By Vidya Rajan
Photos by Jay D. Prince/SquashMagazine.com
Two years ago, Seattle was hit with an anomalous wind storm that wiped out the power of half the city. It just so happened that the U.S. Junior Open was being held in Seattle that year, and its starting date coincided with the storm’s arrival. Was it the city? Or was it the U.S. Junior Open? Players and their families were certain that it must have been Seattle, until they were made to brave a Nor’easter the following year. And this year, the start of the tournament was marked by ten inches of snow. Coincidence? I think not!
To offset the effects of the unforeseen weather disturbance, tournament organizers this year decided to shift all first-round matches forward by three hours. The tournament continued to run smoothly, however, as organizers proved their resilience and prudent planning.
With the recent economic downturn, this year’s junior open saw a 13 percent decrease in participation from last year. Despite that, it still managed to attract 337 players from 20 different countries, far outstripping the Canadian and even Scottish Junior Open in size. Logistically similar to last year’s tournament, this year’s U.S. Junior Open was split between Trinity College and Loomis Chafee School in Hartford (CT) for the first two days before all matches were moved to Trinity on Monday.
Following the decision by the WSF in November, U.S. SQUASH recently decided to adopt PAR-11 scoring as its primary scoring system, implementing it for the first time in a junior tournament at the U.S. Junior Open. The result? Quicker matches, certainly, but with the scoring system being so unforgiving of unforced errors and lapses in concentration, matches were of better quality overall. The new scoring also simplified match scheduling, as it kept matches running in a timely manner and, as US Squash put it, reduced match fatigue—especially important during the four-day tournament, the longest one of the US Squash season.
In a repeat of last year’s performance, Seattle took home two titles in the GU11 and GU13 divisions. Helen Teegan, GU11 champion, dominated her division and ceded fewer than ten points per match. Teegan is also an accomplished swimmer ranked highly in the state of Washington. She plays with a cool, carefree nonchalance and hardly finds nerves to be an issue in squash, “except for one time last year after eating a bad sandwich!”
GU13 champion Reeham Sedky, also a Seattle native, won her second successive title meeting New York’s Sabrina Sobhy in a well-contested final. Sedky ran like the wind, chasing down every ball and demonstrating how the standard of American squash has risen over the years beginning with the youngest age divisions.
Arguably, the match of the tournament—or one of them—was the GU19 semifinal between No. 1 seed Laura Gemmell and No. 5 seed Catalina Pelaez of Colombia, the GU17 finalist in 2006 and 2007, and a regular presence for the past several years. Gemmell, who has won five U.S. Junior Opens of the six she has played, not to mention being a British Open finalist and two-time semifinalist, had met Pelaez a number of times over the years and most recently at the Canadian Junior Open the previous weekend. For the first time, however, Pelaez pushed Gemmell to five games at the U.S. Junior Open with Gemmell squeezing past 16-14 in the fifth—after overcoming a couple of match balls against her.
In a repeat of last year’s GU19 final, Gemmell went on to defeat Olivia Blatchford. This time it took four games instead of three with Gemmell dropping the first 11-3. “My particular game plan was to attack as much as I could and use my drops,” she said. “I knew Olivia was playing well and I was expecting a hard match.” The title marks her 20th national championship to date. Can you spell domination?
A few other dominating forces and repeat winners to boot included BU19 Champion Todd Harrity (BU17 winner in 2006) who dropped only one game en route to the final against Brian Hong of Canada, and GU17 Champion Amanda Sobhy (GU15 winner in 2007), who convincingly beat Menat Allah Nasser of Egypt in the final. True to their No. 1 seedings, these two champions took their titles with relative ease.
Unlike in years past, and contrary to the seemingly unpredictable weather, this year saw few major upsets and no unknowns rising to take the championship. Of the ten champions, in fact, five had won the title at least once before. One of the first-time winners, Maria Elena Ubina of Connecticut fought hard to reach the final of the GU15, prevailing over top seed Katie Tutrone in five games in the quarterfinal and Rachel Leizman in another five games in the semifinal. “I felt really excited and sort of shocked that I was already in the final,” Ubina said, “but I was proud of myself so far in the tournament because I hadn’t recently beaten any of the girls I played…I really wanted to win but if I didn’t I still would have been happy.” Ubina beat Michelle Gemmell in the final in four games; Gemmell went on to reach the semifinal of the GU15 division at the British Junior Open.
Many of the players at the tournament have been regulars for the past several years—one example was Miled Zarazua of Mexico, BU17 champion. After eight successive U.S. Junior Open appearances, two-time runner-up Zarazua finally walked away with the title this year. “In the final I just wanted to put the ball at the back and when I had the chance to attack, just do it with no fear [and] not hit the tin,” Zarazua said. “Mistakes cost a lot in this new scoring—you must not lose a minute of concentration because in a few seconds you could lose the game and even the match.”
This realization led Zarazua to execute his game plan flawlessly in the final, as he defeated Nick Hopcroft of England in four games. Zarazua has hopes of joining the professional tour in the future.
But it wasn’t only the usual suspects who made waves in this year’s tournament. Bryan Patterson, Director of Squash for CitySquash, an Urban program based in the Bronx, New York, brought a group of ten players to the tournament this year. “[It was] still pretty tough for them but we are starting to produce Gold players,” Patterson said, referring to U.S. Junior Squash’s top-32 level. “They all loved the experience and say that it will help them in their games.”
Despite not having their own facility or the other advantages present in private clubs such as individual coaching, the fact that juniors from CitySquash and other Urban Squash programs have been able to do this well so far is commendable. It certainly doesn’t stop there—there is so much potential for further success in the future. Patterson gave voice to his dreams for CitySquash: “We are getting there and I really hope that one day (in the next five years) an Urban program will produce a champion—watch out!”
The U.S. Junior Open is in for some surprises, whether they arise in the form of Urban players walking away with the championship, more countries participating or even more abnormal weather. Or perhaps this year’s tournament was a harbinger of tournaments to come—until then, we await the next few dark horses, the diamonds in the rough, the underdogs, and even the forever-reigning champions.
