The first half of the 2023 U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist quarterfinals culminated with two dramatic results as Amanda Sobhy pulled off a dramatic five-game comeback win over World Junior Champion Amina Orfi and Tarek Momen ended his twelve game losing streak against world No. 3 Mohamed ElShorbagy Wednesday, October 11, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

The opening two matches saw Egypt’s two-time U.S. Open champion Ali Farag and 2021 U.S. Open finalist Hania El Hammamy both progress to Friday’s semifinals with four-game victories over Miguel Angel Rodriguez and Nele Gilis, respectively.

The final slate of matches produced dramatic scenes on the Specter Center’s Lenfest Court.

Momen, a runner-up at the 2021 U.S. Open, had won just five of thirty matches against ElShorbagy coming into today’s match and the thirty-five-year-old hadn’t tasted victory against the Englishman since 2019. Momen put together a superb five-game performance, coming back from 2-1 down and sealed with a dramatic winning nick to clinch match point in the fifth game after sixty-five minutes.

“I’m very happy with today’s performance,” Momen said. “I feel like it’s been a long time coming. I had to push myself and I worked so hard in the summer. Everyone thinks I’m 35 and the curve is going down and I knew this wasn’t the case. I needed to prove to myself that I can get back to where I was.  At the beginning of the season, even though I wasn’t getting the results, I could see I was playing better and I was fitter. Today was the day when I managed to convert.”

The final match of the night was between Sobhy, who was targeting her first U.S. Open semifinal appearance since 2016 against Egyptian phenom Amina Orfi.

The American took a strong foothold in the first game of the match, but the sixteen-year-old two-time World Junior Champion responded by taking the next two and a 6-1 lead in the fourth game. Pushed on by family and friends in the crowd, Sobhy fought back to take the fourth 11-9 and clinch a semifinal berth 11-3 in the fifth after sixty-three minutes.

“I think a few years ago there’s no way I would have won a match like that,” Sobhy said. “I probably would have crumbled and confidence-wise I wouldn’t have been able to fight and stick in with it. Since moving down to Florida I’ve put a really good training block in, I’ve been working with Wael [El Hindi], we have a good team and set up down there. I have something to fall back on, so even when I’m 6-1 down I’m okay.”

Team USA’s world No. 9 Olivia Fiechter will aim to join her teammate in the semifinals on Thursday against four seed Nour El Tayeb. The second half of the quarterfinals will play out from 6pm ET.

Tickets are available on usopensquash.com/tickets. Squash fans around the world can watch the action live on squash.tv.

Berwyn Squash & Fitness, the nation’s first commercial squash club, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary at the U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist Tuesday, October 11.

Thanks to the efforts of Sunil Desai, nearly 100 players from Berwyn’s vibrant membership attended the evening of U.S. Open third round matches and packed into one of the doubles courts for a group picture at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.

Owner and long-time head professional Dominic Hughes was presented with a special plaque by Specter Center Executive Director Ned Edwards. Edwards commended Berwyn for modeling public and community squash for the rest of the country.

Hughes thanked his staff, predecessors and every member for being a part of the “Berwyn family.”

“We have worked really hard to create a family friendly culture at the club,” Hughes said. “We have literally seen thousands of players come through our doors. It is particularly satisfying when we see junior players return to the club as young adults, and they still love the game. It makes me feel really old, however, when they ask me to coach their kids as well. Playing squash is about having fun, but it also about community. And for this I have to thank everyone who I consider to be my Berwyn family, all of you.”

Read Squash Magazine‘s profile of Berwyn’s fortieth anniversary from 2013.

Team USA’s Olivia Fiechter dispatched world No.11 Salma Hany for the first time in her career to reach her second career quarterfinal appearance at the U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist Tuesday, October 10, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

Fiechter–who made her first semifinal appearance in a Platinum semifinal at the 2021 U.S. Open–has made a strong start to her 2023 campaign with two 3-0 victories. The Egyptian pushed Fiechter in the first game, but the Philly native took it 13-11, and went on to win 11-4, 11-7 in the second and third games to advance in thirty-eight minutes.

“I’m not going to lie, that win was huge for me,” Fiechter said. “I put in a really hard summer training block and I’ve had some good performances, but I’ve also had some not so good performances this year and I’m trying to find that balance and blend with some changes I made this summer while incorporating my natural game. My goal was to go out there and trust myself. I’m really happy with how committed I was to my game plan and I stayed really positive.”

Fiechter will face Egypt’s four seed and 2017 U.S. Open champion Nour El Tayeb in the quarterfinals after El Tayeb made quick work of England’s Lucy Beecroft.

“That’s the first time I’ve beaten Salma, I knew it was going to be really challenging, she’s a great player and I’m really happy with that performance,” Fiechter said. “I feel like I’m moving the best I’ve ever moved thanks to the work over so many years, but particularly this summer I definitely put a lot of work into it.”

The only match that wasn’t decided in three games on Tuesday was a five-game battle between seven seed Georgina Kennedy and Egypt’s Rowan Elaraby, who saved two match balls late in the fifth game before the English international took the seventy-one-minute encounter 12-10.

On the men’s side, defending champion Diego Elias, four seed Paul Coll, six seed Mazen Hesham and five seed Marwan ElShorbagy all advanced without dropping a game.

Draws and match times are available on usopensquash.com/draws. Tickets are available on usopensquash.com/tickets. Squash fans around the world can watch the action live on squash.tv.

SquashSmarts, the Philadelphia youth enrichment program, celebrated its VIP Night at the 2023 U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist Monday, October 9.

More than four hundred-and-fifty SquashSmarts staff members, students, parents, donors, advisors, and board members attended the SquashSmarts VIP Night at the Open. Steve Gregg, the executive director of SquashSmarts, and Quinetta Bowden, SquashSmart’s senior program director and a SquashSmarts graduate, welcomed the large crowd at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.

Bowden thanked the entire SquashSmarts family, saying they were proud to work with 160 girls and boys in fifth to twelfth grades, 157 alumni graduates, 636 community members and two facilities—the Lenfest Center in North Philadelphia and the Specter Center. She thanked the parent community, teachers and school staff, board of directors, advisors, committee members, corporate and foundation partners, public officials, friends, donors and partners and volunteers who work every day to provide year-round intensive programming at SquashSmarts.

Gregg, who has been the executive director at SquashSmarts since 2004, saluted the hardworking, supportive staff which gathered on court with him. They included directors of academics, squash and fitness, transportation, community, development and administrative. Sixty percent of SquashSmarts’ staff are SquashSmarts alumni.

Founded in 2001, SquashSmarts has just begun its twenty-third 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. The program’s students attend practices three days a week for seven years and then maintain a deep relationship after they graduate from high school.

Egypt’s two-time World Junior Champion Amina Orfi made history in her first appearance at the U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist, becoming the youngest player in tournament history to reach the quarterfinals with an upset over world No. 4 Joelle King Monday, October 9, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.

At sixteen years and three months old, Orfi surpasses Nour El Sherbini who previously reached the 2014 U.S. Open quarterfinals at eighteen. Orfi came back from losing the first game 13-11 against four seed King–who is more than twice her age at thirty-four–to win 11-7, 11-5, 11-4 in fifty-four minutes.

“I can’t believe it, I came into this match with no expectations,” said Orfi afterwards. “I learnt lessons in Paris and Qatar, I played point by point and the results just came. I had to take care of her experience, she’s been on court way more than me, so when she’s tired she knows how to manage the game very well. I had to play my best shots because when they were in the middle she put them away. I’m looking forward to a rest delay to relax, finally.”

Orfi will face Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy in the quarterfinals Wednesday after the American put in a clinical 3-0 performance against Egypt’s Zeina Mickawy.

The rest of the day’s results played out according to seeing with the top eight seeds all progressing to the first half of the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Colombia’s world No. 13 Miguel Rodriguez defeated world No. 12 Youssef Soliman in an entertaining five-game affair to close out the night.

Draws and match times are available on usopensquash.com/draws. Tickets are available on usopensquash.com/tickets. Squash fans around the world can watch the action live on squash.tv.

The College Squash Association celebrated 100 years of college squash at the U.S. Open presented by Truist Sunday, October 8.

Sunday’s recognition officially kicked off the CSA’s centennial celebration, which is now expanding to a full year’s worth of activities paying tribute to 100 years of intercollegiate team squash. The CSA will announce more details on upcoming events and how to support the CSA@100 initiative over the coming weeks.

CSA Board Chair Margaret Gerety spoke of the importance of growing the college game and the Association’s goal to reach 40 varsity men’s and women’s programs by 2030. The CSA currently has twenty-four women’s varsity programs and thirty-six men’s varsity programs.

Gerety also offered a reflection on the recent passing of storied Yale coach Dave Talbott and his wife, Ann, who Gerety said ’embodied everything that’s great about college squash.’

Twenty of the ninety-six players competing in the U.S. Open were current or former college squash players including world No. 1 Ali Farag, world No. 5 Amanda Sobhy and world No. 8 Victor Crouin. A number of the professional players joined the CSA Board members, coaches and other former players present on court during the recognition.

Just before the Sunday evening matches on the Roberts Family Court, twenty-two 2022-2023 US Squash Scholar Athlete Award recipients were recognized at the Specter Center. Many of the scholar athletes on hand were in Philadelphia putting their best effort in on the squash courts at Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania in the Arlen Specter Pennsylvania Junior Championships (JCT).

US Squash recently announced the 2022-2023 Scholar Athlete Award recipients–a class of nearly 400 exceptional student athletes and twenty four-year recipients.

The US Squash Scholar Athlete program recognizes the hard work and commitment necessary for student athletes to maintain excellence both on the court and in the classroom. Students who earn Scholar Athlete recognition demonstrate dedication to academics, achieving a 3.5 GPA or higher, while maintaining an active squash schedule. This award celebrates those who embody the values that are central to being a student-athlete.

World No. 50 Timothy Brownell has become the first man from the United States to reach the third round of the U.S. Open Squash Championships presented by Truist in thirty-seven years after he overcame teammate Shahjahan Khan Sunday afternoon, October 8, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

The U.S. Open is celebrating its fiftieth staging and has only been held as a softball tournament since 1985. The following year saw two home players make the quarterfinals– since when no man from the U.S. has been able to make it beyond the second round until Sunday when Brownell completed a 12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 18-16 marathon victory against Khan after eighty-four minutes. The two teammates put on a show for the gallery packed with aspiring U.S. juniors competing in the Arlen Specter JCT over the weekend and displayed the depth of current and future U.S. talent.

“He did not give up, I really thought I could pull away but he changed the game plan and really turned the jets on,” Brownell said. I really couldn’t put the ball away at the end, he was willing to leave it all out there. He was tidy, wasn’t making any errors and I’m just really happy to go through.”

Brownell will face three-time U.S. Open champion Mohamed ElShorbagy Monday evening after world No. 3 overcame compatriot Mohamed ElSherbini in a close four-game encounter.

“I’m over the moon,” Brownell said. “I was just trying to have a smile on my face. It’s really easy to tighten up, feel the moment and see the finish line, but I looked at my mum and she was like: how cool is this? I loosened up and hit a winner that I definitely wouldn’t have hit if I was feeling a bit tense. I’ve got a lot of friends and family here and it’s really cool for them to see that. Mohamed is nothing but professional, he’s come up to me behind the scenes a few times and given me some tips here and there when he had no reason to. I’ve got nothing but respect for him, I’ve watched him since I was a little kid so it’s a dream to play him on a glass court in the U.S. Open.”

Brownell’s Pan Am Games teammates Amanda Sobhy, the world No. 5 and Olivia Fiechter, the world No. 9, will join him the third round after opening their U.S. Open campaigns with composed 3-0 victories.

Fiechter, a Philadelphia native, dispatched England’s Jasmine Hutton 11-1, 11-3, 11-5 in twenty-five minutes. The Germantown Friends and Princeton graduate full face Egypt’s world No. 11 in the third round Tuesday evening.

Sobhy, the tournament’s five seed, defeated U.S. teammate and world No. 13 Olivia Blatchford Clyne 11-4, 11-9, 11-3 in thirty-one minutes.

“We’ve been playing each other since we were eleven so we know our games inside out and I want to go in there and preparing for the next match and focusing on the feel of the court and finding my targets,” Sobhy said. “I’m happy to get the win today. I’ve built up a good friend group here and my family is here. Apart from Nationals they get to see me live so even though I live in Florida I’m so pumped to see them and they’re all super stoked to see me play.”

Sobhy will feature again on Monday evening against Egypt’s world No. 42 Zeina Mickawy.

Elsewhere in the draws, the evergreen Colombian veteran Miguel Angel Rodriguez upset seven seed Victor Cruoin in the only seeded upset of the second round.

Draws and match times are available on usopensquash.com/draws. Tickets are available on usopensquash.com/tickets. Squash fans around the world can watch the action live on squash.tv.

Before the world’s top squash players took to the courts at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center on Saturday, October 7, the Philadelphia squash community got the U.S. Open action started with a morning of squash, games and activities.

The second annual Community Day celebrated community partners and Specter Center Community Heroes, and invited U.S. Open ticket holders and local groups to join the fun. Groups from First State Squash, SquashSmarts, the SEA HPP program, Cynwyd Club, Conestoga High School, Drexel students, Arlen Specter JCT players and Specter Center junior players took part in the festivities. Team USA’s world No. 13 Olivia Blatchford Clyne was a special guest and spent time with the junior players.

The Specter Center is grateful for the support of its Community Heroes including Drexel University, Truist, Penn Medicine, Comcast Business, the Racquet Club of Philadelphia, MyPhillyLawyer and The 1854 Foundation.

Free lunch was provided by 12th Street Catering–the official catering partner of the Specter Center.

“The U.S. Open is more than just one of the most important professional squash events in the world, it’s also a celebration of the U.S. squash community. Community Day is our opportunity to highlight that and recognize those promoting and supporting community squash,” said Sakora Miller, Specter Center Director of Squash Programming. “Thank you to all of our Specter Center Community Heroes and programming partners for making this special morning possible.”