Chris Hanson in the 2017 S.L. Green U.S. men’s championship.
S.L. Green U.S. men’s champion Chris Hanson enters the $10,000 Madison Open as the two seed this weekend at Madison Squash Workshop in Wisconsin.
The twenty-six year old is making his second PSA appearance since claiming his first national title last month. Hanson, world No. 92, is predicted to face fellow American Faraz Khan, the seven seed, in the second round Friday, April 21, and Seattle-based Pakistani Shajahan Khan in the semifinals Saturday, April 22.
If the draw plays out according to seeding, Hanson will meet Dutch world No. 72 Piedro Schweertman in Sunday’s final.
Last month one week after the S.L. Green, Schweertman defeated Hanson in a five-game, first-round match at the $15,000 Manitoba Open.
The Madison Open is live streaming and scoring all weekend on www.usprosquashseries.com/live. First round matches begin Thursday, April 20, at 5:30pm local time, 6:30pm ET.
Karim Abdel Gawad (r) against Fares Dessouki in the El Gouna Open. (image: squashpics.com)
Egypt’s world No. 2 Karim Abdel Gawad is the title favorite for the revamped Life Time Hutkay.fit Houston Open this weekend at Life Time Athletic in Texas.
For the first time in tournament history, the draw has elevated prize money of $70,000 on offer—the highest prize money for a PSA event ever held in Texas.
England’s former world No. 1 and current world No. 7 James Willstrop weighs in as the two seed, while Egypt’s world No. 11 Tarek Momen and world No. 9 enter as the three and four seeds, respectively.
French world No. 2 Camille Serme continued her unbeaten start to 2017 after she mounted a superb comeback from two games down to retain her Cleveland Classic title at the expense of England’s former world No. 3 Alison Waters in Pepper Pike, Ohio.
Serme, the twenty-seven-year-old from Créteil, has been in scintillating form over the past few months, with victories at the Delaware Investments U.S. Open and J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions cementing her status as the form player on the Women’s Tour.
Serme surged through to the final without dropping a solitary game, with Egyptian qualifier Nadine Shahin, number eight seed Tesni Evans and World No.8 Sarah-Jane Perry all falling by the wayside as the rampant Frenchwoman went on to set up a repeat of the 2016 final with Waters, who was the only player to have beaten Serme in the latter’s 16 previous matches coming into the final.
Waters looked to be set to get the better of her opponent once more after going two games ahead courtesy of some disciplined length hitting, putting the current World No.10 on the cusp of a first PSA World Tour title since the 2014 Carol Weymuller Open.
But Serme responded in the third by attacking at the front of the court on the backhand side and, after winning it by an 11-7 margin, she ground out a victory in the fourth to level the scores and set up a dramatic fifth-game showdown.
With the match edging towards its conclusion, both players played an attritional brand of squash with neither competitor giving many loose shots away as they sought to gain the upper hand. But it was Serme who changed up her game intelligently, incorporating the lob to great effect as she closed out a 10-12, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 victory to lift her third PSA World Tour title in her last four tournaments.
Serme and Waters will be in action at the upcoming Windy City Open presented by Guggenheim Partners and EquiTrust Life Insurance Company, which will be shown live on SQUASHTV between February 23 – March 1.
Serme (l) against Waters in the 2016 final. (image: Andrea Dawson)
France’s world No. 2 Camille Serme leads the $50,000 Tub O’ Towels & Chemical Bank Cleveland Classic draw as the top seed this weekend, and is predicted to face England’s Alison Waters in what would be a rematch of the 2016 final at the Cleveland Racquet Club in Ohio.
The first round of qualifying took place Wednesday evening with the qualifying finals set to complete the main draw Thursday from 5pm local time.
World No. 26 Olivia Blatchford is the sole Team USA representation in the main draw and will face Waters in the first round.
England’s world No. 8 Sarah-Jane Perry occupies the three seed in the top half of the draw and India’s Joshna Chinappa is the four seed in the bottom half of the draw.
Australian world No. 19 Ryan Cuskelly recorded the biggest result of his career Monday night in Detroit, dethroning $70,000 Motor City Open champion Ali Farag to win his largest career PSA Tour title at Birmingham Athletic Club.
In a tournament full of upsets including ElShorbagy brothers Mohamed and Marwan eliminated by Ceasar Salazar & Diego Elias respectively, the final continued the trend as Farag, world No. 7, fell in four games.
The Greenwich, Connecticut-based Cuskelly marked his ninth Motor City Open appearance, but before this weekend, never made it past the quarterfinals.
“I’m pretty excited to win my biggest title in my favorite tournament on the tour,” Cuskelly said. “I always told the guys here I’d win it someday, but I didn’t expect it to be this year.”
After losing the first game and earning a 2-1 lead, Cuskelly came back from a 9-4 deficit in the fourth game to defeat the Egyptian Harvard graduate.
“He stepped it up,” Farag said. “I couldn’t find the right balance between being aggressive and playing smart. Every time I would try to be aggressive, I would hit the tin. He put too much pressure on me.”
“I was up 4-2 and I thought about the finish line, which is silly,” Cuskelly said. “Next minute I was down 9-4 and I just tried to get back to playing normal squash for the fifth game.”
Cuskelly now holds a 2-1 career lead against Farag, whom he most recently defeated in the 2015 Charlottesville open.
“It’s unbelievable,” Cuskelly said. “I lost in qualification for years, but I did a lot of hard training in December and it paid off.”
England international Eddie Charlton claimed the seventh PSA Tour title of his career fulfilling his seeding to win the inaugural $5,000 Delaware Pro Singles at Wilmington Country Club.
Although it is the twenty-eight-year-old’s seventh career title, it is his first since relocating to Chicago and first U.S. Pro Series title.
The Englishman entered the draw as the top seed, brushing off American David Cromwell in the first round and Canadian Cameron Seth in the quarterfinals.
The main draw was shaken up by three qualifiers who pulled off first-round upsets to reach the quarterfinals, including former U.S. men’s national team player Gilly Lane, who took out seven seed Stu Hadden in a three-game, first-round match.
Pakistani qualifier Syed Hamzah Bukhari made an unexptected run to the semifinals, upsetting Team USA’s four seed Faraz Khan in the first round and Bermuda’s Micah Franklin in the quarterfinals before losing out against Charlton in the final.
In an all-English final, Charlton held off two seed Adam Murrills 11-9, 11-5, 4-11, 11-6 in fifty minutes to claim the title.
PSA squash returns to Delaware in two weeks in the form of the $10,000 Corporation Service Company Delaware Women’s Open.
Faraz Khan (l) at the 2016 S.L. Green U.S. Men’s Championship.
The first $5,000 PSA Men’s Delaware Pro Singles main draw is set following two rounds of qualifying, as four Americans aim for the title this weekend at the Wilmington Country Club in Delaware.
Former U.S. men’s national team player and world No. 46 Gilly Lane returned to the PSA Tour for the first time in fifteen months, and recorded two qualifying victories over fellow American Nick Talbott and Trinity graduate Elroy Leong to reach the main draw. The US Squash Academy Director will face Ireland’s seven seed Stu Hadden at 5pm Thursday afternoon.
Chicago-based Englishman Eddie Charlton leads the draw as the top seed. The former world No. 50 will take on American David Cromwell in the first round.
Greenwich, CT-based Faraz Khan enters the tournament as the four seed and will play Pakistan’s Syed Bukhari. Franklin & Marshall graduate Dylan Cunningham enters the draw as the six seed and awaits Canada’s Cameron Seth in the first round.
Main draw matches begin at 12pm noon local time. Follow live scores and view the draw on www.usprosquashseries.com/live.
2016 U.S. junior champions Marina Stefanoni (l) and Andrew Douglas.
U.S. junior champions Andrew Douglas and Marina Stefanoni are both set to compete in qualifying for U.S. Pro Series events this week, the $10,000 Life Time Florida Open and $5,000 LiveStuff Open respectively.
Eighteen-year-old Douglass is making his U.S. Pro Series debut and just his second PSA appearance after competing in the 2016 Delaware Investments U.S. Open, where he stretch German world No. 44 Raphael Kandra to five games.
The junior Pan American Champion will face fellow American and St. Lawrence graduate Timmy Lasusa in the first round of qualifying from Life Time Fitness Boca Raton at 5pm ET.
One week after shocking the two seed in the McLean Open on her fourteenth birthday, Stefanoni travels north to the Tuxedo Club in New York to vie for a place in the Live Stuff Open main draw. Stefanoni will face fellow American Caroline Neave Wednesday at 6:15pm ET.
Todd Harrity (l) and Alfredo Avila before the Salt Lake City Open final. (image: Morgan Leigh Photography)
Mexico’s Alfredo Avila held off a third-game comeback from Team USA’s Todd Harrity to win his eighth career PSA Title and first U.S. Pro Series title since 2013—the $15,000 Wasatch Advisors Salt Lake City Open—Saturday night at SquashWork’s in Utah’s capital.
Avila, world No. 75 and former world No. 35, showed no signs of fatigue after two consecutive five-gamers to reach the final and played his best squash of the tournament against the American world No. 53. After controlling the first two games 11-5, 11-6, Avila held three match balls in the third game up 10-7. Harrity dug in and fought off all three match balls and earned a game ball up 11-10, but Avila bounced back to seal the final 14-12.
“Today I played by best squash in this tournament,” Avila said after the final. “One of the most important things for me today was coming into the match with a plan against Todd. We’ve played twice before and I know how he plays and where he’s strong. I tried to play a game that wouldn’t let him play his best. I made my best shots and they went to the right places. It was 10-7 and after that I started to think I was going to win, but then he put a lot of pressure on me and played good shots, and I was hitting the ball without thinking about it being under pressure. Then it was 10-all and he had a game ball. So after that I refocused and went back to my game that was working well.
The Mexican aims to continue his U.S. Pro Series success in the new year, when he will aim for a second title in two months in Pittsburgh.
Kanzy El Defrawy in the 2016 Delaware Investments U.S. Open. (image: squashpics.com)
Report courtesy of PSA.
Egyptian number one seed Kanzy Emad El Defrawy lifted her third PSA World Tour title of 2016 after a dominant win over Canada’s Nicole Bunyan in the final stage of the 2016 Bitar Cosmetics – Play Squash Women’s Open, PSA W5 tournament held at the McLean Squash Center in Virginia.
El Defrawy, who has also won the Richmond Open and the Amman Open this year, was the highest ranked player to take part in the tournament at World No.41 and, after receiving a bye in round one, showed her class to defeat compatriot Farah Abdel Meguid and then Colombian Catalina Pelaez to earn her final berth.
23-year-old Bunyan, meanwhile, achieved a landmark week in Virginia as she fought her way through to a first ever PSA World Tour final, notably downing South African twins Lume and Elani Landman en route.
El Defrawy is ranked 49 places above Bunyan on the World Rankings, and overwhelmed the Canadian by playing at a lighting-quick tempo and ripping a number of punishing drives to the back of the court.
The encounter lasted just 20 minutes, with El Defrawy dropping just seven points across three games to capture her second PSA World Tour crown of the 2016/17 season.
Result – Final: 2016 Bitar Cosmetics – Play Squash Women’s Open
[1] Kanzy Emad El Defrawy (EGY) bt [4] Nicole Bunyan (CAN) 3-0: 11-1, 11-3, 11-3 (20m)
