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.

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.