Bay Area squash fans look forward to fall, when the Oracle NetSuite Pro Squash
Tournament brings some of the world’s best players to town. But September, it turns out,
isn’t the only month when Bay Area residents get to see professional squash players in
action.
Just last month, NorCal Squash helped sponsor the Redwood Shores Open 2019, a PSA
Closed Satellite ($1K) tournament that took place at the Bay Club Redwood Shores. From
March 21-23, Bay Club members and guests enjoyed some riveting matches, featuring a
mix of foreign players as well as top local men and juniors. Out of a highly competitive
draw of 16 players, it was two local pros who emerged for the Saturday afternoon finals,
Mustafa Nawar (of Squash Zone) and Charlie Johnson (of BCRS). In front of a capacity
crowd packed behind court #4 (set up with the 17” tin that the pros use), Johnson survived
a tightly contested 4 games to take the winner’s purse of $400.
The tournament began Thursday afternoon with the round of 16 matches. The top 4 seeds
each advanced in 3 games: Nawar (#1 seed) topped local junior, Varun Chitturi (a finalist at
the US Junior Nationals in Boys U15); Cole Becker of Princeton University (#2 seed) pushed
past former Harvard ace Zeke Scherl; Johnson (#3 seed) got through a strong Chris
Lambrou, a South African currently living in Sacramento; and the seasoned English pro
Chris Fuller (#4 seed) defeated Bay Club whiz kid Garrett Kitahata (#30, U19).
In the remaining 4 matches, Stanford University coach Nick Talbott came up against some
strong physicality and shot-making from Mukunth Gopalakrishnan (#5, U15), on his way to
a 3-0 win over the local junior. Another former Harvard star, Nigel Koh, fought back
against local pro Zephan Huang to level the match 2-2, before falling 11-9 in an exciting 5th
game. Elsewhere, top local juniors were tested by the visiting Egyptian players – Udai Pal
(#20, U19) came up just short against North Cairo-based Ahmed Abualela (3-1), while
Dillon Huang (also a finalist at US Junior Nationals, ranked # 2, U19) played a quality match
with Marwan Mahmoud, from Alexandria, Egypt, before falling in 3 games. The irony of the
pair meeting at this event did not go unnoticed; Mahmoud graduated last spring from the
University of Pennsylvania, where he often played #1 for the Quakers, while Huang is
headed off to UPenn in the fall, where he will attempt to follow in the alum’s footsteps.
Quarter-final play on Friday delivered some great action: Nawar defeated a tenacious
Talbott in a very entertaining match; Becker squeezed past an incredibly steady Z. Huang,
and Johnson beat the hard-hitting Abualela in 3 very competitive games.
But the game of the day belonged to Marwan Mahmoud vs. Chris Fuller. Fuller, a PSA
stalwart who has been ranked as high as #86 in the world, delivered textbook English-style
play (rails, lobs, patience!) against the aggressive play and shot-making of the Egyptian.
Mahmoud took the first game comfortably, but Fuller battled back, steadily grinding down
Mahmoud and frustrating him to win the next 2 games and go up 2-1. But the Egyptian was
not done; after conferring with Nawar and Abualela between games, he roared back to win the 4th and take the match to a 5th . Tied at 2-2 in that decisive game, Mahmoud went on a
run to get to 6-2. Strong play by Fuller erased a few points but Mahmoud surged ahead to a
10-5 lead. Fuller battled back to 8-10 but Mahmoud won the decisive last rally – a standing
ovation followed, for what was easily one of the best matches of the tournament.
Mahmoud would need all the rest he could, as his Saturday’s semi-finals against fellow
Egyptian Nawar was equally epic. In a match that lasted over one hour, the two former
training partners from Alexandria, Egypt, battled it out with pace, deception, and exquisite
ball-control. The final score: Nawar eked out the win 10-12, 12-10, 11-13, 11-8, and 11-9,
before a very appreciative audience. Saturday’s second semi-final pitted Cole Becker
against his former coach Johnson in a re-match of their November PSA finals at Squash
Zone (in which Johnson was injured) – this time Johnson prevailed 3-1 as he fired on all
cylinders in front of the home-club crowd. Reffing official Aisling Blake lent a professional
atmosphere to the day’s matches.
The finals between Nawar and Johnson was another brilliant contrast of styles, between
the soft touch and deft movement of the Egyptian and the steady play and relentless
volleying of Johnson. After a close first game that Johnson won 11-9, Nawar dropped the 2nd
11-4, making a number of uncharacteristic errors that may have been caused by fatigue
from his earlier 5-setter. But Nawar battled back impressively to take the 3 rd game, 11-9. In
the 4 th , both players appeared tired, and the points shorter. Finally, it was Johnson’s
retrieving skills that helped him overcome the fine shot-making of Nawar, as he went on to
take that last game, 11-6, and win the match.
Afterwards, Johnson commented on the role of the spectators in his win: “It is extra special
to play in front of of a home crowd – I tend to play my best squash when I’m at home and I
felt that today. It also gives me a chance to showcase what I teach every day to my students,
which was great since many of them were there watching.”
Tournament director Louise Ober praised the high caliber of squash throughout the
weekend: “It’s truly amazing that we had players as talented as Chris Fuller coming to our
Closed Satellite, as well up and coming Egyptian pros like Marwan and Ahmed, who will
clearly not stay long at the bottom of the PSA ranking charts. I’m sorry this tournament
can’t reward these players with more [PSA] points for their efforts, but it made for some
spectacular squash for the members, who are quite sophisticated in their appreciation of
the nuances of the game. It’s also great for our junior players to see young pros at this level,
as they consider playing squash in college and beyond. Seeing the support and enthusiasm
we had over the weekend, it would be great to do a $5K next time around. We have such a
great fan base here for squash.”
