Story and Photos by Jay D. Prince/SquashMagazine.com
For the third consecutive year, US SQUASH hosted the US Junior Open just a week before the winter holidays at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The 12-court home of the Bantam juggernaut that is men’s collegiate squash was full of screeches from bodies flailing around in rubber-soled shoes from dawn to dusk over four days. And once again, inclement weather threw a wrinkle into the proceedings by dropping a Nor’easter with upwards of two feet of snow in parts of New England (Hartford was slammed with a little over a foot and some very cold weather)—matches on Sunday were delayed by 90 minutes to accommodate shuttles that would not operate until safe to do so.
The tradition of the US Junior Open has become one of being hosted the week after its Canadian counterpart and just before many of the players hop overseas for the Scottish and British Juniors. But more significantly is the influx of foreign-born players who have been routinely trekking to the US from Mexico, Colombia, New Zealand, the UK and Egypt. No, the best of the best juniors from Egypt and England have not added their hats to the ring, but one doesn’t have to go far down the list in those countries to find their players plying their trade here.
With 428 players representing 20 countries, 169 of whom were not American, the US event has become the second largest junior tournament in the world—right behind the British Juniors. And while it’s still too early to say that Americans are dominating the podiums in the 10 divisions (five in the boys and girls each, starting with the U11), the local girls have been consistently making good.
And expectations couldn’t have been higher for the US contingent than in the Girls U19 where last year’s runner-up, Olivia Blatchford, was seeded No. 1, and Amanda Sobhy—who won the U17 last year and beat Blatchford in the final of the Junior Championship Tour event at Yale in October—was seeded two. Though most wouldn’t have been so bold as to suggest that they were both shoe-ins for a showdown in the final, after all a perennial contender, Catalina Pelaez of Colombia, was in the draw, most expected it to happen.
Any doubts were quickly brushed aside as both Blatchford and Sobhy breezed through their opening rounds—Blatchford dropped just five points, and Sobhy a whopping 11. Except for a blip in the round-of-16 when Blatchford dropped the second game to Lilian Fast (12-10), neither of the top two seeds faced possible elimination on their respective roads to the final.
Despite the recent loss to Sobhy, Blatchford had a wealth of experience in U19 finals since the annual event landed at Trinity in 2007. Twice Blatchford faced Canadian Laura Gemmell, and both times she fell short. But in this year’s final, Blatchford started slow and Sobhy appeared to be more comfortable in the tight opener which she won 12-10.
But Blatchford regrouped with a dominating performance in the second (11-5) before dropping the third (11-9). With the prospect of falling short for the third consecutive year, the fourth game was a monumental struggle with each player seizing momentary control. In the end, the game—and effectively, the match—was taken by Blatchford (14-12). The scream exhaled by Blatchford after securing the fifth game 11-3 was clear evidence that she wanted the title desperately.
The developing rivalry between Blatchford and Sobhy bodes well for American squash. Historically, age groups are dominated by one—sometimes two—player, leaving everyone to fight for a chance to be runner-up. Like all sports, when two players expect to win, the level of competition rises. And these youthful (both are just 16-years-young) U19 stalwarts aren’t the only positive sign for American juniors.
The strength of the American girls has been on full display over the past eight years. At world team championships, the American team has finished in the top four in three of the last five bi-annual events. And at the US Junior Open, yankee girls have swallowed up titles with consistency, from the youngest divisions through to the oldest.
A Pacific Northwest trio has owned the GU11 and GU13 for the past three years. In 2007, Helen Teegan so dominated the U11 that she never lost more than 10 points in a match. This year, Elena Wagenmans, just 9-years-old, secured her first Open title with a dominant performance over another American, Sandra Reiss, in the final, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8.
At the rate that Reeham Sedky is winning Open titles in the youngest divisions, she could run the table until she’s done with playing junior squash. In 2007, the first year in which the U11 was played, Sedky dominated her final over Chloe Chemtob to the tune of one lost point. Last year she won the U13, and this year she again faced Chemtob in the final and won 11-6, 11-7, 11-1.
American dominance on the girls side was complete with wins by both Olivia Fiechter in the U15 and Mary Elena Ubina in the U17. For Ubina it was her second consecutive title at the Open following her win in the U15 last year.
Of the five finals played by the girls, nine of the players were American, with only the U15 featuring a foreigner in the form of Canadian Alyssa Mehta.
In contrast to the girls, the boys side of the US Junior Open had a much broader international flavor as the divisions progressed. In the U19, the top half of the draw opened up before the first serve was played as the top seed, Canadian Nicholas Sachvie, withdrew too late for the division to be re-drawn.
By the time the U19 had reached the quarterfinals, seven of the 38 foreign players in the draw had survived, with just one American—Brandon McLaughlin—still in the running. Of the seven, Egypt and Mexcio each had three players vying for semifinal berths. Call it good fortune or simply a well-seeded draw by US SQUASH, but in none of the four quarterfinals did two players from the same country face one another. When the dust had settled, two Mexican players and two from Egypt reached the semis—with Mexico’s Miled Zarazua (the 2008 U17 winner) squaring off against Ahmed Syedahl, and Alfredo Avila (the No. 2 seed) facing Egypt’s Khaled Zahran. And it was a clean sweep for our neighbors to the south as Zarazua won in three and Avila in four after dropping the opener.
Going into the final, the question arose as to what the atmosphere might be like when the two talented Mexican players took the court. Though normally energetic and vocally supportive of their teammates, would the Mexican entourage display favortism toward one or the other or politely hope for an entertaining match? Suffice to say, the enthusiastic shouts of “venga, venga” were a bit subdued, but the athletic and give-it-all-you’ve-got style of both Zarazua and Avila gave everyone what they’d hoped for—a passionately contested match between friends who desperately wanted to win. But sports can be cruel in that only one can win, and on this day it was Zarazua who took the title in four wonderful games.
Despite the fact that the Egyptians were shut out of the U19 final, they more than made up for it in the U15 and U17 where Seif El Einen upset the top-seeded American, Dylan Murray, in the U15 final, and second seeded Ahmed Abdelhalim easily dispatched Canada’s Tyler Osborne—the No. 1 seed—in the U17.
The lone American winner on the boys side was by Dylan Murray’s younger brother, Ryan, who was the top seed in the U11. But it didn’t come easy, as another American, Alex Dworetzky (seeded No. 2) pushed Murray to the brink in a dramatic five-game final, 10-12, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 11-5.
Mexico’s Guillermo Cortes secured the second win for his country in the U13 over American Max Martin.
With each passing year, the US Junior Open becomes more and more competitive. While American girls continue to rule the court, the international flavor of junior squash at the annual Championship presents players from every country with opportunities to further develop their games and to gain valuable experience both on and off the court. And like development of the American girls in this event, the fact that Americans in the younger divisions on the boys side are progressing deeper and deeper in the tournament bodes well for the future of all the American players at the US Junior Open.
