Mohamed Sharaf And Simmi Chan Win 2023 Intercollegiate Individuals Championships  
by Rob Dinerman

photo Columbia Squash

Dateline March 5, 2023 --- Capping off a torrid culmination to a 2022-23 College Squash Association (CSA) season that marked the 100th year of college squash --- since the first-ever squash match between two colleges occurred on the third weekend of February 1923 when Harvard beat Yale 4-1 --- Mohamed Sharaf became the first player from Trinity College to win the men’s Individual title in the 14 years since Baset Chaudhry did so in 2009 and Simmi Chan became the first women’s player ever from Columbia University to win the women’s Individual event. Sharaf, who was seeded third, defeated unseeded Harvard co-captain George Crowne 11-7, 7 and 5, while Chan, also the No. 3 seed, rallied after a subpar start to beat defending champion Sivasangari Subramaniam by the score of 2-11, 12-10, 11-5, 13-11. The tournament was headquartered at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in downtown Philadelphia and an informal ceremony observing and honoring the 100-year milestone and featuring speeches by CSA Executive Director David Poolman, CSA Board Chair John Nimick and US Squash Executive Director/CEO Kevin Klipstein was held on Saturday evening after the completion of the semifinal round.

The only game that Sharaf lost all weekend was the opener of his first-round match against Rochester’s Yash Fadte, who then came close to winning the second game as well. But when Sharaf got through that game 11-9, he won the next two at 7 and 8, then 11-7, 6 and 6 over Karim Elbarbary of Princeton and 11-6, 11-8, 12-10 in the semis over UVA’s Aly Hussein, the No. 1 seed, leading into the final with Crowne. The latter, who had lost only one match all season playing at the No. 2 position in Harvard’s formidable lineup (which one week earlier had won its fourth consecutive national men’s team college championship), had conjured up a career-best extended performance to reach the final with a trio of sequential upset wins over Nathan Tze Bing Kueh, Matias Knudsen (13-11 on the fourth) and Veer Chotrani, the No. 1 players at Penn, Drexel and Cornell respectively, all of whom were seeded several spots above Crowne. Chotrani, who had won the final four points after trailing 9-7 in the fifth game of his quarterfinal match against Crowne’s teammate Marwan Tarek (the No. 2 seed and 2020 Individuals champion), led Crowne two games to love and was two points from winning both the third and fourth games (at 10-all and 9-all respectively) before eventually losing the fifth game 11-7 in what Harvard head coach Mike Way characterized as the best match he has ever seen his protégé Crowne play.

Ultimately, asking Crowne to play at that level for a second consecutive match, coming on the heels of his heroic but exhausting weekend-long accomplishments, may have constituted one request too many --- but the real key to the final was the fact that Sharaf was on fire from start to finish. He was catching nicks from every conceivable angle, while also demonstrating remarkable creativity with his shot selection and extraordinary athleticism, powering his way to the ball and combining brainy counter-drops with impressive pace off both flanks and to all sectors of the court. He took command of the play, both territorially and statistically, from the outset and never relinquished it, finishing off his virtuoso performance with a forehand overhead into the front-left nick, following by a half-volley that barely cleared the tin in the front-right part of the court. Sharaf’s play has occasionally lacked consistency --- he committed some costly errors in his loss to Tarek one week earlier in the match that clinched Harvard’s 5-4 victory over Trinity in the national team championship final --- but when he is at his best, as he clearly was in this Individuals final, he can be virtually unbeatable.

Unlike Sharaf, who was at the top of his game from the opening point, Chan, whether through nerves or for some other reason, was completely out of rhythm at the outset of her match with Subramaniam, who was playing in her third Individuals final (having lost 3-0 in 2019 to Gina Kennedy and won, 11-7 in the fifth, in 2022 against Hana Moataz). After losing that near-disastrous opening game 11-2, Chan was able to regroup somewhat in the second, which she --- crucially --- was able to win 12-10 after tinning away two game-balls at 10-8. But to that point her play (as well as that of Subramaniam) was a bit spasmodic, with neither player at peak form for more than a few points at a time. However, after falling behind 4-1 in the early part of the third game, without warning and almost out of the blue, Chan suddenly dramatically elevated her level, finding the range with her drives and drops, moving much better than before, adding some late-swing backhand cross-court wrist-flicks that caught Subramaniam flat-footed, and winning seven straight points as part of a 12-1 run that brought her that third game 11-5 and to 2-0 in the fourth.

The score then seesawed perilously along right to the end. Chan led 9-7 and was in full control of the following point, but Subramaniam, refusing to let the game get away, made a series of desperation retrievals of Chan near-winners and wound up winning that point and the next to draw even at 9-all. A stroke call against Subramaniam made it 10-9, but Chan tinned away both that match ball and another at 11-10. However, on her third try at 12-11, she gratefully accepted a tinned backhand roll-corner off Subramaniam’s racquet. Notwithstanding this outcome, Subramaniam has made a remarkable recovery after sustaining multiple injuries (most seriously a bone fracture in her neck) in a car accident in Kuala Lampur this past summer. She had dropped a game in both her first-round match against Trinity’s Nouran Youssef and in her quarterfinal with Harvard’s Saran Nghiem before winning her semi 3-0 over UVA’s Meagan Best. For her part, Chan had straight-gamed Harvard’s Habiba El Defrawy and Trinity No. 1 Jana Safy before beating Harvard No. 1 --- and the hero of the Crimson’s national women’s championship two weeks ago with her last-match-on-court victory over Safy --- Marina Stefanoni, whom Chan had previously beaten on this same Specter Center site this past October at the U. S. Open. All in all, there were so many twists and turns these past three weekends in the two national team championships leading up to this Individuals event that it can only augur well for next year and the next 100 years of college squash in the United States.