The first fan at the 2021 U.S. Open Squash Championships was emblematic of the evolution of the game. Matt Maslanka was the very first spectator to enter the Arlen Specter US Squash Center today as first-round matches began in the forty-eight holding of the prestigious event. He was able to grab a front-row seat and get a close-up view of world-class squash.
“It’s amazing to see these players here,” said Maslanka said. “It’s a real thrill.”
Maslanka grew up in the Philadelphia area. He was introduced to squash as a student at Lower Merion High School and played on the combined Harriton & Lower Merion school team, one of the country’s more active public high school squads. In college, Maslanka played for four years on the club team at Penn State.
“When I moved back to Philadelphia, it was hard to find a public club near my house here in the city,” Maslanka said. This past summer, he read about the Specter Center on social media and immediately leapt at the chance to get back on the squash court.
“I joined the Specter last month and it’s been fantastic,” he said. “It’s a real community here already. I’ve been getting my friends to start playing and one of them just bought his first racquet and signed up for one of the free introductory clinics.”
Eighteen-year-old Harvard sophomore Marina Stefanoni marked her first competitive appearance at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center with a milestone upset over Canada’s world No. 19 Danielle Letourneau in the first round of the U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist Friday, October 1, in Philadelphia.
Stefanoni, one of the two women’s wild cards along with her younger sister, Lucie, stopped the in-form Cornell graduate in her tracks with an 11-6, 11-2, 11-6 scoreline in twenty-one minutes. The breakthrough result is Stefanoni’s first top twenty upset, and first win at the U.S. Open and Platinum level.
“I love playing on glass courts, so to have my match on the glass court today was something special, I’m hoping I can play on more glass courts in the future,” Stefanoni said. “The Specter Center is beautiful and the courts play really nicely. I’m really glad the U.S. Open is here this year!”
Stefanoni will now take on Egypt’s world No. 27 Nada Abbas Saturday at 12:45pm ET. Lucie Stefanoni returned to the same Specter Center court where she won the JCT U19 title in July in one of the first matches of the day, bowing out to Cornell senior Sivasangari Subramanium in three games.
Olivia Fiechter, who returned to a career high world No. 20 ranking Friday, joined her four U.S. teammates in the second round with her second career U.S. Open win in front of a partial home crowd. The Princeton graduate dispatched Egypt’s Menna Hamed 11-6, 11-7, 11-8 and will face world No. 24 Donna Lobban Saturday at 9:15pm.
“Menna is a really strong competitor, she’s had some tight matches with a lot of the girls in the top 20 and 30, so I don’t really think her ranking is reflective of the squash she is playing,” Fiechter said. “I had to come out really strong and my goal was to get used to this court. I’ve had a couple of sessions in the past two weeks, but it’s different when you’re competing on the court for the first time. I was trying to find my length, use variation and trying to make the first few rallies of every game really hard for her with a really high pace.”
Fiechter was the only one of the four top twenty-five-ranked U.S. women in first round action with Amanda Sobhy, Olivia Blatchford Clyne and Sabrina Sobhy joining the fold Saturday.
“The Specter Center incredible, I think the biggest thing is having the girls and the guys here on Team USA,” Fiechter said. “We’ve been spread across the country for so long and especially on the women’s side we have so many top players. To be able to set that bar and to play practice matches is incredible. Now Ong Beng Hee is here, we’ve just got a strength and conditioning coach, it’s all really coming together and it’s every professional athlete’s dream to have a facility like this.”
The depth of U.S. current and former college squash was on display on Friday with nine first round winners. In addition to Stefanoni, Subramanium and Fiechter, Vikram Malhotra (Trinity), Georgina Kennedy (Harvard), Melissa Alves (Penn), Farida Mohamed (Columbia), Ramit Tandon (Columbia), and Victor Crouin–who defeated former Harvard teammate Timmy Brownell–all advanced to the second round.
Saturday is set to host both second round play from 12pm noon and the Specter Center Grand Opening Ceremony at 5pm ET. Tickets are available from $15 and include access to all of the day’s matches and the Grand Opening Ceremony. Visit usopensquash.com/tickets for more information.
The Arlen Specter US Squash Center Grand Opening Ceremony took place during the 2021 U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist Saturday, October 2, in Philadelphia. Watch a full replay of the broadcast above.
A record eleven Americans will compete in the inaugural U.S. Open presented by Truist staged at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center, October 1-6, as the facility celebrates its Grand Opening, October 2, in Philadelphia on the campus of Drexel University.
Tickets starting from $15—including access to all matches each day and the Grand Opening Ceremony—are available on usopensquash.com/tickets. All match times and locations are available on usopensquash.com/draws.
The Platinum draws with $250,000 of equal prize money have attracted the best players in the world to inaugurate the Specter Center’s two all glass show courts.
Egypt’s world No. 1 Ali Farag and world No. 2 Nouran Gohar return to defend their titles as the one and two seeds, respectively. Farag, a Harvard graduate, will aim to equal two seed Mohamed ElShorbagy’s three-time U.S. Open champion record. Just weeks after winning the iconic Egyptian Open by the Pyramids, Gohar will aim for a second straight U.S. Open and major title.
The U.S. Open remains the only major title in squash to elude world No. 1 and U.S. Open top seed Nour El Sherbini, who has already become one of the sport’s most decorated players at just twenty-five-years old with five world titles and thirteen Platinum titles.
Team USA’s four top-twenty-five-ranked women are set to defend their new home courts for the first time at the Specter Center.
World No. 6 Amanda Sobhy enters the tournament as the four seed–her highest career U.S. Open seeding in her tenth appearance. After a first-round bye, the twenty-eight year old opens up her campaign following the Specter Center’s Grand Opening ceremony Saturday, October 2, at 7pm ET. World No. 12 Olivia Blatchford Clyne also enjoys a first round bye and will feature on the west glass court Saturday at 2:15pm against Egypt’s Nadine Shahin.
After a first round bye, world No. 18 Sabrina Sobhy faces a difficult draw in the form of Gohar Saturday night on the east glass court at 8:30pm. World No. 22 Olivia Fiechter joins first round action Friday, October 1 on the east glass court at 6:30pm against Egypt’s Menna Hamed.
World No. 41 Haley Mendez takes on fellow Harvard graduate Georgina Kennedy in the third match on the east glass court Friday at 1:30pm. Harvard sophomore Marina Stefanoni will make her third U.S. Open wild card appearance and first in four years against Canada’s Danielle Letourneau on the west glass court Friday at 2:15pm. Her younger sister, Lucie, makes her U.S. Open debut as the second wild card against Cornell’s Sivasangari Subramaniam in the first match on the east glass court Friday at 12pm noon.
Todd Harrity, a Wayne, Pennsylvania native, will play in front of the home crowd against Germany’s Raphael Kandra Friday night on the east glass court at 7:15pm. World No. 45 Shahjahan Khan will make his U.S. Open debut as a member of Team USA on the west glass court against Mexico’s Cesar Salazar Friday at 6:30pm.
Specter Center-based Timothy Brownell will play on his new home courts as a wile card against former Harvard teammate Victor Crouin Friday on the east glass court at 2:15pm. Faraz Khan is set for his sixth U.S. Open with his highest career ranking of world No. 61 and a first round match against Switzerland’s Nicholas Mueller on the east glass court Friday 12:45pm.
The 2021 U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist will celebrate its inaugural staging at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia on the campus of Drexel University, October 1-6, alongside the facility’s Grand Opening October 2.
Tickets are on sale now at usopensquash.com/tickets. The Specter Center Grand Opening will be streamed to the entire squash community on Saturday, October 2—details will be shared in the coming weeks.
The U.S. Open—the sport’s first major tournament to offer prize money parity in 2013—is a PSA Platinum-level championship featuring the world’s best forty-eight men and women with $250,000 on offer. The 2021 edition of the U.S. Open marks a decade of partnership between Drexel University and US Squash to host the event in Philadelphia, over which time the U.S. Open has cemented its position as one of the world’s preeminent championships.
The U.S. Open will be the first major tournament hosted at the Specter Center, which features sixteen traditional singles courts, two all-glass singles courts and two hardball doubles courts. Matches will take place on four courts simultaneously for the first two rounds of play Friday and Saturday, October 1-2; the round of 16 and quarterfinals will be held on both glass courts October 3-4; the semifinals and finals will be held on the Specter Center’s east glass court October 5-6.
Ticket options include General Admission/Standing Room and reserved Backwall Premium seating behind the east and west glass courts. Tickets include access to all matches for the selected day, and attendees have access to concessions and multiple viewing locations to experience the action as never before, showcasing the Specter Center’s ability to transform from the world’s largest community squash center to a premier event venue.
Due to City of Philadelphia mandates and the professional athletes’ (PSA) policy to compete unmasked, proof of vaccination will be required to enter, so unfortunately children 11 and under will not be permitted into the Specter Center during the U.S. Open. While subject to change, masks are not required however are recommended. Safety protocols are subject to change if new guidance unfolds.
U.S. Open draws will be released on September 14. For more news and information, visit usopensquash.com.
US Squash has announced the dates for the 2021 U.S. Open Squash Championships, marking a key milestone in the comeback of the sport. The PSA World Tour Platinum tournament – the highest level on the professional tour – will be held October 1-8, 2021, for the first time at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.
The best professional squash players from around the world—forty-eight women and forty-eight men—will descend on Philadelphia to compete for the coveted U.S. Open title and equal prize purses. In 2013, the U.S. Open led the charge for pay equality for the sport’s professional game, becoming the first major tournament to offer prize money parity.
In its return after the 2020 event was cancelled due to the pandemic, the 2021 U.S. Open marks the 10th edition of the event run in partnership between US Squash and Drexel University, during which time the event has secured its place as one of the world’s most prestigious events, and a mainstay on the Philadelphia sports calendar.
The U.S. Open will anchor the opening season of the Specter Center on Drexel University’s campus in Philadelphia’s burgeoning University City. “When Drexel and US Squash first partnered on the U.S. Open more than ten years ago, we believed it would bring international attention to Philadelphia and make a significant impact on the sport in the U.S.,” said John Fry, president of Drexel University. “We are very proud to be part of this ten-year milestone at the Specter Center, the U.S. Open’s new home.”
As the new nexus of the sport in the U.S., the Specter Center will connect all threads of the squash community – the facility will anchor the US Squash Community Affiliate Network and provide broad community access from its location in one of twenty-two federally-designated Promise Zone neighborhoods, while at the same time delivering an innovative broadcast and entertainment venue that will amplify the presentation of events like the U.S. Open.
With a total of eighteen singles courts and two hardball doubles courts, the Specter Center will also house the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame, offer world-class high-performance training resources to Team USA athletes, serve as the US Squash national headquarters and operate a Learning & Innovation Center in partnership with SquashSmarts, Philadelphia’s award-winning urban squash and education program.
The Specter Center will begin hosting limited activities this spring with a gradual ramping up of activity through the summer, leading into full programming in the fall and a grand opening event during the U.S. Open.
Defending their 2019 U.S. Open titles will be world No. 2 Noran Gohar and world No. 1 Ali Farag. However, the stars of Team USA will aim to recapture the U.S. Open trophy on home turf – the U.S. has four women in the top 25 for the first time, including U.S. No. 1 Amanda Sobhy who is now at a career-high world No. 5 ranking and reached the final of her most recent PSA platinum event, the Black Ball Open in Egypt last month.
“Cancelling the 2020 event was an obvious yet still difficult decision, and the professionals have suffered this last year,” said Kevin Klipstein, president & CEO of US Squash. “We are very pleased to be able to put the U.S. Open back on the calendar to celebrate and showcase their incredible athleticism. The Specter Center will be a magnificent venue: comfortable and welcoming to players and the community, and at the same time, capable of hosting world-class events such as this. To have the tenth hosting in Philadelphia be the first at the center is special, and none of it would have been possible without Drexel’s early and generous support.”
Tickets for the U.S. Open are expected to go on sale in June of 2021.
Egypt’s reigning world No. 1, Raneem El Welily, announced her immediate retirement from professional squash Thursday, June 25, while also revealing the celebratory news that she and her husband, world No. 4 Tarek Momen, are expecting their first child.
El Welily has been a trailblazer for Egyptian and women’s squash since turning professional in 2002. In September 2015, El Welily became the first Egyptian woman to become world No. 1 in any sport.
At thirty-one years old, El Welily becomes just the third squash player to retire while ranked world No. 1, following Susan Devoy and Jonathan Power.
Widely celebrated for her good sportsmanship and demeanor in addition to her world-class ability, El Welily received the PSA Spirit of Squash Award for the past four years.
El Welily has won nearly every major title the sport has to offer, including the 2017 PSA World Championship title in Manchester, England, and a total of twenty-four professional titles. El Welily has won all three PSA Platinum titles held in the United States, including the 2018 U.S. Open, 2015 Tournament of Champions and a three-year Windy City Open reign from 2015-2017.
Read El Welily’s first of three statements on instagram below.
2019 FS Investments U.S. Open champions Ali Farag and Nouran Gohar
2019 FS Investments U.S. Open champions Ali Farag and Nouran Gohar
Twenty-two-year-old Nouran Gohar fought off a championship ball in the third game to comeback and claim her first FS Investments U.S. Open title in a monumental five-game comeback, while world No. 1 Ali Farag dethroned Mohamed ElShorbagy in three games lift his second trophy at Drexel University’s Daskalaskis Athletic Center Saturday, October 12, in Philadelphia.
One of the greatest women’s finals in U.S. Open history graced the ASB GlassCourt in front of a vocal capacity crowd. The match appeared to be going in only one direction after the first two games with El Tayeb in fine form, firing off winners and nicks at will to take the opening two games 11-3, 11-8.
Gohar regained her composure in the third, imposing her powerful game to earn an early lead 4-1 and remaining level with El Tayeb at 9-all. Gohar earned her first game ball at 10-9, but an El Tayeb responded with two winners of her own to hold a championship ball at 11-10, which Gohar fended off. Pivotal extra-time rallies ensued going both ways until Gohar converted her third game ball at 14-12.
In the fourth, El Tayeb sped to a 5-1 lead, appearing to have regained her devastating form, but Gohar once again staged a comeback to pull away from 8-all and force a fifth 11-8. The decisive fifth remained close until 7-all at which point Gohar forced two strokes and two errors to clinch the match 11-7, bringing the crowd to their feet.
“I was trying to impose my game, but Nour was playing better in the beginning,” Gohar said. “She studied my game plan really well and she caught me off guard in the China Open as well and she was keeping the same style. I was really nervous, and I thought ‘just fight, you didn’t work that hard to just let it go’, so for each point I was just telling myself to fight. I tried to adapt, I knew that my plan wasn’t working and I thought when the opportunity came to just take a risk and see how it goes.”
At twenty-two years old, Gohar is the youngest male or female player to engrave their name on the U.S. Open trophy. The Cairo native will reclaim her career high ranking of world No. 2 next month as a result. The U.S. Open is Gohar’s third PSA Platinum title, adding to the 2019 British Open and 2016 Hong Kong Open. Gohar is the third straight Egyptian women’s champion following El Tayeb in 2017 and Raneem El Welily in 2018.
“I can’t believe it,” Gohar said. “It was so tough out there, I felt my legs burning and like I was doing court sprints with Nour out there in the first two games. I just tried to hang in there and I didn’t want the crowd to be upset about a bad final match. I was thinking ‘that’s the worst final ever’, but it turns out and I hope it was a good one. The crowd was amazing and the best ever, I think even better than an Egyptian crowd. It’s really nice for us to have such a good crowd and it cheers you on when you are down.”
Similar to the 2017 finals, Farag watched El Tayeb contest the women’s final before his own, but unlike two years ago the match ended in visible frustration for the married couple. Despite the negative result, Farag was able to regain his focus to take on ElShorbagy, the defending champion and world No. 2.
The two players put on a clinic for the crowd in the opening rallies, some of which exceeded 100 strokes a rally. The Harvard graduate began to force errors from ElShorbagy to pull away and take the first 11-4. ElShorbagy remained within reach throughout the second, but Farag rattled off three straight points from 8-7 to take the second. The third was one sided as Farag emphatically raced away with the title 11-2 after forty minutes.
“To be winning not only a major, but the U.S. Open which is one of the most prestigious tournaments we have on the calendar, it feels amazing,” Farag said. “Obviously I’m very proud with how I played as well, Mohamed has had an unbelievable start to the season, to be unbeaten in twelve matches in a row, and I was one of the victims, to get the win today feels amazing. I’ve said before that I’m at my most comfortable when Mike [Way] is around, we set a game plan and I’m glad I stuck with it.”
Farag’s second U.S. Open title is his fifth career PSA Platinum title and third of 2019. Farag, the reigning world champion, has held the world No. 1 ranking since March and further cements his position atop the rankings.
The 2019 U.S. Open enjoyed its second year of title sponsor from FS Investments and ninth staging of the tournament at Drexel University.
The eighteenth-annual World Squash Day was celebrated at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships.
The finals of the men’s and women’s draws at the U.S. Open and the United Squash Hall of Fame luncheon and induction ceremony were the centerpieces of an exciting day at Drexel’s Daskalaskis Athletic Center. Egypt’s Nouran Gohar and Ali Farag won the Open. Two women—Ginny Akabane and Bunny Vosters—were inducted in the first all-female induction class into the Hall of Fame.
This year’s theme for World Squash Day was The Big Hit. America was in the vanguard of The Big Hit. Downstairs on the Kline & Specter Courts the 2018 U.S. Skills Levels Championship was in full swing. On World Squash Day, exactly 120 matches were played at Drexel. The 2019 Skill Levels featured 116 players competed in eleven divisions ranging from 3.0 to 6.0. US Squash introduced the ratings system in the mid-1990s and has hosted the championship since 1996. Thus, thousands of people had the chance to play squash, reunion with friends and family courtside and watch world-class squash at Drexel.
World Squash Day was on the forefront around the U.S. Six hundred and seventy-six official tournament matches were played across the country, showing the depth and breadth of the game today. It was a busy day for young players. There were seven junior tournaments: a bronze in Philadelphia; a bronze in San Francisco; a bronze in New York; a silver in Connecticut; a silver in New Jersey; and a gold in Baltimore. In total, 487 kids played a Club Locker-recorded match on World Squash Day.
Besides the U.S. Open, the other professional tournament on the American docket was across the continent in Los Angeles: the NBCC LA Open. The semifinals of the Women’s Squash Doubles Association event were held at the Jonathan Club at the same time as the U.S. Open finals. The two matches featured players from Canada, England, Ireland and the U.S. A major stop on the WSDA tour, the NBCC LA Open was sponsored by the National Breast Cancer Coalition.
World Squash Day was originally launched in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in the U.S. Derek Sword, an avid twenty-nine year-old squash player from Scotland, worked as an equity sales analyst on the 89th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He played three times a week at the New York Athletic Club and had just gotten engaged ten days before the attacks. To honor Sword, a group of New York and British friends hosted a memorial match in London in January 2002 which led to the creation of World Squash Day.
Each year since 2002, events have taken place across the globe on World Squash Day—exhibitions, clinics, publicity stunts, tournaments—that expose the game to many new people and sustain and deepen a love of the game for those already involved.
At a special luncheon before the finals of the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships, US Squash inducted Ginny Akabane and Bunny Vosters into the United States Squash Hall of Fame.
Kevin Klipstein, the president and CEO of US Squash, welcomed a large crowd of friends, fans and family to the gala luncheon next to the ASB GlassCourt in the Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center. Klipstein spoke about US Squash’s mission of integrity, inclusiveness and innovation. “The Specter Center will be where we bring our values to life,” he said.
Mark Pagon, the chair of the board of US Squash, then spoke about the meaning of excellence. “The ancient Greeks talked about arête,” he said. “It is a word that means both excellence and virtue. It is an aspirational word, that our Hall of Famers not only have had exceptional performances but also reflected integrity and sportsmanship. That is what our Hall of Famers do—they demonstrate the essence of squash.”
The chair of the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame committee, James Zug, spoke of the many squash luminaries at the luncheon. Members of the Hall of Fame committee in attendance included Sam Howe and Gail Ramsay. Five Hall of Famers were at the luncheon: Joyce Davenport (inducted in the class of 2011), Ralph Howe (2002), Sam Howe (2002), Gretchen Spruance (2000) and Carol Thesieres (2018). “As this is the fortieth anniversary of the merger of the U.S. men’s and women’s squash associations,” Zug said, “US Squash is pleased to highlight the history of women’s squash with our first all-female induction class.”
A moving video examined the extraordinary careers of Akabane and Vosters.
Vosters was a record-setting doubles player. She won the National Doubles in 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1971 with Jeanne Classen; 1968 with Betty Meade; 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1977 with her daughter Gretchen Spruance. She also won the 40+ division of the National Doubles in 1965 and 1966 with Barbara Clement Hunter and 1967 and 1968 with Jeanne Classen. Thus, three times Vosters pulled off the rare double of capturing both the open and 40+ draw on the same weekend, something only one other player has ever accomplished (Barbara Hunter in 1960).
Gretchen Spruance, who was inducted in the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 2000, spoke about her mother. “We’d come off the court all sweaty and dishelved,” she said, “and my mother would not have one hair out of place.” Also in the audience was Bunny Vosters’ daughter Nina Vosters Moyer, who won two National Singles titles, and her daughter-in-law Lee Howard Vosters who won a National Intercollegiate Singles title.
Voster’s granddaughter Ashlee Vosters accepted her grandmother’s induction into the Hall of Fame. She told the audience about how Vosters was a basketball and field hockey champion in college, a remarkable tennis player and a pioneering squash player. “She had a keen instinct to win, incredibly steady with impeccable control,” Vosters said. “She was majestic, classy and deadly.”
Gail Ramsay, the head coach of the Princeton’s women team, then introduced Ginny Akabane.
Ginny Akabane won the National Singles in 1975, the Canadian National Singles in 1973 and 1974 and the Hyder in 1979. She also was a member of the Team USA’s squad at the 1979 World Team Championships in Birmingham, England. Akabane was the president of the U.S. Women’s Squash Racquets Association in 1979-81, leading the merger of the national men’s and women’s associations. “Ginny was a fierce competitor with impeccable, gracious sportsmanship,” Ramsay said. “She never had formal coaching. She was the first woman to play in men’s leagues in Rochester. She was twice a finalist at the Carol Weymuller Open—a really outstanding player.”
Akabane then spoke about the changes that she’s seen in the past half century since she started playing squash. “Back in the 1970s, squash was so small,” she said. “Everyone was a friend and an opponent. It was a BoWash game—stretching from Boston to Washington. I have such fond memories of the game of squash as a child and now I love seeing it as an adult. It is all across the country, it has such great diversity. So many women and girls are playing.”
Kevin Klipstein then thanked Akabane for her central role in bringing about the merger of the men’s and women’s association forty years ago. “Your work in pulling off the merger set the stage for the growth in U.S. squash. Without your work then, we would not have been in a position to institute prize-money parity in 2013 and to help lead to prize-money parity for all major pro squash tournaments around the world.”
The U.S. Squash Hall of Fame was founded in 2000. Next year it will move from Payne Whitney Gymnasium at Yale to its new home at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia. The Hall of Fame is the only national squash hall of fame in the world with annual inductions and a bricks-and-mortar location. With the additions of the Ginny Akabane and Bunny Vosters, there are now sixty-five members of the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame.
