Historic National Singles

 

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On the men’s side, SL Green nine-time champion Julian Illingworth got back to his winning ways by turning back rising star Todd Harrity in three games. Last year, Illingworth’s championship streak derailed when he lost in the semifinals.
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Going into the U.S. Women’s Championship final, Amanda Sobhy (L) was the prohibitive favorite to shut down her sister Sabrina. After all, Amanda was now a three-time collegiate champion, captured the largest WSA event of her young career just three days before, and she had never lost to her younger sibling. Sabrina had other plans, however, and left her elder sister a little glossy-eyed after securing her first championship and becoming the youngest player to ever do so.

By James Zug

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Men’s 40+ Winner: Jamie Crombie (L); Runner-up: Johnny Wilson

It was a weekend of firsts. It was the 102nd time that the country gathered to play its national squash championship. Yet even after more than a century, so much was new at the annual conclave.

It was the first time the National Singles was held in Virginia. The Boar’s Head hosted the weekend at its new McArthur Squash Courts, a spectacular, nine-singles-courts facility just at the edge of Charlottesville. The McArthur is the home for the University of Virginia squash teams, and the courts have Cavalier blue or orange out lines, rather than traditional red.

It was the first time matches at the Nationals were streamed live on the Internet. US Squash had cameras trained on three courts, including the four-wall glass showcourt. More than 3,500 people viewed the finals of the men’s (SL Green) and women’s main draw, giving the historic tournament its largest, if virtual, gallery ever.

It was the first time that matches were marked using iPads and video screens. Because each McArthur court has a flat-screen television in its gallery, everyone watching the match in person didn’t have to peer over the shoulder of the marker to find out who was playing or what the score of the game or match was. Moreover, the marking app was connected to the Internet. Thus, a live score tracker showed all the day’s matches at once, which meant that a person looking at the dedicated screen at the McArthur or on their phone or computer anywhere in the world could see the current score of every match.

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Women’s 50+ Winner: Beth Fedorowich (R); Runner-up: Elka Markus

It was the first time that I played in the National Singles. It was an incredible experience. I saw old friends and made many new ones. I had a match against someone I had last played a quarter century ago in a college match. Each draw in the master’s divisions had players with a wide variety of ability, and combined with the fact that you were guaranteed three matches (I had five) meant that you were sure to enjoy your time on-court.

Off-court, having the event at one, well-appointed site meant an ease of sociability. Random games of doubles kept breaking out on the two doubles courts at McArthur. Constant, impromptu conversations happened all weekend. Staying at Boar’s Head, I didn’t get in my car once after parking it on Friday afternoon until I left on Sunday afternoon. People congregated outside too: it was in the upper sixties each day, a few fluffy clouds nipping over the Piedmont, warm sunshine melting the snow on the ground. Some players even snuck out to play golf.

You saw people blinking in the sun, especially some of the twenty-six Canadians who came to the tournament. It was a national Nationals: there were players from Arizona, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia and Washington states—and that was just the men’s 45+ draw.

The Saturday evening dinner, in Boar’s Head’s ballroom, was fantastic. Jaffray Woodriff, the man who funded the McArthur facility, received a standing ovation when Kevin Klipstein, US Squash’s CEO, presented him a special recognition award. US Squash also handed out a plaque for being nominated for the USOC Athlete of the Year Award to Gilly Lane for his performance last summer at the World Team Championships in France.

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Men’s 50+ Winner: Rominic Hughes (L); Runner-up: Richard Millman

As for the past many decades, there are two tournaments at the National Singles: the U.S. Squash Championship which consist of the two main-draw events for U.S. citizens only, the SL Green for men and the Women’s Squash Championships; and the U.S. Masters Squash Championships, the age-group tournament open to all nationalities. The matches throughout were superb. Five finals went to five, three of which were decided by two points.

In an epic, hard-fought women’s 35/40+ final on the glass court, Juliana Lilien outlasted Hope Nichols Prockop 12-10 in the fifth (former national champion Shabana Khan came in third). In the women’s 45+, the Superwoman Prockop took the round-robin for her fourth masters title. After losing in five in the finals last year, Beth Ann Fedorowich took the women’s 50+ in a tight, four-game final over Elka Marcus. Carole Grunberg won the women’s 55+ (her last national title came in the 40+ in 1996).

In the men’s masters, Ahmed Hamza won the men’s 35+ over Brian O’Hora. Forty-eight year-old Jamie Crombie swept to the men’s 40+ without losing a game, giving the former Team USA member his first U.S. title. He beat Friday Odeh in the semifinal, and Canada’s Johnny Wilson in the final.

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Women’s 45+ Winner and 35/40+ Runner-up: Hope Nichols Prockop

The men’s 45+ was perhaps the most riveting of the weekend. Steve Wren lost last year to Anders Wahlstedt in three; this year, he came back from a 1-2 deficit to beat Wahlstedt in five in the semis and then won a five-game final the next morning over John Musto. The highly anticipated 50+ confrontation between the two giants of masters play, Dominic Hughes and Richard Millman (fourteen age-group titles between the two of them) flipped last year’s result, with Hughes winning this time in three. (It wasn’t an easy draw: both Millman and Hughes had five-game semis and Will Carlin, former national champion, was knocked out in the quarters.

The men’s 55+, the largest draw in the tournament, saw Chip Lindquist knock out three-time defending champion Michael Bertin in the second round, paving the way for a final between two former national doubles champions, Rich Sheppard and Jon Foster. Their first game went to 18-16, both with game balls. In the fifth, Foster popped the hamstring in his right leg but managed to push until  the end when Sheppard took it 11-9.

In the men’s 60+, Rashid Aziz, another comeback kid, survived two straight five-gamers, including 11-9 in the fifth in the finals over Steven Jacobs. In the men’s 65+ Bruce Simons-Morton saved three match balls against former national champion Anil Nayar in the quarters, but then lost 11-6 in the fifth in the finals to Jeffrey Blomstedt. In the men’s 70+, Gerry Poulton again turned Jay Nelson away in the finals, preventing Nelson from securing that elusive twenty-ninth masters title that would break the all-time record.

In the 75+ Vincent Taylor came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat Michael Gough 11-5 in the finals. And in the 80+ Philip Leis again won, taking care of Robert Pirie in the two-man draw.

In the men’s U.S. Squash Championship, Todd Harrity upset Chris Gordon in five in the semis, but Julian Illingworth cruised to a comfortable victory in the SL Green finals. It is the ninth year that he’s the best player in the country, tying the all-time record held by Demer Holleran.

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In 2013, Chris Gordon (Above, in yellow) got past Todd Harrity in a three-game semifinal en route to capturing his first SL Green title. This year, Harrity turned the tables and upset the top-seeded Gordon in a five-game marathon semi. Shortly thereafter, Sabrina Sobhy (Above, in black) pranced around the court finding answers for everything her older sister, Amanda, threw at her on the way to her win.

The women’s draw was also one for the record books. A number of teenagers have won the U.S. Championships before: Harry Conlon in 1952, Alicia Mc-Connell in 1982, Kenton Jernigan in 1983 and Amanda Sobhy in 2012. But they’ve all been in college (or the Air Force, in Conlon’s case). Sabrina Sobhy is a junior at North Shore High School in Long Island, New York.

She had a tough four-game quarters victory over Cece Cortes, then vanquished seven-time champion Latasha Khan in the semis. In the finals, she faced her older sister Amanda who was drained after a ten-day squash marathon that included winning her third straight national intercollegiate individual title and a big women’s pro event in Toronto. For the first time, Sabrina beat Amanda and it wasn’t that close: 7, 8 and 7. “I’m as shocked as you are,” Sabrina told the crowd afterwards. Don’t be: she’s the real deal.

It was appropriate in a weekend of firsts: the first high schooler to win a national title. For the record, she was seventeen years, two months and nine days old. Maybe that mark will never be broken? It is hard to imagine a sixteen-year-old ever winning a national title. But there is, as this year’s National Singles demonstrated, a first time for everything.

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Women’s 35/40+ Winner: Juliana Lilien (top left); Runner-up: Hope Nichols Prockop. Playing his first-ever U.S. Masters, Tony Gild (top right), Men’s 70+, La Jolla, CA. Men’s 70+ Winner: Gerry Poulton (bottom left). Men’s 45+ Winner: Steve Wren (bottom right); Runner-up: John Musto.