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...
In January 2018 the Saudi PSA Women’s Squash Masters was held in Riyadh. The historic $165,000 tournament was the first-ever professional sporting event for women in Saudi Arabia. Nour El Sherbini captured the inaugural event, beating Raneem El Welily a month after losing to her in the finals of...
By James Zug
The 2017 Qatar Classic was one of the most special tournament in pro squash history.
This was not by accident. Since 1992, the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex, in the Al Dafna district of Doha, has hosted a major men’s squash tournament. It was called the Qatar...
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 James Zug
When to Jump: If the Job You Have Isn’t the Life You Want
By Mike Lewis
(New York: Henry Holt, 2018)
When we last visited with Mike Lewis with the article “Have Racquet, Will Travel” in our February 2016 issue, Lewis was wrapping up his squash career, having reached a...
By James Zug
A flagship squash facility in Baltimore, Meadow Mill Athletic Club is celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary this autumn. There will be a week of squash, highlighted by a $5,000 PSA tournament, a junior gold tournament and a fiesta on November 3.
That is exactly twenty-five years and a day...
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
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 James Zug
The eighty-second Monticello Associations U.S. Squash Doubles Championships had a distinctly Rocky Mountain flavor. One hundred and twenty-three teams came to Denver this past March, making it the largest National Doubles ever held west of the Mississippi. The Denver Athletic Club, with its two courts, was the...
By James Zug
Jenny Duncalf and Rachael Grinham are two of the greatest squash players of the early twenty-first century and leaders on the professional world tour. As they mature in their careers, they have come to realize that because of that profile, they can have a major impact on...