By Corey Modeste, MSRA Board Member
The best indication of the depth of the 40th Anniversary of the Hyder Trophy squash tournament, which traditionally marks the end of the New York Metro area squash season, came from a top-seeded pro player who said after an upset loss, “But this tournament isn’t supposed to be that hard!” The tournament that began in 1969 as a single draw of 16 players playing softball at the New York Athletic Club has grown into a 180-player, 13-draw event highlighted by some of the world’s best male professionals. Present were former World No. 1 John White, former World No. 4 Chris Walker, current World No. 21 Shahier Razik, No. 37 Julian Illingworth and No. 49 Yasser El Halaby. The May 16-18 tournament was held at some of New York City’s top venues, including the Sports Club/LA, and the Harvard, Princeton and Yale Clubs.
The quarterfinal round of the pro draw gave signs that this was not to be a typical “follow the seedings” draw. Top-seeded White defeated Raj Nanda, but it took five games. The second quarterfinal match extended a rivalry dating back to the intercollegiates between former college national champions El Halaby and Bernardo Samper, with El Halaby winning in four. The third match featured Walker vs. Razik; many assumed the match would be a straightforward win for the younger Razik, who won the 2006 Hyder Trophy and was a 2007 finalist, but Walker had the craft and endurance to weather five tightly-contested games before emerging the winner. Illingworth beat Chris Gordon 3-1 in the fourth match.
The semifinals saw a match-up of youth versus experience, with longtime pros Walker and White facing recent college graduates Illingworth and El Halaby, respectively. All four had played quarterfinals earlier that afternoon, and in this round, fatigue took its toll on Walker who lost in three games to Illingworth, and on White who lost in four to El Halaby.
The final was a reprise of the long time rivalry of El Halaby, Princeton’s former No. 1, and Illingworth, Yale’s former No. 1. The first several games saw both players put together exciting rallies, despite this being their fourth match in three days. The large audience was on the edge of its seat throughout the fifth game as the players played tight rails and retrieved perfectly-placed drop shots, eventually getting to 10-9 in favor of Illingworth. But the growing fatigue was evident when El Halaby hit a serve return into the tin to end the match in favor of Illingworth and send the audience into a standing ovation to acknowledge the high quality of play and sportsmanship.
