Hundreds
Of Amateurs Compete In J. P. Morgan Tournament Of Champions Grand Open
Extravaganza; Hartigan Captures Top Men's
Division
by Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline January 26th --- While Ramy Ashour, Greg Gaultier, Natalie Grinham and the other elite players on the men’s PSA and women’s WSA professional squash circuits battled each other for glory and their share of the nearly $150,000 in prize money ($115,000 in the men’s tourney, $27,500 in the women’s) that was up for grabs this past week at the J. P. Morgan Tournament Of Champions, held on the gaudy four-glass-wall portable court in Grand Central Station, 269 dedicated amateur players were competing in 18 different divisions (11 men’s, seven women’s) throughout the tournament weekend at various New York clubs in the Grand Open, superbly organized and run by the New York metropolitan squash association. Most of the categories had full 32-person draws, and even the Consolation events for those who lost in the first round were widely subscribed, as the amateur entrants, many of whom also bought tickets for the pro matches, were determined to have the weekend be as total a squash experience as possible.
The top men’s flight, the eight-man 6.0, was won by Will Hartigan, a 2012 college graduate who last winter played a major role in his Cornell team’s first-ever advance to the semifinals of the college team championships, the Potter Cup, by virtue of their 8-1 quarterfinal victory over Yale. Unseeded and trailing fourth seed (and frequent PST tour player) Ned Marks in his very first match, Hartigan won the last two games 11-3,11-7, then extricated himself from another two games to one deficit by overcoming Clay Blackiston in the closing laps of their semifinal. Blackiston, one of the heroes in Princeton’s historic 5-4 Potter Cup final-round win over Trinity College this past February with his come-from-behind 3-2 win at No. 6 against Vishrab Kotian, had shocked top seed Nicolas Sanchez in his opening match but was unable to hold off Hartigan’s late charge, succumbing 11-4 and 11-3.
The bottom half had a pair of five-game marathons as well, with Reed Endressen barely surviving a tiebreaker-filled first-round thriller with John Musto, the third seed and current Princeton Club head pro, 15-13 6-11 10-12 11-9 13-11, then taking a two-love lead over Harvard Club assistant pro Sat Seshadri in the semis before the latter was able to bootstrap his way to an arduous 3-11 8-11 11-8 11-9 11-8 decision. Seshadri had opened up with a four-game first-round win over Hartigan’s Cornell teammate Alex Domenick.
Often, as indeed was the case in the men’s Tournament Of Champions final in which Gaultier ran out of gas and lost 16 of the last 17 points against Ashour, when there are two route-going enervating semifinals, one or the other of the finalists is unable to match his prior round’s performance. Such was the case with the Hartigan-Seshadri final in which the former was for the most part in control throughout his 11-5, 9 and 2 victory. Toby Eyre won the top women’s flight, the 5.5, a round-robin, her closest match being with Julie Lilien, who finished third after losing, also in five, to Tehani Guruge.
COMPLETE DRAWS
by Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline January 26th --- While Ramy Ashour, Greg Gaultier, Natalie Grinham and the other elite players on the men’s PSA and women’s WSA professional squash circuits battled each other for glory and their share of the nearly $150,000 in prize money ($115,000 in the men’s tourney, $27,500 in the women’s) that was up for grabs this past week at the J. P. Morgan Tournament Of Champions, held on the gaudy four-glass-wall portable court in Grand Central Station, 269 dedicated amateur players were competing in 18 different divisions (11 men’s, seven women’s) throughout the tournament weekend at various New York clubs in the Grand Open, superbly organized and run by the New York metropolitan squash association. Most of the categories had full 32-person draws, and even the Consolation events for those who lost in the first round were widely subscribed, as the amateur entrants, many of whom also bought tickets for the pro matches, were determined to have the weekend be as total a squash experience as possible.
The top men’s flight, the eight-man 6.0, was won by Will Hartigan, a 2012 college graduate who last winter played a major role in his Cornell team’s first-ever advance to the semifinals of the college team championships, the Potter Cup, by virtue of their 8-1 quarterfinal victory over Yale. Unseeded and trailing fourth seed (and frequent PST tour player) Ned Marks in his very first match, Hartigan won the last two games 11-3,11-7, then extricated himself from another two games to one deficit by overcoming Clay Blackiston in the closing laps of their semifinal. Blackiston, one of the heroes in Princeton’s historic 5-4 Potter Cup final-round win over Trinity College this past February with his come-from-behind 3-2 win at No. 6 against Vishrab Kotian, had shocked top seed Nicolas Sanchez in his opening match but was unable to hold off Hartigan’s late charge, succumbing 11-4 and 11-3.
The bottom half had a pair of five-game marathons as well, with Reed Endressen barely surviving a tiebreaker-filled first-round thriller with John Musto, the third seed and current Princeton Club head pro, 15-13 6-11 10-12 11-9 13-11, then taking a two-love lead over Harvard Club assistant pro Sat Seshadri in the semis before the latter was able to bootstrap his way to an arduous 3-11 8-11 11-8 11-9 11-8 decision. Seshadri had opened up with a four-game first-round win over Hartigan’s Cornell teammate Alex Domenick.
Often, as indeed was the case in the men’s Tournament Of Champions final in which Gaultier ran out of gas and lost 16 of the last 17 points against Ashour, when there are two route-going enervating semifinals, one or the other of the finalists is unable to match his prior round’s performance. Such was the case with the Hartigan-Seshadri final in which the former was for the most part in control throughout his 11-5, 9 and 2 victory. Toby Eyre won the top women’s flight, the 5.5, a round-robin, her closest match being with Julie Lilien, who finished third after losing, also in five, to Tehani Guruge.
COMPLETE DRAWS
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