There were no surprises or wild upsets last night, October 23, at the Life Time Chicago Open, in Vernon Hills, Illinois, as all seeded-players defeated their lower-ranked opponents to make the quarterfinals.

One match between fifth seed and world No. 101, Andrew Schnell from Canada, and qualifier from South Africa, Clinton Leeuw, world No. 453, almost tipped the other way. Schnell and Leeuw battled through a tough five-game match; Schnell barely squeezing through for the win at 11-9 in the final game. Schnell faces second seed, Campbell Grayson, in the quarterfinals, in their second career-match-up; the first in 2012 a win for Grayson in three.

American interest ended in the first round of the main draw. It was New Jersey-native Faraz Khan’s first time in the U.S. Pro Series Challenger 10 event in Chicago, but the world No. 336 fought his way through the qualifiers to make the main draw. Khan faced Grayson, world No. 46 and New Zealand-native, in four games with Grayson emerging victorious 11-4, 11-6, 10-12, 11-6.

The second American and second-time Chicago Open competitor, Adrian Leanza, world No. 171, lost in three sets to the higher-ranked Benjamin Fischer, world No. 127 and eighth seed, 11-2, 11-4, 11-7.

The Life Time Chicago Open runs from October 23-26. For more information, visit the Life Time Chicago Open tournament page.

Faraz Khan, U.S. world No. 336, made the main draw of the Life Time Chicago Open, a U.S. Pro Series and Challenger 10K event, at Life Time Athletic in Vernon Hills, Illinois, Wednesday night.

Khan defeated Canada’s Nicholas Sachvie, world No. 171 and seventh seed for the qualifiers, in four games 4-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-5. In their first career match-up, Khan faces New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson, world No. 46 and second seed in the tournament, tonight at 8pm local time.

Andre Maur, Life Time Granx Prix Tour Director, noted that the most epic match of the qualifying finals was fought between Mexico’s Erik Tepos Valtierra, world No. 185, and Guatemala’s Josque Enriquez,  world No. 171. The match lasted an overwhelming one-hundred-eighteen minutes, five incredibly close games, but the lower-ranked Valtierra recovered from 2-0 to win with a scoreline of 9-11, 7-11, 14-12, 11-6, 11-9.

The tournament runs from October 23-26. For more information, visit the Life Time Chicago Open tournament page.

The Life Time Chicago Open, a Challenger 10 U.S. Pro Series event featuring two Americans, is underway at the Life Time Athletic in Vernon Hills, Illinois.

Faraz Khan, world No. 336, worked his way through to the qualifying finals, upsetting Ireland’s Sean Conroy, world No. 178, in three games 11-6, 11-8, 11-8, in the first qualifying round. In their first career match-up, Khan faces Canadian Nicholas Sachvie, world No. 219 and seventh seed in the qualifiers.

The second American, Adrian Leanza, world No. 171, faces eighth seed and world No. 127, Switzerland’s Benjamin Fischer, in the main draw, tomorrow at 6pm local time. The two have never played before.

For more information, visit the Life Time Chicago Open tournament page.

Report courtesy of the Professional Squash Association.

Scotland’s Greg Lobban clinched the fourth PSA World Tour title of his career when he surprised top seed Julian Illingworth in the final of the Indian Summer PSA Securian Open, the PSA Challenger 5 event at Commodore Squash Club in St Paul, Minnesota.

The second seed from Edinburgh reached the final, the 10th of his career, without dropping a game. Awaiting him was home favorite Illingworth, the reigning and nine-time U.S. national champion who had also failed to concede a game en-route to the climax.

It was the illustrious thirty-year-old from Portland’s twenty-third Tour final—but his first of the year.The match was the pair’s first meeting, with Lobban 16 ranking places behind the home hero.

But the twenty-two-year-old Scot made a sensational start, winning the first game for the loss of just a single point before going on to take the match going on to take the match 11-1, 11-5, 12-10.

“Pleasing week here at the Indian Summer PSA event,” world No. 71 Lobban told his Twitter followers later. “Won my 4th title. One more stop left on my tour. #Chicagobound” Lobban is fourth seed in this week’s Life Time Chicago Open.

Illingworth was successful elsewhere during the Indian Summer Squash weekend as he teamed up with fellow PSA player Zac Alexander to defeat Willie Hosey and Raj Nanda in the Squash Doubles Association (SDA) Invitational doubles draw held alongside the PSA draw.

For all draws and more information, visit the official Indian Summer Squash page.

PSA Final:
[2] Greg Lobban (SCO) bt [1] Julian Illingworth (USA) 11-1, 11-5, 12-10

PSA Semifinals:
[1] Julian Illingworth (USA) bt Ashley Davies (ENG) 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 [2] Greg Lobban (SCO) bt [4] Zac Alexander (AUS) 11-3, 11-6, 11-5

Nine-time U.S. Champion and top seed in the $5,000 Professional Squash Association (PSA) Indian Summer has reached the semifinals with two three-game victories at the Commodore Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The thirty-year-old Portland-native now faces nineteen-year-old Englishman Ashley Davies in Friday’s Semifinals. Davies, world No. 168, is the only unseeded semifinalist having upset sixth-seeded South African Thoboki Mohohlo in the first round and third-seeded Canadian Matthew Serediak in a four-game quarterfinal.

The top seeds are on track in the bottom half of the draw with econd-seeded Scotsman Greg Lobban and fourth-seeded Zac Alexander set to contest the second semifinal Friday night.

For more information, visit the official Indian Summer tournament page.

Report Courtesy of the Professional Squash Association 

Canadian Shahier Razik, the number three seed, claimed the Squash Revolution National Capital Open title for the third time in his career after defeating Englishman Lewis Walters, the number four seed, 3-1 in a tense final at the Chevy Chase Athletics Club.

The thirty-six-year-old, who claimed the 2009 and 2010 titles, dominated the first game of the encounter winning 11-2 and followed it up to take the second 11-5, establishing a dominant-looking lead.

However, twenty-six-year-old Walters hit back with a tenacious performance in the third game, winning 11-4 and kept his hopes of victory alive, but there was no beating Razik, as the elder statesman redoubled his efforts to stop Walters’ resurgence and edged a close 11-9 win in the final game to take the title.

It was a final full of excitement and entertainment and was a fitting end to a tournament that had more than its fair share of shocks and upsets from day one – with some of the top seeds falling at the first hurdles.

Tournament favorite and number one seed Dane Sharp, the World No. 88, fell to unseeded Ashley Davies in a shock 3-0 defeat on the opening day with Davies’ performance belying his world ranking of 168 while Arthur Gaskin, the No. 2 seed, also bowed out on day one to unseeded opponent Ahmad Alzabidi – the World No. 229.

Alzabidi followed up his impressive first round performance with victory over fellow qualifier Baba Tunde Ajagbe, who earned his passage to the last eight courtesy of a walkover victory against Karamatullah Khan, in the quarter-finals before falling to Razik at the semi-final stage.

In their first career match-up, Chris Hanson, world No. 184 and qualifier, upset fellow American, Adrian Leanza, world No. 171 and sixth seed, in the first round of the Capital Open, to take the match in three games 11-7, 11-8, 11-1.

For more information, visit the National Capital Open tournament page.

National Capital Open Final Results:
[3] Shahier Razik (CAN) bt. [4] Lewis Walters (ENG) 11-2, 11-5, 4-11, 11-9

Report courtesy of the Professional Squash Association.

Peruvian prodigy Diego Elias picked up his second PSA World Tour title before reaching the age of 18 when he upset top seed Ryan Cuskelly in the final of the SquashWorks Salt Lake City Open, the PSA Challenger 10 event at SquashWorks in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Unseeded, the 17-year-old World Junior Champion from Lima – playing in only his 16th event on the PSA World Tour – despatched the sixth, second and fourth seeds before lining up against Australian favourite Cuskelly, the World No.43 from New South Wales marking his 15th appearance in a Tour final.

Diego dug deep and battled for 85 minutes to overcome experienced left-hander Cuskelly 13-11, 12-10, 11-9 in an epic encounter.

“Those who attended the final match between Ryan and Diego were treated to one of the best matches ever played at SquashWorks,” reported tournament organiser Craig Bennett.

“It may even have been better than the epic 2002 semi-final battle between Simon Parke and Alex Gough! It seems that every rally had multiple changes of momentum. The first game alone was over 40 minutes.”

For more images of the tournament, visit the Squashworks Salt Lake City Open gallery.

Final:
Diego Elias (PER) bt [1] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) 13-11, 12-10, 11-9 (85m)

The main draw of the $5,000 Professional Squash Association (PSA) National Capital Open is set with Americans Chris Hanson and Adrian Leanza pitted against each other for the first time on the PSA tour in Friday’s first round at Chevy Chase Athletic Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Both players are recent Ivy League graduates—Hanson of Dartmouth and Leanza of Brown—and have cracked the top 200 in the world rankings having spent approximately a year on the professional tour. This month, Hanson rose to a career-high ranking of No. 184, while Leanza dropped to No. 171 having reached a career high of No. 140 in July.

The players have met in US Squash-accredited play, however, during the 2014 S.L. Green in which Hanson defeated Leanza to claim fifth place.

While Leanza has been slated for the main draw, Hanson needed to defeat Pakistani Chaudhary Nasir Anwar 11-0, 11-3, 11-1 in Qualifying Thursday night to reach the main draw.

Both the first round and quarterfinals will play out Friday with match play beginning at 1pm ET.

National Capital Open First Round
[1] Dane Sharp (CAN) v Ashley Davies (ENG)
[7] David Letourneau (CAN) v [Q] Mubarak Mohsin (UAE)
[5] Michael McCue (CAN) v Anthony Graham (ENG)
[4] Lewis Walters (ENG) v Nosherwan Khan (PAK)
[3] Shahier Razik (CAN) v [WC] Omar Sobhy (USA)
[6] Adrian Leanza (USA) v [Q] Chris Hanson (USA)
[8] Karamatullah Khan (PAK) v [Q] Baba Tunde Ajagbe (NGR)
[2] Arthur Gaskin (IRL) v [Q] Ahmad Alzabidi (JOR)

South America’s first World Junior Champion, Diego Elias, upset the Squashworks Salt Lake City Open second seed, Martin Knight, in a battle that lasted over an hour Wednesday night at the Squashworks Racquet and Fitness Club in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In their first career match-up, Elias, world No. 66, dominated the match early on taking both of the first games 11-1. Knight, world No. 47, came back in the third, pushing Elias to win 12-10. But Knight’s comeback wasn’t enough to deter the young Peruvian–Elias took the fourth, and final game, 11-3.

Elias faces Malaysia’s Muhd Asyraf Azan, fourth seed in the Challenger 10 Salt Lake City Open and world No. 63, in the semifinals. Elias and Azan have played twice before–once at the 2014 Northern Ontario Championship, and then again in the 2014 Greenwich Open. Elias won both match-ups. The two are set to play today, October 2, at 7pm local time.

The other semifinal will be contested by top-seeded Australian Ryan Cuskelly and fifth-seeded Englishman Ben Coleman who upset Cuskelly’s countryman, Steve Finitsis, in a three-game quarterfinal.

For more information, visit the Squashworks Salt Lake City Open tournament page.

For more images from the tournament, visit the Squashworks Salt Lake City Open gallery.

Squashworks Salt Lake City Open Semifinal Draw: 
[1] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) vs. [5] Ben Coleman (ENG)
[4] Muhd Asyraf Azan (MAS) vs. Diego Elias (PER)

Seventeen-year-old Peruvian World Junior Champion Diego Elias continued his outstanding form in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he defeated Scotland’s Greg Lobban, world No. 71, in the first round of the Squashworks Salt Lake City Open. The $10,000 U.S. Pro Series event runs from September 30-October 3 and is held at the Squashworks Racquet and Fitness Club.

On top of becoming the first South American World Junior Champion this summer, Elias reached a career high world ranking of 66 in October, mostly due to a quarterfinal run in the $70,000 Men’s Abierto Mexicano de Raquetas as a qualifier last month. In their first career match up, Elias is set to play second seed in the Open, New Zealand’s Martin Knight, world No. 47, in the quarterfinals today, October 1, 8:30pm local time.

The fifteen-player draw featured just one American: Faraz Khan, world No. 335, who fell to Malaysia’s Muhd Asyraf Azan, world No. 65 and fourth seed, in four games, 11-3, 8-11, 6-11, 12-14, in fifty-five minutes.

For more information, visit Squashworks Salt Lake City Open tournament page.

Salt Lake City Open Quarterfinals Draw:
[1] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) vs. [8] Paul Coll (NZL)
[2] Martin Knight (NZL) vs. Diego Elias (PER)
[3] Steve Finitsis (AUS) vs. [5] Ben Coleman (ENG)
[4] Muhd Asyraf Azan (MAS) vs. [7] Peter Creed (WAL)