By Brett Erasmus
What is the ideal recipe for a successful squash tournament? Perhaps the ingredients are as follows. Take 180 avid amateur squash players and a team of dedicated MSRA organizers. Add one great facility with 5 singles courts where the division finals can all be played consecutively (thank you Eddie Kapur and Sports Club LA). Then go and invite some of the best professional squash players in North America. Finally, throw a party on the Saturday night with free drinks and walaa, what do you have, if not a weekend of pure Hyder happiness.
Canadian number one, Shahier Razik, won the pro event. In the amateurs, I am very happy to report that many juniors got to final rounds of the tournament. As far as the women’s draws went, there were teens in each of the 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5 consolation finals, as well as in the 5.5 final. And we had a junior player, Mawa Balla, from the StreetSquash program in Harlem (http://www.streetsquash.org/) win the Women’s 3.0 consolation draw. I wonder if that has ever happened before? The first of many victories, in more ways than one.
The guys did even better; there was a junior player in the finals of the main draw in both the Men’s 3.5, 4.0 and 5.5 division. In the 5.5 division in the end, both the consolation and main draw were won by junior players, Dan Judd and RJ Keating, respectively. I wonder if these young men train at the same club? I am starting to get the feeling that there is a mysterious squash club (or coach perhaps) hidden away somewhere upstate that is producing loads of unbelievable squash talent. No doubt we’ll find out over time.
Despite the predictable surge in the performances of our young players, my personal favorite part of the tournament was seeing the Men’s 5.0 final where a bigger crowd (than at his amazing league final’s match) got to watch Zach the Lion-heart. Yip, he did it again. He beat someone that he should have theoretically lost to. I know this for certain, because his opponent was a teammate who played above him in his CityView league team in the 5.0 finals a few weeks back. If you ever go out to CityView (http://www.cityviewracquet.com/) you would recognize these guys, as there is a big poster of the winning 5.0 team in the elevator. You really cannot miss it, it’s not quite life-size, but it must be close. Joking. (No, it is actually very big). Anyway, I digress. Zach was pumped again and gave an awesome performance in front of a capacity crowd. Much to his opponent’s dismay, obvious by a few glass-shattering shrieks at the end, Zach saved three game balls in the 4th and came back to win that game and hence the entire match. Man, does this guy rise to the occasion! It was a great game to watch and the entire gallery was spell-bound by the end of it. I listened to the conversation he had with the ref immediately afterward (as did anyone else within earshot) and it went something like this: “Zach, buddy, you don’t have to try to hit every ball every time. Seriously, take the lets and strokes when they are available man, especially when turning on the back wall.” I think that was the gist of it anyway. No 5 point let rule required here. If only all the pros avoided interference at all costs and played every point to its rightful conclusion.
Maybe a little guts and determination is the secret ingredient after all.
Reposted courtesy of Brett Erasmus from Brett's Squash Blog www.brettssquashblog.com
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