By James Zug
After three years in Charlottesville, the National Singles returned to Philadelphia for a large, exciting and record-extending tournament. The 106th annual championships were hosted by Philadelphia Cricket Club (PCC), with many matches also being played at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy down the street. PCC was also a...
By Chris McClintick
Olivia Blatchford’s U.S. career came full circle during the 2017 U.S. Women’s Championship at Chelsea Piers Connecticut.
Although only twenty-four years old, Blatchford was making her tenth consecutive appearance in the National Singles, which was held alongside the U.S. Junior Bronze Championships on the last weekend of April.
As...
by Chris McClintick
Chris Hanson entered the 2017 S.L. Green National Singles fully fit for the first time in nearly a year. He considered himself lucky even to be at the tournament.
The 2015-2016 season was the Dartmouth graduate’s most successful season on the PSA tour. It was his third season...
by Chris McClintick
It was the middle of July, and Roger Federer’s voice echoed down the hallway from the Tansill classroom in Trinity College’s Ferris Athletic Center. Six prospective American squash professionals listened intently as the US Squash Academy classroom session led off with a YouTube clip.
The Swiss tennis legend...
By James Zug
It was a storybook ending to a rollicking ten-day celebration of squash excellence: Nour El Tayeb and Ali Farag, a married couple, each triumphed to win the 2017 U.S. Open presented by Macquarie Investment Management.
It was almost unique in the annals of sports. The most celebrated example...
by Haley Bloch and Jennifer Gabler
Squash Is Friendship captures the essence of the 2017 Howe Cup, which was played at Squash on Fire in Washington, DC last November. The tournament, founded in 1928, was a combination of fierce competition and high-energy
social connections.
The tournament marked the first national championship hosted...
By James Zug
Cinematically, racquet sports are mostly used as a metaphor. The scenes reveal a character’s physical prowess and mental strength or a power struggle between protagonists. Or it is simply about making someone seem like a hapless, ham-handed buffoon.
This is easy. Actors are almost always awkwardly uncoordinated. They...
By James Zug
Photography by Michael T. Bello/mtbello.com
It was a Sunday in the winter. Chris Brownell was giving squash lessons. She taught all afternoon, working with youngsters, teenagers, adults. She wore a black shirt and black shorts and a big white watch on her freckled wrist. She was encouraging and...
by James Zug
A quarter century ago, the men’s hardball and softball tours merged. On January 1, 1993 the World Professional Squash Association and the International Squash Players Association ceased to exist, replaced by the new Professional Squash Association.
The PSA became the sole global association for men’s pro squash. Without...