The 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships draws have been released as Egypt’s world No. 1’s Ali Farag and Raneem El Welily lead the field as top seeds, October 5-12, at Drexel University’s Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.

View both draws and all match times here.

The U.S. Open is the first of eight PSA Platinum events of the 2019-2020 PSA World Tour season. After becoming the first major event to offer prize money parity in 2013, the U.S. Open will offer equal prize money for a seventh straight year with a record $371,000 split evenly between the forty-eight-player men’s and women’s draws.

Reigning champions Mohamed ElShorbagy and Raneem El Welily will return to defend their crowns, while men’s world No. 1 Ali Farag and women’s world No .5 Nour El Tayeb will also star in Philadelphia –two years after their U.S. Open triumphs saw them become the first married couple in sporting history ever to win the same major sports title on the same day.

Farag, a Harvard graduate, leads the men’s draw and receives a bye into the second round where he will face either compatriot Karim Ali Fathi or England’s Daryl Selby. The 2017 champion is seeded on the same side of the draw as world No. 7 Mohamed Abouelghar, Peru’s world No.8 Diego Elias and former world No.1 Karim Abdel Gawad, who he is seeded to face in the semifinals.

Mohamed ElShorbagy weighs in as the two seed on the opposite side of the draw. The world No.2 will take on either Spain’s Borja Golan or Mexico’s Arturo Salazar in round two.

The elder ElShorbagy brother is bidding to join Peter Nicol as the only men’s four-time U.S. Open champions, and is seeded on the same side of the draw as Germany’s 2018 finalist Simon Rösner, who along with New Zealand’s Paul Coll and Egypt’s world No. 3 Tarek Momen, who he could meet in the semifinals.

Pan American Games double gold medalist and Wayne, Pennsylvania-native Todd Harrity will play Australia’s Ryan Cuskelly in round one on the ASB GlassCourt Saturday, October 5, at 6:30pm. Harrity’s Pan Am Games gold-medal-winning teammate and Penn junior, Andrew Douglas, slots in as one of two men’s wild cards and will face England’s Declan James on the glass court Saturday, October 5,  at 4:45pm. Yale’s Spencer Lovejoy will make his U.S. Open wild card debut on the glass court against Egypt’s Mazen Hesham Saturday at 2:30pm.

In the women’s draw, world No.1 El Welily will begin her title defense either against compatriot Nadine Shahin or wild card Laila Sedky, a top-ranked U.S. junior.

The Egyptian is seeded to come up against France’s world No. 3 Camille Serme, who won the tournament back in 2016, in the semifinals and also has England’s No.1 Sarah-Jane Perry and New Zealand’s world No. 6 Joelle King on her side of the draw.

Reigning World Champion El Sherbini enters the draw at the opposite end and faces either Team USA’s Pan Am Games double gold medalist Sabrina Sobhy or Egypt’s Mayar Hany in round two. The two-time runner-up will be looking to get her hands on the coveted trophy for the first time in her career, but has the likes of 2019 British Open winner Nouran Gohar, world No. 5 Nour El Tayeb and home favorite Amanda Sobhy standing in her way on her side of the draw.

Sobhy, Team USA’s Pan Am Games triple gold medalist this summer, will open up her tournament either against U.S. teammate Olivia Fiechter or England’s Emily Whitlock on the glass court Sunday, October 6, at 5:45pm. Sobhy is seeded to face El Sherbini in the quarterfinals.

U.S. Champion Olivia Blatchford Clyne will take on England’s Lucy Turmel in round one on the glass court Saturday at 5:45pm, which could set up a second round encounter with New Zealand’s world No. 6 Joelle King.

Glass court action from the U.S. Open will be staged in Drexel University’s Daskalakis Athletic Center, while matches on the traditional side courts will be held on the Kline & Specter Court 1 and the Racquet Club of Philadelphia. Purchase tickets for all rounds and venues here.

Matches from the glass court will be streamed live on SQUASHTV (rest of world), Eurosport Player (Europe only), the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour (excluding Europe and Japan) and various broadcast partners.

For a detailed U.S. Open schedule including all match play and events, visit usopensquash.com/schedule.

Stay tuned for more news on www.usopensquash.com, follow @USOpenSquash on Twitter and Instagram, and like U.S. Open Squash on Facebook.

Nick LePore will receive the Philadelphia Squash Racquets Association (PSRA) Service Award at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships during an on-court ceremony following the 5:45pm match on Saturday, October 5^th.

As the immediate past president of the PSRA, Lepore and has been a local stalwart and fixture on the area squash scene for the last thirty years. He serves on the board of SquashSmarts, the local urban squash and education program that is the official community partner of the U.S. Open and the Arlen Specter US Squash Center. Lepore is currently working with US Squash on the development of the Specter Center as it moves towards opening in Fall 2020, and he has Philadelphia on the US Squash District Association Committee.

Lepore has twice been a captain of the U.S. at the Copa Wadsworth, an annual team event between the U.S. and Mexico, for which Nick was instrumental in Philadelphia’s selection as the host city in 2017. He’s served his home club, Germantown Cricket Club, as the squash chair several times and played on many of the clubs league teams, and is a two-time GCC club doubles champion.

Jovial in both victory and defeat, Nick is a wonderful representation of Philadelphia Squash. “The PSRA is proud to recognize and honor Nick LePore as the recipient of the 2019 PSRA Service Award,” said Tim Dearnley, president of the PSRA. “He has done so much for our sport both locally and nationally. I’m thrilled that he is being recognized for everything he means to squash in our city.” 

The world’s oldest squash organization, the Philadelphia SRA—originally called the Philadelphia Association—was founded in 1903. Previous winners of the annual PSRA Service Award include Molly Pierce (2013), Ken Jaffe (2014), Frank Reidy (2015), Bill Lane (2016), Andy Nehrbas (2017), and the Hand/McIntosh Family (2018).

Purchase tickets on www.usopensquash.com/tickets.

Carol Jacobs will receive the SquashSmarts Distinguished Youth Service Award at the 2019 FS Investments US Open Squash Championships on Monday, October 7th. The ceremony will take place on the ASB Glass Court following the 6:15 PM match.

For the past two decades, Carol Jacobs has made improving children lives through education her top priority. As the Director of College Guidance for Barrack Hebrew Academy, Carol spent 17 years skillfully orchestrating each aspect of the college application and admissions process for her students – including summer programs, course selection and standardized tests.

Now retired, Carol still invests her time volunteering at SquashSmarts and maintaining a small, individualized college counseling practice for high school students and their families. Carol discovered SquashSmarts in May 2015 and instantly became an adored, irreplaceable member of its family. As a weekly academic tutor, volunteer, connector and friend, Carol has devoted hundreds of hours each year to helping students in the program.

Carol’s interaction with SquashSmarts began with a simple idea: drive students from Barrack Hebrew Academy to SquashSmarts each Monday with the goal of instilling in them the meaning of service and a broader sense of community. For the next three years, with Carol in the driver’s seat, students from Barrack and SquashSmarts met, learned and worked with each other as peers.

Upon retirement, Carol grew in to an even more consistent, respected and dedicated SquashSmarts presence as a weekly academic volunteer focusing her time and talents on 11^th and 12^th graders’ college process. Beyond the classroom, Carol has been a truly wonderful advocate, mentor and friend to the entire SquashSmarts community. Thanks to Carol Jacobs, the girls and boys of SquashSmarts – and students from across Philadelphia – have brighter futures and broader horizons.

Previous honorees of the Distinguished Youth Service Award include: PYSC co-chairs Wendy Palmer and Nancy Peter (2013); SquashSmarts alumni coaches Sakora Miller, Kareem Price, Devonte Harris & Mithun Das (2014); founder and president Andrew Nehrbas (2015); volunteers Karen & George Gowen and Judy & John Wisniewski (2016); executive assistant and officer manager Jeanie Shanahan (2017); PYSC leaders Beth Devine, Ann Marie & Terry Horner (2018).

The world’s top squash players–including all top fifteen-ranked men and all top twenty-five-ranked women–will vie for the prestigious 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open titles, October 5-12, at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

The U.S. Open is the first of eight PSA Platinum events of the 2019-2020 PSA World Tour season. After becoming the first major event to offer prize money parity in 2013, the U.S. Open will offer equal prize money for a seventh straight year with a record $371,000 split evenly between the forty-eight-player men’s and women’s draws.

View the complete list of 2019 players here.

Egypt’s Mohamed ElShorbagy, world No. 2, and Raneem El Welily, world No. 1, both return to defend their U.S. Open titles. After making history in 2017 by becoming the first married couple in sporting history to win a major sports title in the same day, Ali Farag, world No. 1, and Nour El Tayeb, world No. 5, both return as they aim to repeat their historic feat two years ago.

2018 men’s runner up Simon Rösner will hope to go one better in 2019 in what would be his second career PSA Platinum title. PSA World Tour Finals champion Karim Abdel Gawad, 2018 semifinalist Paul Coll, Peru’s Pan American Games gold medalist Diego Elias and World Championship finalist Tarek Momen will all be aiming to reach their first final in Philadelphia.

Pan American Games double gold medalist Todd Harrity, world No. 47, enters the men’s draw as one of three American representatives. Two U.S. collegiate players, Penn’s Andrew Douglas and Yale’s Spencer Lovejoy, are set to test themselves against the world’s top professionals as the tournament’s wild cards.

After capturing her first U.S. Open title in her fourth final appearance, El Welily will be hoping to keep her title defense and world No. 1 ranking in tact. The U.S. Open title is one of the only major titles eluding world No. 2 Nour El Sherbini, who will target her first triumph in Philadelphia having fallen short in the 2018 final against El Welily–and the world No. 1 ranking implications that come with it. France’s Camille Serme enters the U.S. Open with her highest world ranking, No. 3, since capturing the 2016 U.S. Open title.

Team USA’s Pan American Games triple gold medalist and world No. 8, Amanda Sobhy, leads a delegation of six American women. Sobhy, will hope to improve on her U.S. Open-best semifinal appearance in 2016 having reaching the quarterfinals last year. Fellow Pan Am Games gold medalist Olivia Blatchford Clyne enters the draw ranked world No. 19. After making her U.S. Open debut as a 2018 wild card, Philadelphia-native Olivia Fiechter returns to the tournament with a career high ranking of world No. 39 following a successful debut season on the PSA World Tour. Harvard graduate and world No. 43 Haley Mendez will aim for her first career U.S. Open victory.

As the first PSA Platinum event of the season, the U.S. Open serves as the first qualifying event for the 2020 World Tour Finals. The reigning PSA World Champions and all Platinum event winners automatically qualify for the World Tour Finals. The remaining places are allocated to the highest ranked players on the Road to Egypt Standings, and points for the standings will be on offer at all PSA World Tour events this season.

For a detailed U.S. Open schedule including all match play and events, visit usopensquash.com/schedule.

Stay tuned for more news on www.usopensquash.com, follow @USOpenSquash on Twitter and Instagram, and like U.S. Open Squash on Facebook.

One month from today, the world’s top squash professionals will contest the first round of the FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships at Drexel University’s Daskalaskis Athletic Center and Racquet Club of Philadelphia.

The PSA World Tour’s first Platinum event of the season, the U.S. Open spans eight days of match play, October 5-12, as forty-eight men and women vie for one of the sport’s most coveted titles. Tickets for all rounds are still available on usopensquash.com/tickets, book your place today to watch world class squash on the all-glass ASB GlassCourt. Organize a group from your club or school to receive a discounted group ticket rate. For more information on Group Packages, email tickets@usopensquash.com or download the Group Sales form: 2019 U.S. Open Group Ticket Form.

As one of the most iconic and important sporting events held in the city of Philadelphia, the U.S. Open brings together all elements of the squash community through numerous special events celebrating the core values of the sport, including Women in Sports Day, Character in Sports Day, and the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame Induction Luncheon. Three amateur competitions are held concurrently with the U.S. Open: the Arlen Specter Pennsylvania Junior Championships, the U.S. Squash Skill Level Championships and the Intercollegiate Doubles Championships.

For a detailed U.S. Open schedule including all match play and events, visit usopensquash.com/schedule.

Stay tuned for more news on www.usopensquash.com, follow @USOpenSquash on Twitter and Instagram, and like U.S. Open Squash on Facebook.

Alex Stait will be recognized as the 2018 United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee coach of the year on Thursday, October 10, during the 2019 FS Investments U.S Open Squash Championships.

Stait is Team USA’s junior men’s head coach. He served as the assistant coach from 2015 to 2017 before becoming the head coach. In 2018 at the Men’s World Junior Team Championships in Chennai, India, the team was seeded eight but reached the semis to finish third. It was just the second time in Team USA history that a men’s junior team medaled at the tournament.

Stait, who turns forty in November, has served in many regional and national capacities including as the head regional coach for Pennsylvania, as a tournament director and as an instructor for US Squash’s coaching certification program. Since 2013 he has been the head coach at Agnes Irwin School. In 2018 he led Irwins to their first league title since 1995 and in the last two seasons he has guided the Owls to second-place finishes at the High School Nationals.

From Gloucestershire, England, Stait reached world No. 53. In 2017 he captured the men’s 35+ division at the National Singles. Stait is also a prominent doubles player. The left-waller has partnered with Ed Garno with much recent success. They have taken the Philadelphia doubles title the past four years, the last three William White invitational titles and in 2018 they won the National Doubles. In 2017 he also reached the semis of the World Doubles, losing 15-14 in the fifth for a slot in the finals.

Since 1998, the USOPC National Coach of the Year has honored the best squash coaches at the highest levels of the game. Last year’s honoree was Mike Way of Harvard. Stait will be honored on the ASB Glasscourt on the evening of October 10. Purchase tickets here.

The eighteenth-annual World Squash Day on October 12  will celebrated in style at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships. The theme of this year’s World Squash Day is The Big Hit: an attempt to get as many people as possible to play squash on the 12th.

US Squash will be facilitating thousands of people in that effort. The finals of the men’s and women’s draws at the U.S. Open and the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame luncheon and induction ceremony will be the centerpieces of an exciting day at Drexel’s Daskalaskis Athletic Center. Downstairs on the Kline & Specter Courts, the 2019 U.S. Skills Levels Championship will be in full swing.

In addition, the U.S. will bristle with competitive squash play: there are junior tournaments scheduled in Greenwich, CT, Baltimore, MD, Whippany, NJ and San Francisco, CA; and a professional women’s doubles tournament, the NBCC LA Open in Los Angeles.

The Big Hit hopes to encourage clubs to offer introductory sessions and then to follow up with mentoring sessions to make newcomers feel welcome and keen to come back for more. World Squash Day hopes that the Big Hit will help the game reach a new target of attracting one million new players to the sport before 2030.

The U.S. Open is also promoting watch parties. Around the world, clubs are encouraged to host clinics and exhibitions wrapped around tuning into the Open finals on SquashTV.

“After the disappointment of having squash denied a place in the Olympics, it’s time we changed the negative narrative and started talking up all the wonderful, positive things that make our sport so special,” said WSD founder Alan Thatcher. “Squash is the fastest growing sport in America, which is now the biggest nation for participation with around 1.5 million active players. Squash is the ideal athletic endeavor for the time-conscious modern lifestyle. In forty minutes on court you will enjoy a huge, high-intensity work-out, with full cardiovascular benefits. You will burn close to 1,000 calories and the endorphins released into your bloodstream will give you that perfect, healthy high. Squash is also great fun, a physical and mental challenge with a group of opponents who will quite likely end up as friends for life.”

WSD was originally launched in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in the U.S. Many squash players died in the attacks. One notable person was Derek Sword, an avid twenty-nine year old squash player from Scotland who played at the New York Athletic Club. He worked as an equity sales analyst on the 89th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He 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, WSD events have taken place across the globe—exhibitions, clinics, publicity stunts, tournaments—that expose the game to new people and sustain and deepen a love of the game for those already involved.

“The early years involved matches in New York, London and Edinburgh,” said Thatcher.” Among the supporters were Peter Nicol and Martin Heath, who were junior team-mates of Derek’s back home in Scotland. Both played in some very special events during those early years, and it is great to see them having such an impact with their coaching in North America. Fittingly, Peter is involved in a new squash project in Manhattan and I hope they will be doing something special for World Squash Day.”

Special WSD T-shirts are available in North America from Squash Republic here.

For more information visit worldsquashday.net.