Jay Nelson with Katherine Callahan, and Matthew Callahan; wife and son of Bill Callahan.
Jay Nelson with Kristen and Matthew Callahan; wife and son of Bob Callahan.
Tonight at the FS Investments U.S. Open, Jay Nelson received the 2019 Robert W. Callahan Sportsmanship Award. The honor was presented by Kevin Klipstein, the president and CEO of US Squash. Klipstein joined Kristen Callahan, Matthew Callahan, and Nelson on the ASB GlassCourt. “Winning with grace is a core value of US Squash,” Klipstein said. “And so is losing with grace. Our community values both excellence and sportsmanship.”
Kristen Callahan, the late wife of Bob Callahan, and Matthew Callahan, their son, celebrated the Callahan legacy. Kristen said that sportsmanship was the ultimate hallmark of Callahan’s mentoring. “He was insistent on honest, respectful play.” They then awarded Jay Nelson the 2019 Robert W. Callahan Sportsmanship Award.
Jay Nelson is a legendary masters player, having won thirty-one national age-group singles titles. He was inducted into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame in 2013. “I had good mentoring from Jack Barnaby, my coach at Harvard,” Nelson said. “You have to internalize sportsmanship. I’ve been playing squash for sixty-two years and have learned that you have to continually work at respecting the spirit of the game.”
The Robert W. Callahan Sportsmanship Award was started in 2014. Previous honorees include Ed Chilton, Rich Sheppard, Richard Chin, Mark Talbott, and last year’s honoree Chris Spahr. Bob Callahan was the men’s coach at Princeton for thirty-two years before he died in January 2015 at the age of fifty-nine. His teams won three national titles and more Skillman Awards for collegiate sportsmanship than any other college in the nation. He founded the world’s oldest squash summer camp and in 1998 and directed the World Junior Men’s Championship. Bob Callahan was inducted into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame in the Class of 2011.
Pat Millman as the 2019 recipient of the Feron’s Wedgwood Sportsmanship.
Pat Millman
Tonight at the FS Investments U.S. Open, US Squash awarded the 2019 Feron’s Wedgwood Sportsmanship Trophy to Pat Millman. Kim Clearkin, US Squash’s vice-president of programs and events, presented the award.
“Sports not only build character, but they also reveal character,” Clearkin said. “I have heard it said many times that in order to find out who a person really is or what they are like, play a game of squash with them. You will know their character by the time you finish. If you have ever been on court with Pat Millman, you will already know she engenders all the attributes of sportsmanship: integrity, fair play, and a love of the game. For over a quarter century, Pat has stood for the values of leadership, character, fun, encouragement, tough, and fair competition. Pat’s enthusiasm for the sport is truly infectious. Last year she coached the Scenic City D team from Chattanooga, Tennessee, at Howe Cup. All the women were new to squash and playing their first ever tournament—and they won.”
After accepting the award, Pat Millman spoke about a rivalry with Carole Grunberg and how they cheered each other after one beat the other in a tournament. “I also want to thank my dear husband Richard,” she said, “who has been my biggest supporter through it all.”
Millman grew up in Norfolk, England, and first started playing squash at age thirty. In 1993 she and her husband Richard moved to the U.S. Since then she has coached in nearly a dozen cities across America. Today she lives in Atlanta. An outstanding player, Millman won the U.S. 55+ in 2010 and the 65+ in 2019.
The Feron’s Wedgwood Sportsmanship Trophy started in 1979, is US Squash’s oldest sportsmanship award. Previous winners include U.S. Squash Hall of Famers Goldie Edwards (1980), Carol Weymuller (1988), and Demer Holleran (1989); last year’s recipient was Abby Markoe.
Colombia’s world No. 9 Miguel Angel Rodriguez has withdrawn from the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open as a result of an injury sustained in his third round match against Australia’s Ryan Cuskelly Monday night.
Rodriguez appeared to sustain the injury towards the end of the third game, just before clinching the match in fifty-five minutes.
The thirty-three-year-old would have made his second career U.S. Open quarterfinal appearance against world No. 1 Ali Farag Wednesday night.
As a result, Farag advances to the semifinals and there will be no match played at 8:30pm during Wednesday’s evening session.
Nineteen-year-old Egyptian Rowan Elaraby saved two match balls before coming back to pull off the biggest upset of her career over world No. 6 Joelle King, while 2017 champions Ali Farag and Nour El Tayeb safely progressed to the quarterfinals Monday, October 7, at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.
Elaraby, the 2017 and 2018 world junior champion, had already enjoyed a successful start to the weekend in Philadelphia, recording just her second career top-twenty upset over England’s world No. 14 Victoria Lust in Sunday’s second round. Monday’s stage on the ASB GlassCourt yielded the biggest result of her burgeoning career, however. Elaraby surprised King to take the opener 11-7, but the Kiwi regained control of the match, taking the second 11-7 and swiftly taking the third 11-2. King, a three-time U.S. Open semifinalist, held two match balls up 10-8 in the fourth, both of which Elaraby fought off to take the game 12-10. A close fifth game saw Elaraby get a crucial stroke to earn her first match ball at 10-8, which she converted to close out the fifty-five-minute match.
“I’m out of words,” Elaraby said. “I’m really happy with how I played and how I managed to go through the match. I can’t believe it. I feel as though what I was working on in the off season has been paying off now. My coach, Mohamed Effat, has worked with me so hard during the summer, so I’m really happy that I was able to play my best squash. My coach just said that I didn’t have anything to lose and just give it my all and that’s what I did.”
The result sends the Alexandria native through to her first career quarterfinals of a PSA Platinum event Wednesday, where she will meet compatriot and world No. 5 Nour El Tayeb. El Tayeb, the 2017 champion, dispatched reigning world junior champion Hania El Hammamy in three games in Monday’s final women’s match to earn her spot in the quarterfinals.
“I’m very happy to be the winner, Hania is an extremely tough competitor,” El Tayeb said. “She grew up at the same club as me. She’s like a younger sister and I’m very happy to see her playing so well, but I’m happy to take this one in three and go through to the quarterfinals. This court holds a lot of special memories for me. It was my first major title and doing it with Ali was extremely special and even though I had a bad result here last year, I still feel very happy and emotional coming here.”
El Tayeb and Elaraby will meet for the first time on the PSA World Tour in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. El Tayeb credited world No. 1 Raneem El Welily, the first Egyptian women to earn the world’s top ranking, for paving the way for the rising tide of top-ranked Egyptian women. El Welily decisively ended the run of one of said up and coming Egyptians, Yathreb Adel, in three games and just twenty-one minutes.
“Raneem is the one who paved the way for all of us and we are all catching up with her and Nour El Sherbini,” El Tayeb said. “I think we’ve got a good generation passing on experience and knowledge to the next generation and it’s a nice period to be a part of.”
Diego Elias (l) against Joel Makin
Farag, El Tayeb’s husband and world No. 1, followed her on court in the final match of the day against England’s Adrian Waller. Despite close second and third games, the Harvard graduate advanced 11-3, 11-9, 11-8 in thirty-four minutes.
“I feel good,” Farag said. “I played well against a really tough opponent. I don’t know what it is about the lefties but they all hit the ball so cleanly, especially with Adrian as well, he holds it before he hits it so he keeps you unsettled on the ‘T’ and I can’t take it as early as I would like. The first I was able to impose that, but he changed that in the second and the third. I’m really happy and feeling sharp and looking forward to progressing through to the quarterfinals. Everyone is playing really well and everyone is really sharp and wants to do well this season. The season is still young but I hope I can achieve as much as last season and give it my all.”
Peru’s Pan Am Games gold medalist Diego Elias was one player that displayed his sharpness and hunger for a first PSA World Platinum title. In what was anticipated have the potential for a five-game marathon against one of the tour’s hottest players, Wales’ Joel Makin, Elias controlled the match and ended it in three 11-5, 11-9, 11-8 in fifty minutes.
“I feel good, I lost a bit of fitness after winning the Pan Ams, but after that I started training again and I have another goal, which is to win one of these big events,” Elias said. “I’m really happy, I knew this was going to be really tough, he’s a really tough player, he’s so physical and fit and I knew it could have been 100 minutes, so I’m really happy I managed to win in three.”
Elias made his debut in a Platinum quarterfinals at the U.S. Open in 2017 and hopes to go one further against four seed Karim Abdel Gawad on Wednesday.
“My father and I try to go to all of these events together and all of this wouldn’t be happening if it was not for him,” Elias said. “I’m really happy he can come to these tournaments with me, and I really hope I can win one of these big ones.”
The second half of the round of sixteen will play out on Tuesday, October 7, with eight matches slated on the glass court starting at 1:30pm local time.
Todd Harrity accepting this year's nited States Olympic & Paraolympic Committee Athlete of the Year award from Kevin Klipstein.
Todd Harrity accepting this year’s United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Athlete of the Year award from Kevin Klipstein.
Since 1991, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Athlete of the Year has been US Squash’s highest award for achievement in international competition. Today at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open, Todd Harrity was given this year’s award.
“We are so proud of Todd and all that he has achieved,” said Kevin Klipstein, President & CEO of US Squash, during the on-court ceremony at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open. “He exhibits tremendous sportsmanship and integrity. As the very first pro to join our Elite Athlete Program, Todd has been a trailblazer.”
The twenty-eight-year-old Philadelphian had the most successful season for a male U.S. touring professional over the course of the 2017-2018 season. He competed in sixteen PSA events, winning matches in two PSA platinum events–the U.S. Open and Black Ball Open–and he captured the 2018 Madeira International Open in Portugal. Harrity’s performances over the course of the year propelled him back in to the world’s top fifty.
Harrity’s success has continued into 2019. In March, he claimed his third National Singles title and reached a career high ranking of world No. 44. In July Harrity led Team USA to a record performance in the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. He & Chris Hanson won the gold medal in the men’s doubles, and he led the men’s team to its first-ever Pan Am gold medal.
Off the court, Harrity has been a pioneer for the global squash community. In May 2018, he made history by becoming the first openly gay male professional squash player.
Harrity has been supported by US Squash’s Elite Athlete Program since joining the PSA full-time in 2013 following his graduation from Princeton.
Previous USOPC Athlete of the Year winners include Mark Talbott, Demer Holleran, Louisa Hall, Ivy Pochoda, Michelle Quibell, Gilly Lane, Timmy Brownell, Amanda Sobhy and last year’s honoree Olivia Blatchford Clyne.
SquashSmarts representatives honoring Carol Jacobs.
SquashSmarts representatives honoring Carol Jacobs.
Carol Jacobs was honored during the SquashSmarts VIP Night at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open tonight with the 2019 SquashSmarts Distinguished Youth Service Award.
More than two hundred SquashSmarts staff members, students, parents, donors, advisors, and board members attended the SquashSmarts VIP Night. Founded in 2001, SquashSmarts has just begun its nineteenth season. A 501(c)3 non-profit, SquashSmarts is an award-winning, free, intensive, out-of-school academic and athletic mentoring program changing the lives of Philadelphia’s public school students. Students are recruited in middle school from Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary, Neuva Esperanza Academy Charter, Science Leadership Academy, Carver School for Engineering & Science, and Overbrook Educational Center. Operating out of two facilities—the Lenfest Center in North Philadelphia and Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center—the program has students attend practices three days a week for seven years. SquashSmarts is the official community partner of the twenty-court Arlen Specter US Squash Center opening next year on Drexel’s campus.
Carol Jacobs has been volunteering with SquashSmarts since May 2015. She is a weekly academic tutor, volunteer, connector and friend, annually devoting hundreds of hours to the program. In particular, she mentors older students in their college selection process. “Carol is an incredible part of our SquashSmarts family,” said Alix Cummin, the senior academic director at SquashSmarts, during the on-court ceremony. “She’s a consistent advocate for our students, helping ensure they have brighter futures and broader horizons.” The night included a special announcement of Carol’s Kids a new college scholarship for graduates of the SquashSmarts program.
Previous SquashSmarts Distinguished Service Award honorees include: PYSC co-founders Wendy Palmer and Nancy Peter (2013); alumni coaches Sakora Miller, Kareem Price, Devonte Harris and Mithun Das (2014); founder and board chair Andrew Nehrbas (2015); volunteers Karen & George Gowen and Judy & John Wisniewski (2016); executive assistant Jeanie Shanahan (2017); and leaders from the Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative Beth Devine, Anne Marie Horner and Terry Horner (2018).
(l-r) Adam Hamill, Thierry Lincou, Amanda Sobhy, Olivia Blatchford Clyne, Sabrina Sobhy, Chris Hanson, Todd Harrity, Andrew Douglas, Paul Assaiante
(l-r) Adam Hamill, Thierry Lincou, Amanda Sobhy, Olivia Blatchford Clyne, Sabrina Sobhy, Chris Hanson, Todd Harrity, Andrew Douglas, Paul Assaiante
Team USA made history this past summer at the 2019 Pan-American Games in Lima Peru, producing the greatest performance in U.S. history with five gold medals. All six members of the delegation, Todd Harrity, Chris Hanson, and Andrew Douglas, Amanda Sobhy, Olivia Blatchford Clyne and Sabrina Sobhy were recognized for their achievements on court at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships Monday evening, October 7.
Going into the Pan Am games, the Team USA women were favored to win it all. Amanda Sobhy, in her post-match interview after defeating Olivia Fiechter Sunday evening (11-4, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7), discussed how the pressure to deliver what was expected in Peru was consistently present in their competitions. For a second consecutive Pan Am Games, the three American women showed their strength and walked away as the most decorated squash team at the games.
As Blatchford Clyne put it: “For us, we were the hunted, and it’s an honor to be the hunted. It’s hard to win when you have a target on your back and it’s a great achievement to think ‘Ok we got the job done.’”
In an unprecedented first for Team USA, the men also left Peru decorated with two gold medals. Not favored to win, Harrity, Hanson, and Douglas went up against some of the top squash competitors including Mexico in the semifinals and Colombia in the final. Team USA had never beaten Mexico at any Pan American games before Lima, adding to the historic accomplishment.
Very very proud moment. Here is to all the people behind each of us who allowed us to live this incredible moment! Grateful doesn’t begin to cut it! @USSQUASHhttps://t.co/CXUYOwm7AF
Joining the players on the court for today’s recognition was Paul Assaiante, the Ganek Family US Squash Head National Coach, Thierry Lincou, National Coach, and Adam Hamill, US Squash Director of National Teams.
The bond of this team shone brightly as they reunited on the ASB GlassCourt in Philadelphia. “I’ve represented the U.S. many times but have never been a part of a team that has won something to that scale,” said Todd Harrity, the nominee for USOPC Athlete of the Year. “It’s amazing how much a good team dynamic can impact performance.”
The fortieth-annual U.S. Intercollegiate Squash Doubles Championships, presented by the U.S. Jesters Club, as Navy and Penn swept up the titles Sunday, October 6. Philadelphia Cricket Club hosted the tournament, which was originally started in 1942.
Twenty-four teams came from six universities: Brown, Columbia, Drexel, Fordham, Franklin & Marshall and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Like in recent years, F&M v. Navy was a common theme in the 2019 men’s draw. In one quarterfinal match, F&M’s Matthew Dukarm & Boden Polikoff squandered match balls in the fourth game but came back to win 15-13 in the fifth over Navy’s Owen Davis & Gus Prager. The finals were also a Midshipmen v. Diplomats tussle. Navy’s Michael Kacergis & Jonathan Lentz survived a barnburner against F&M’s Sanjay Jeeva & Shamseldeen Abbas, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to win in five games: 13-15, 9-15, 15-11, 15-9, 15-10.
For Lentz it was sweet vindication after losing in the final last year. For Kacergis it was a second-straight title and the third overall for his family (his brother Billy won the men’s doubles in 2015).
In the women’s doubles, Penn’s Lindsay Stanley & Jessica Davis won the four-team round robin. Their toughest match was against Isabella Kearns & Sara Syed of Brown: 15-12, 15-7, 13-15, 15-14. It was Stanley’s second intercollegiate doubles title, adding to all the doubles hardware in the Stanley home that her father Jeff has accrued.
In the seven-team mixed doubles draw, Penn also triumphed. Julia Buchholz & James Flynn won two tough four-game matches, including topping defending champion Sanja Jeeva and his partner Audrey Berling from F&M in the final.
World No. 8 Amanda Sobhy overcame a formidable challenge from U.S. teammate Olivia Fiechter in Sunday’s second round to become the lone American representative in the last sixteen of the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open.
Sunday brought the top sixteen men’s and women’s seeds into the fray with thirty-two second-round matches contested on four courts—the ASB GlassCourt and Kline & Specter Court 1 at Drexel University and two courts at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia.
By the end of the day, all top eight men’s and women’s seeds survived their first test of the tournament, including women’s seven seed Amanda Sobhy. Some questions surrounded the elder Sobhy sister entering the event, following a precautionary withdrawal from the Oracle NetSuite Open due to injury last week, but the twenty-six-year-old got the job done against her up-and-coming opponent.
Continuing her positive momentum from Saturday’s upset over Emily Whitlock, Fiechter pushed Sobhy in the first two games, dropping the first game 11-4, but taking the second 11-8. Fiechter earned a 7-4 advantage in the third, but Sobhy regained control, winning seven of the next eight points and taking the third 11-8. Sobhy then clinched the match 11-7 after thirty-four minutes in what was their second career match up on the PSA World Tour—both advantage Sobhy. “I was struggling with a little niggle in my leg from San Francisco,” Sobhy said. “So I didn’t really know what to expect coming here and whether I was playing or not playing, playing and making it worse. But this tournament means so much to me and I wanted to at least try, so no matter what happened I gave it a shot and tried my best. I’m pleased to win and move to the next round.”
The forty-eight-player women’s draw this year included six American women including wild cards Laila Sedky and Sabrina Sobhy, Haley Mendez, Olivia Blatchford Clyne, Amanda Sobhy and Fiechter.
“Olivia has improved so much, I think in her first year she has jumped up like 110 spots,” Sobhy said. “It’s nice to have another U.S. player on tour as well and it goes to show the high level of U.S. squash and that we’re really challenging the top girls. It’s nice to have a good group of us challenging other countries that have been dominating for so many years. It’s hard playing one of your best mates on tour.”
Prior to the all-American match on the glass court, both Sabrina Sobhy and Olivia Blatchford Clyne fell against top-ten-ranked opposition—world No. 2 Camille Serme and world No. 6 Joelle King, respectively.
Away from Drexel’s two courts, many of the day’s most intriguing results occurred downtown at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia.
Sivasangari Subramaniam
Cornell sophomore Sivasangari Subramaniam became the first active U.S. college student since Amanda Sobhy in 2013 to reach the last sixteen of the U.S. Open. The twenty-year-old Malaysian pulled off the biggest upset of her career so far against England’s world No. 13 Alison Waters in four games.
“I feel really happy, this means a lot,” Subramaniam said. “I haven’t played much PSA since I started college so I feel really happy. All this hard work I’ve been putting in over the past few weeks with David Palmer, it all paid off. I do love playing on the glass, but most PSA players are good on there and they’ve played on there a lot more than me. I’m just going to give it my best and let’s see how it goes.”
The world No. 48 will face England’s world No. 7 Sarah-Jane Perry on Monday at 1:45pm. The English women’s contingent sustained another upset at RCOP Sunday afternoon when Egypt’s 2018 World Junior champion Rowan Elaraby recorded just the second top-twenty-ranked upset of her career over world No. 14 Victoria Lust.
On the men’s side, three prominent Egyptians of U.S. Opens past also bowed out of the tournament against lower-ranked opposition in the form of Marwan ElShorbagy, Omar Mosaad and Fares Dessouky.
ElShorbagy, world No. 10 and a U.S. Open quarterfinalist in 2016, sustained his first career loss against compatriot and world No. 15 Zahed Salem in four close games. Mosaad, the 2015 U.S. Open finalist and a three-time semifinalist, suffered his first career PSA loss against fellow Egyptian and world No. 21 Mazen Hesham, who successfully pulled off a five-game comeback from 2-0 down in games. Dessouky, world No. 14 and a three-time U.S. Open quarterfinalist, fell against Germany’s Raphael Kandra for the first time in his career.
Monday sees all matches for the remainder of the tournament centralize on the ASB GlassCourt staged in Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center, with the round of sixteen split across the next two days. Tickets for all rounds are still available on usopensquash.com/tickets. Live stream all matches on the U.S. Open Squash and PSA World Tour Facebook Live feeds.
The speed challenge stood out as one of the most exciting parts of Doubles Day. Using a Stalker Pro II, a high-performance sports radar gun that is used in Major League Baseball, the speed challenge included four young players: Drexel team members Karina Tyma and Lucas Rousselet, Hameed Ahmed from the Squash Doubles Association professional tour and associate head coach at Harvard; and Tim Lasusa, the assistant coach at Yale.
Tyma reached 102 miles per hour; Rousselet topped out at 107mph; and Ahmed’s best was 145mph. Lasusa was able to hit a remarkable 172mph. “This might be my top squash achievement,” he said afterwards. “I’ve dreamed of this since I was a child.”
Lasusa’s performance came within a whisker of the unofficial world record. In 2005 at the Canary Wharf Classic, John White, now the head squash coach at Drexel, hit 172mph on a radar gun. In 2011 using a special off-court radar gun at the U.S. Open, Cameron Pilley reached 175mph. In 2014 Pilley pushed the record up to 176mph at an exhibition in Hertfordshire, England.
