Zac Alexander Dominates 111th US Squash Hardball Singles Championships   
by Rob Dinerman and Tefft Smith


Men's Open lineup: Finalist Hamed Anvari, Tefft Smith, Winner Zac Alexander


Women's Open Lineup: Tefft Smith, Winner Kelsey Engman, Finalist Charlene Neo, Paul Chan
photos Tefft Smith

Dateline February 28th --- This past Sunday afternoon, Zac Alexander, an Australian PSA touring pro presently based in Greenwich, Connecticut, took the Men’s Open title by a score of 15-7, 10 and 11 over Hamed Anvari, an SDA Doubles touring pro, whose busy weekend included playing in the concomitant David Johnson SDA tournament in Brooklyn Heights, just six express subway stops south of the Harvard Club of New York, the host venue of the hardball tournament. Alexander, who has also enjoyed substantial success in limited forays on the SDA tour, put on a devastating demonstration of power and athleticism with his scorching rails and excellent court coverage in what was for him an enormously successful hardball singles debut.  Post-match, Alexander declared his love of hardball singles, while a thrilled crowd of veteran hardball singles enthusiasts uniformly declared his performance “the best” in recent memory, as did Anvari himself, a semifinal winner over recent Franklin & Marshall star Cole Osborne and previously a finalist in this event in 2013 and 2015. In the wake of second seed Greg Park’s withdrawal due to an ankle injury and the default of the remaining players in the draw’s bottom quadrant as well, Tom Harrity, who had previously lost to Osborne, agreed to play an exhibition match against Alexander in lieu of a bottom-half semifinal.

In the Women’s Open, Philadelphia Racquet Club professional Kelsey Engman bested Charlene Neo, a former varsity player at Harvard.  Both have played plenty of doubles, but were first-time hardball singles competitors.  Engman mastered the three-wall shot to telling effect, but Neo won the 3rd game with punishing  rails before Engman’s  run of service winners and consistent length enabled her to win the close-out fourth. She took home the trophy and $1000 winner’s purse, with Neo winning $500 (the Men’s and Women’s Open prize money purses were the same). 

The 40+ Division witnessed an awesome battle between the defending 40+ National Champion and former Navy star Sunil Desai of Philadelphia and former Brown University No. 1 Willie Gaynor of Washington, D.C.  Desai trailed two games to one, with Gaynor applying constant pressure to win the second and third games handily.  The fourth was a back-and-forth war of great gets, alternating three-wall and drop-nick winners, with long rallies, resulting in Desai eking out an 18-16 win, following which he controlled the 5th, with an early slew of winners en route to an 11-4 lead and a 15-8 close-out. A VERY exciting and entertaining match!!

The 50+ Division saw perennial age-group and five-time National Open  champion Tom Harrity of Philadelphia overwhelm a now 60+ Peter Stokes, also of Philadelphia, 15-4, 7 and 11. Stokes, then successfully defended his 60+ title with a final-round 15-10, 11 and 11 victory over Paul Chan, a match in which Stokes’s precise play overcame Chan’s always creative, “great hands” shot-making.

The 65+ flight featured a series of marvelous matches between Paul Chan, Tefft Smith of DC and Henry Steinglass of NYC.  Steinglass beat Chan 3-2 with three of the five games going into overtime. Steinglass came from behind to win the fourth 18-15 and then closed out the fifth at 9.  He then lost to Smith, whose ensuing tournament-culminating  match with Chan was an epic that came down to simultaneous-match-point, on which Chan was forced to hit a weak defensive shot to the front court. Smith went for a crushing forehand cross-court killer which Chan presciently anticipated, resulting in a reflex-volley backhand winner for the match that gave him his second 65+ Championship.  Great friends and doubles partners, they laughed and hugged at Chan’s wonderful shot.

In the 75+ flight, Steinglass defeated Jon McBride of Chevy Chase, Md., 3-1, with McBride winning the second game 18-17 before Steinglass’s superior shot making “restored order.” Andy Packard of Bar Mills, Maine, at age 82 the oldest entrant in the draw, won the 75+ Consolation.  Richard Chin, the longtime head pro of the host club, was awarded the Charlie Baker Trophy for all that he and the Harvard Club have done to support hardball singles, and US Squash Tournament Director Kim Clearkin was thanked as well for the effort she gave towards ensuring such a well-organized tournament weekend.