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.

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.

For the third year, doubles came to singles, as the four-handed game was celebrated during Doubles Day at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships.

Doubles Day highlighted the game of hardball doubles, a hugely popular and growing game in North America. Hardball squash doubles was originally invented in 1907 at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia, fewer than twenty blocks from Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center. Doubles Day included a look at the future of the game, with the finals of the 2019 U.S. Intercollegiate Squash Doubles Championships at Philadelphia Cricket Club.

All 2018-19 national doubles champions were honored with an on-court celebration. Those present included players of all ages, from National Junior Doubles champions to National Age Group Doubles champions in the 75+ division.

Graham Bassett, the Squash Doubles Association (SDA) tour director, presented the association’s annual awards on court. Bassett spoke about the benchmarks of the men’s professional tour: events were contested in twenty cities across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. with prize money totaling more than $600,000. “As a player-run tour,” Bassett said, “these awards are particularly impactful for players as they are recognitions from their peers.”

Colin West was given the 2019 Rookie of the Year Award. West won the Pittsburgh Golf Challenger in February and rose to No. 25 in the SDA rankings.

The Most Improved Player Award went to Hameed Ahmed. He was a finalist at the Denver Club Open and the Piedmont Driving Club Cup in Atlanta and was a semifinalist at the Tavern Club Open in Cleveland. In just three seasons on tour, Ahmed, the associate head coach at Harvard, has risen to No. 15 in the world rankings.

The Team of the Year Award was given to James Stout & Greg McArthur. This tandem captured the Baltimore Cup and were finalists at the Maryland Club Open, North American Open, and the David C. Johnson Jr. Memorial.

John Russell won the Player of the Year Award. Russell, playing with five different partners, reached eleven finals and won five events, including the prestigious Kellner Cup. His impressive season saw him finish atop the SDA rankings.

The Sportsmanship Award was given to Greg McArthur. “This player was selected by his peers,” Bassett said, “as a consummate gentleman on and off the court. He plays clean and never exchanges a negative word with opponents on court, all while achieving a career high No. 4 ranking.”

The Philadelphia Squash Racquets Association honored Nicholas J. LePore, III tonight at the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open with the 2019 PSRA Service Award.

“Nick Lepore has been a conscientious, deeply caring leader of the Philadelphia squash scene for the last thirty years,” said Tim Dearnley, the president of the PSRA, during an on-court ceremony. Lepore serves on the board of SquashSmarts, the urban squash and education program that is the official community partner of the U.S. Open and the Arlen Specter US Squash Center. Lepore and his law firm, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, are working with US Squash on the development of the Specter Center.

Lepore was the president of the Philadelphia Squash Racquets Association from 2012 to 2017. While president, he presided over 12% growth in participation in league singles and 14% in league doubles. Twice he has been a U.S. captain at the Copa Wadsworth, an annual team event between the U.S. and Mexico, and he hosted the Copa when it was held in Philadelphia in 2017. He’s served his home club, Germantown Cricket Club, as the squash chair several times and played on the club’s league teams. He is also a two-time GCC club squash doubles champion.

“It’s an honor, but it is even more a privilege,” said LePore, “to work in the Philly squash community.”

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).

The 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships started up today at Drexel University in Philadelphia. All the excitement kicked off with its classic first-ball ceremony. This year’s honorary representatives were Vincent Amatulli and Nabilla Ariffin.

Vincent Amatulli is the Chief Technology and Operations Officer from FS Investments, the returning title sponsor of the 2019 U.S. Open. Amatulli said that FS Investments is proud to return as title sponsors, and that the squash fans will see throughout the day will be “much better” than his own. This was followed by his first hit which Nabilla Ariffin had no problem returning.

Ariffin is a Community Impact Director at SquashSmarts, the award-winning urban squash and education program that is the official community partner of the U.S. Open. Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Ariffin has been a part of SquashSmarts since September 2016. She was also a top competitor as an international junior squash player and All-American at the University of Pennsylvania.  More recently she’s joined the Women’s Squash Doubles Association tour, rising to as high as No. 13. At SquashSmarts she has focused on empowering youth and building partnerships, from civic to educational to corporate, across the region. She is a leader with the International Youth Federation as a director for its bureau of sports and as a member of Cohort 2030, its global youth-led initiative focused on delivering the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

FS Investments and SquashSmarts work closely together on local community outreach. FS Investments is a leading asset manager dedicated to helping individuals, financial professionals and institutions design better portfolios. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the firm provides access to alternative sources of income and growth and focuses on setting industry standards for investor protection, education and transparency.

Founded in 1954, the FS Investments U.S. Open is one of the oldest professional squash tournaments in the world. Since 2011 Drexel has hosted the tournament at the Daskalakis Athletic Center in University City.

Eight Americans will be aiming to harness the home crowd support during opening weekend of the 2019 FS Investments U.S. Open, October 5-6.

Four of the six members of Team USA’s gold-medal-winning Pan American Games will aim to challenge the best in the world. All six members and coaching staff will be honored for their achievements in Lima on the glass court Monday following the 5:30pm match.

Amanda Sobhy, Pan Am Games triple gold medalist and world No. 8, is the highest-ranked American and only one to receive a first-round bye. Sobhy could face fellow American Olivia Fiechter in Sunday’s second round. Fiechter, world No. 40, would first need to get past Emily Whitlock, world No. 23, on the glass court Saturday at 4pm.

Olivia Blatchford Clyne, world No. 18, opens up her U.S. Open against twenty-year-old English international Lucy Turmel Saturday on the glass court at 5:45pm. World No. 42 Haley Mendez plays Australia’s former world No. 1 Rachael Grinham on the glass court at 1:45pm.

Wild Card Laila Sedky, a Seattle native, will contest the first match of the tournament on the glass court  against Egypt’s Nadine Shahin at 12pm noon local time. Sabrina Sobhy, a Pan Ams double gold medalist and the second women’s wild card, faces Egypt’s world No. 33 Mayar Hany.

Team USA lost a representative in the men’s draw this week following the withdrawal of local favorite, Todd Harrity. Harrity was forced with pull out due to an injury that has kept him off court since the Pan Am Games. As a result, wild cards Spencer Lovejoy and Andrew Douglas will be the lone Team USA representatives in the men’s draw.

Douglas, a rising junior at Penn,  will be in search of his first career U.S. Open victory in his fourth appearance–and second consecutive as a wild card. Douglas will follow Sabrina Sobhy on the glass court Saturday at 4:45pm against France’s world No. 35 Lucas Serme.

Lovejoy, a rising senior at Yale, is set for his second U.S. Open appearance, and first in the main draw as a wild card. The Connecticut-native will take on Egypt’s world No 25 Mazen Hesham on the glass court Saturday at 2:30pm.