6, 11/9 (57m) 19.30   Ong Beng Hee (Mas) bt Gilly Lane (Usa)          11/4, 11/9, 11/3 (38m) 20.30   Zac Alexander (Aus) bt Steve Coppinger (Rsa)  7/11, 11/9, 11/5, 11/9 (56m)

During 2011 U.S. Open Championships, being held September 30th-October 6th, at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, U.S. SQUASH is permitted to designate 8 players for a position in the Men’s PSA Qualifying Draw, and 4 players in the Women’s WISPA Qualifying Draw. To fill these positions, U.S. SQUASH will bring together the best local professionals as well as the top players from varied constituencies. The U.S. Open presents a unique opportunity to showcase premier U.S. talent against the best players the world has to offer. Listed below are the criteria for both the Men’s and Women’s Local Qualifying positions for the 2011 U.S. Open at Drexel University: PSA Men’s Event: • 2 Men’s College Squash Association players, determined by being a U.S. Citizen and highest ranked in 2010-11 End-of-Season CSA Individual Rankings • 1 U.S. Junior Player, determined by U.S. BU19 Rankings as of March 21, 2011 • 1 Position to John White, Head Coach of Drexel University and former World #1 • 2 Local players determined in a pre-qualifier tournament, who must reside within 50 miles of Drexel University • 2 U.S. PSA players who do not automatically make the main or qualifying draw, selected in order of PSA ranking WISPA Women’s Event: • 1 Women’s College Squash Association player, determined by being a U.S. Citizen and highest ranked in 2010-11 End-of-Season CSA Individual Rankings • 1 U.S. Junior Player, determined by U.S. GU19 Rankings as of March 21, 2011 • 1 Local player determined in a pre-qualifier tournament, who must reside within 50 miles of Drexel University • 1 U.S. WIPSA players who does not automatically make the main or qualifying draw, selected in order of WISPA ranking Play in the Local Pre-Qualifier tournaments has been underway throughout the past several weeks, and final qualifying positions will be released later in August. U.S. SQUASH would like to thank all players for their participation. Women’s Pre-Qualifying Players: Alexandra Clark Niki Clement Olivia Fiechter Amy Gross Carrie Hastings Tina Rix Men’s Pre-Qualifying Players: Mike Bull Greg Clement Iago Cornes Alex Domenick Matt Domenick Paul Frank Sunny Hunt Imran Khan Jamie Macauley Thomas Mattsson Trevor McGuinness Joe Millman Lyall Patterson Joe Russell Todd Ruth Dent Wilkens To purchase tickets for the 2011 U.S. Open Championships, please click here.