Supreet Singh And Olivia Blatchford Join Impressive Chelsea Piers CT Pro Staff
by Rob Dinerman
Dateline September 10th ---- Natalie Grainger, the Director Of Squash at the new Chelsea Piers Connecticut Club (CPCT) in Stamford, has announced that Olivia Blatchford, who in 2011 both reached the U. S. Nationals finals and was a key member of the USA squad that finished second in the World Junior Championships, and former Trinity College star Supreet Singh have been hired as members of the club’s professional staff. They will play major roles both in the coaching department and in helping Grainger administer the substantial array of adult and especially junior programs that the club, with its 11 singles courts and one hardball doubles court, will be offering beginning right after Labor Day as the autumn schedule kicks into gear.
Blatchford has been playing on the WSA women’s pro circuit, advancing as high as No. 32, for the past two years, during which time Singh, a Mumbai native who as a college freshman won the deciding match in a 5-4 win over Harvard in the 2007 Potter Cup finals, has been working in the admissions department and coaching squash at Avon Old Farms, a prep school in Hartford, where he earned a reputation as a Pied Piper of sorts due to how enjoyable he made the game for children as he introduced them to squash.
Blatchford and Singh will be joining an already impressive CPCT pro squash lineup headed by Grainger herself, who will be taking a hands-on role in organizing the various programs, overseeing the development of especially the junior members (beginning with three-year-olds and going all the way up to the U19 level), and providing plenty of on-court coaching as well. She began her own squash at an incredibly early age --- at two and a half, she could already hit ten balls in a row (ten being the highest number she could count to at the time!) to herself off a front wall --- and was taught the game as a child by her mother, Jean, who was England’s national champion and No. 1 player, and who is still playing at a praiseworthy level, as witness her progress all the way to the semis of the World Masters 65-and-over event in Birmingham, England, this past summer, before she dropped a close five-gamer to the eventual champion Ann Manley.
Natalie Grainger’s storied career was highlighted by 23 WISPA World Tour titles; final-round advances in both the World Open in 2002 and the British Open in 2004, when she was briefly ranked No. 1 on the WISPA computer; a seven-year tenure (from 2003 to 2010) as Association President; five-straight U. S. National singles triumphs (2007-2011); and the U. S. National Doubles championships she won with Jessica DiMauro in 2008 and 2009, when they were also the No. 1 team on the WDSA pro women’s doubles tour. Grainger was captain and No. 1 player of the USA team several times in the late 2000’s and coached a number of USA Junior squads, serving (with Jack Wyant) as co-coach of the 2011 team starring Amanda Sobhy and Blatchford that reached the final of the World Junior Championships before barely losing, two matches to one, to perennial champ Egypt.
The lead CPCT squash pro behind Grainger has been Karim Yehia, the Egyptian native who progressed as high as No. 73 on the PSA men’s pro circuit, winning PSA events in Rochester and Florida and qualifying into the main draw of the 2005 Tournament Of Champions with a 15-14 win over Alex Tait. During the past dozen years since moving to the U. S. in 2000, Yehia has had successful teaching-pro stints at the New York Athletic Club (from 2000-2005), the Plainfield Country Club (2008-2011 after several years in the banking field in between) and more recently at Lifetime Fitness. Known for his dynamic shot-making skills, he took up the game as an eight-year-old and has passionately pursued the sport ever since. So have the two other pros who have already been taking an active role running this summer’s junior squash camps, namely Cece Cortes, who captained Harvard to the 2011-12 college team championship as a Crimson senior this past winter, and John Burke, a top-three player on strong Dartmouth College teams in the early 1990’s and a solid singles and doubles player (and frequent club champion in both disciplines) in Westchester/Connecticut-area clubs during the past two decades. Cortes will be giving the women’s pro tour a go this fall while also maintaining an active coaching schedule at CPCT, while Burke will be giving plenty of lessons, especially in doubles, as he also assists Grainger in managing the overall program and in outreach to other clubs and schools in the immediate surrounding area.
Chelsea Piers CT is located at One Blachley Road in Stamford, just off Interstate-95 and a 7-10 minute car ride from the Stamford train station, about an hour’s ride on the local MetroNorth line from Grand Central Station in mid-town Manhattan. Anyone interested in inquiring further about membership or enrollment in any of these Junior and Adult squash programs should visit the club’s web site (chelseapiersct.com) or call 203-989-1000 (the direct line to the squash club is 203-989-1600).
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