By Mark Allen, San Francisco Bay Club Head Squash Professional
World No. 19 Azlan Iskandar became this year’s North American Open champion by defeating No. 1 seed and World No. 9 John White in four games. The Malaysian wasn’t at all happy with his opening round performance against Omar Elborolossy, but he improved with each round and, by the final, he was playing superb squash and found the width and length necessary to contain White’s attacking game.
In the first three rounds it was hard to see how anyone on the planet could compete with White, as he blasted past Wade Johnstone (Australia), David Phillips (Canada), and Shawn Delierre (Canada), 3-0—all in under 40 minutes. He was on fire playing his unique brand of squash that includes drives with awesome power, volleys into the nick, touch-drops that extend his opponents into the extremes of the front court, and angles off the side wall that no one else seems to use. It’s entertaining stuff and the local Bay Area crowd was enthralled.
Iskandar had a harder path to the final, beating Elborolossy in a hard four games, England’s Chris Simpson 3-0, despite trailing 9-1 in the first game, and then coming out on top of a very tough semifinal over England’s Adrian Grant. The first two games against Grant lasted 70 minutes and Iskandar won both of them, including a monster 21-19 tie break to take the second. Despite the obvious disappointment of losing such a tough game, Grant fought back to take the third 11-4, and the fourth was level pegging until Iskandar broke away at 7 points each to take the next four rallies and the match. Most agreed that this was the best match of the tournament, as both players refused to give an inch and fought for every point. It was a testament to Iskandar’s conditioning that he was able to come out the next day for the final seemingly unaffected by the previous night’s excursions.
Other highlights of the week included the very first match of the main draw between Phillips and Ireland’s Liam Kenny. This went all the way to 13-11 in the fifth game, and Phillips emerged the victor, beating a player ranked 35 positions above him in the PSA rankings.
Chris Walker, former World No. 4, added a touch of class and nostalgia to the draw as the soon-to-be 40-year-old clocked up two qualification round wins, and took an impressive 2-1 lead against No. 7 seed Delierre in the first round of the main draw. Though he lost 11-6 in the fifth game, it was inspirational to see Walker, a lifelong friend, use all his skill and guile to still be able to compete at the highest levels of the game.
In the next round, Delierre beat our 2005 North American Open Champion, Shahier Razik, to make the semifinal. The crowd were disappointed to see Razik’s early exit, as he is a firm favorite with the locals. Most were sympathetic to Razik as they were witness to Delierre’s blocking and strong-arm tactics that he used in both this match and the match the night before against Walker.
So congratulations to Azlan Iskandar for chalking up two big wins and taking the North American Open title. The tournament was a huge success and, thanks to a $25,000 matching grant from The San Francisco Bay Club’s parent company, Western Athletic Clubs, the tournament raised just under $60,000 for our designated local charity, St John’s Educational Threshold Center of San Francisco. Everyone is already looking ahead to our 2008, $50,000 North American Open Championship to be held on the glass court at Justin Herman Plaza. See you there!
