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.
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