The finals day of the 2018 FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships will also mark the seventeenth-annual World Squash Day.
WSD was originally launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Derek Sword, an avid twenty-nine year old squash player from Scotland who played at the New York Athletic Club, 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. To honor him, 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.
For 2018 in the U.S., World Squash Day will features events around the country. Highlighting the growth of the game in non-traditional squash regions is the a junior gold-level event in Houston, Texas, with 181 players marking the largest squash tournament in the history of the state. In Philadelphia for the U.S. Open finals, thousands of squash fans will descend on Drexel University to watch the top two women in the world—Nour El Sherbini and Raneem El Welily—will compete for the U.S. Open crown. They will be followed by the men’s final pitting Mohamed ElShorbagy against Simon Rosner.
Each year since 2002, WSD events have taken place across the globe—exhibitions, clinics, publicity stunts, tournaments—that expose the game to many new people and sustain and deepen a love of the game for those already involved.
