For the first time since the 1988 U. S. Open Squash Championships, the Emerald City welcomes a Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournament to the Seattle Athletic Club with the $5,000 Stratos Seattle Open.
American Todd Harrity prepares to make his second Professional Squash Association appearance of 2014 as the four seed after bowing out of the Tournament of Champions against world No. 4 Mohamed Elshorbagy. Joining him in the main draw is Rochester University graduate and Portland, Oregon, native Adam Perkiomaki who faces Irish two seed Arthur Gaskin in the first round. Qualifying for the main draw, Perkiomaki defeated both seventeen-year-old U.S. junior Zane McGee-Lowdermilk and Mexican Sergio Lopez in four games.
A band of club-members tried their hand at qualifying for the main draw and nearly completed their bid as Ronn McMahon, Naveen Garg and Shahjahan Khan all reached the qualifying finals.
McMahon (pictured right), a former member of the Canadian Olympic basketball team, defeated Racquet Club of Philadelphia assistant professional James Asher (pictured left) 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 in the first round of qualifying. The forty-eight-year-old then fell short in the qualifying finals losing in three games to Brazilian Vinicius Rodrigues.
English nineteen-year-old Ashley Davies brushed aside Garg in three games, and eighteen-year-old Khan fell to Dutch international Bart Ravelli, but stretched the match to five games.
English world No. 75 Joel Hinds is seeded first and faces qualifier Rodrigues in the first round and Canadian veteran Matthew Serediak travels south of the border as the three seed.
First qualifying round:
Vinicius Rodrigues (BRA) v bye
Ronn McMahon (USA) bt James Asher (ENG) 11-4, 11-4, 11-4
Adam Perkiomaki (USA) bt Zane McGee-Lowdermilk (USA) 11-5, 11-8, 12-14, 11-6
Sergio Lopez (MEX) v bye
Ashley Davies (ENG) bt Dar Khalghi (USA) 3-0
Naveen Garg bt Charlie Johnson (ENG) w/o
Bart Ravelli (NED) bt Andrew Wei (USA) 11-1, 11-0, 11-4
Shahjahan Khan (PAK) v bye
Qualifying finals:
Vinicius Rodrigues (BRA) bt Ronn McMahon (USA) 3-0
Adam Perkiomaki (USA) bt Sergio Lopez (MEX) 3-1
Ashley Davies (ENG) bt Naveen Garg (USA) 3-0
Bart Ravelli (NED) bt Shahjahan Khan (PAK) 3-2
Main draw first round:
[1] Joel Hinds (ENG) v [Q] Vinivius Rodrigues (BRA)
[8] James Earles (ENG) v Christophe Andre (FRA)
[7] Robert Downer (ENG) v [Q] Ashley Davies (ENG)
[4] Todd Harrity (USA) v [Q] Bart Ravelli (NED)
Jonathan Geekie (SCO) v [3] Matthew Serediak (CAN)
Tom Pashley (ENG) v [5] Richie Fallows (ENG)
Asif KhnKhalil (PAK) v [6] Karamatullah Khan (PAK)
[Q] Adam Perkiomaki (USA) v [2] Arthur Gaskin (IRL)