NorCal Squash has teamed up with Bayside Redwood Shores to host this weekend’s latest PSA event, the 2019 Bayside Open. The tournament runs Wednesday-Saturday at Bay Club Redwood Shores.
Featured pros contending for the $1,000 purse include Mustafa Nawar, currently ranked #157 in the world, Charlie Johnson, Armando Olguin, and Cole Becker. Star college players Lawrence Kuhn (now an assistant pro at BCRS) and Mexico’s Cesar Segundo will also be battling it out, along with some top locals.
Come check out the first round action starting Wednesday, December 18, at 5pm on the 17″ tin!
The Bay Club Fremont is proud to present the 2019 Winter Challenge December 20-21, and a Junior Bronze event December 21.
Sign up for the Winter Challenge here, and don’t forget to specify which skill level you would like to enter. There are two matches guaranteed for everyone and food and beverages will be provided. Prizes will be awarded to finalists. This draw is open to everyone, and includes:
MEN’S: 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
WOMEN’S: 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
Entry fee $50.
Entry deadline on Dec 18th.
All entrants must sign waiver upon entering club.
Please contact Johann Huang at johann.huang@bayclubs.com for any questions about the event.
Are you looking for a good challenge in this event or want to watch a high level match? Long time Fremont Squash member Dillon Huang (second from the left) currently ranked U.S. #1 in BU19, will be back from UPenn to play in this 6.0 event. After the conclusion of the 6.0 finals, Dillon will be doing a short Q & A for the parents and juniors. Hope to see everyone at Fremont Club!
Sign up for the 2019 Bay Club Fremont Bronze Tournament here and don’t forget to specify which age bracket(s) you would like to enter. Players may enter in two brackets and play an age up for practice. Two matches guaranteed for everyone and custom tournament T-shirt and food will be provided. Trophies will be awarded to finalists. Please contact Maha Zein at Maha.zein@bayclubs.com if you have any questions. Regular entry is until Dec. 4th. Parents must sign waiver upon entering club.
From Left to Right: Matthew Eichmann (on behalf of Alex Eichmann), Dick Crawford, Tom Dashiell, Brett Elebash, John Lau, Bruce Gaynor (on behalf of Peter Gaynor), David Tepper.
Congratulations to the seven founding inductees to the NorCal Squash Hall of Fame, whose contributions to squash in the Bay Area were celebrated at the Oracle Netsuite Open. These squash players distinguished themselves in many aspects of the game – competitively as well as socially. They made extraordinary contributions to the game through their sportsmanship and integrity, and in helping the game flourish and grow on these shores.
NorCal Squash is honored to have the opportunity to recognize these paragons of squash, and we are all indebted to their hard work and passion for the sport.
This year, NorCal Squash is pleased to announce the NorCal Squash Hall of Fame with the induction of seven founding inductees. These squash players distinguished themselves in many aspects of the game – competitively as well as socially. They made extraordinary contributions to the game through their sportsmanship and integrity, and in helping the game flourish and grow on these shores. The inductees will be honored this year at the Oracle Netsuite finals match, and more information about their incredible squash history can be found here on the virtual Hall of Fame.
Every act big and small helps enrich squash in the Bay Area. To celebrate squash on the west coast NorCal is giving away three sets of VIP tickets for matches on Friday Sept. 27 and Sunday Sept 29. Just leave a comment below describing someones act that enhanced your squash journey, from lending a racket to coaching or organizing events. Winners will be chosen at random at 9am on Wednesday, the 25th of September.
It’s that time of year again – the Oracle Netsuite Open welcoming the pro players to town and for the second time, Aisling Blake and Lauren Xaba will be hosting their Women’s Leadership Luncheon.
This year we have writer, clinical and sports psychologist Dr. Joan Steidinger joining us for a ‘Fireside Chat’. Attendees will receive a free copy of Dr. Joan’s book and we will discuss, among other issues; gender inequality in the workplace and the drive towards parity which is fitting as, for the first time in this event’s history, both women and men will earn the same prize money!
Divya Patname (2nd) and Rhonin Faruqi (1st) in 3.0
Peter Thompson (2nd) and Pankaj Srivastava (1st) in 5.0
James Yan (1st) Juniors
Chris Evdaimon (1st) and Isha Gupta (2nd) in 3.5
Shivin Kumar (2nd) and Arav Bhagwati (1st) in 5.5
Group winners including Eli Abbe (1st) and Atul Tiwary (2nd) in 4.5
The 2nd Squash Zone Club Championships started off in fine style on Friday evening with all the main ingredients present; squash players and pizza!
Many defending champions showed up in a bid to hold onto their titles and others tried their hand at the next grade up after winning their division last year. Most notable throughout the weekend was the participation of all of our new members; those players that have taken up squash in the past year came out in force, some for their first ever tournament.
With competitors ranging in age from 7 years of age to 70 Squash Zone was a hive of good natured competition throughout the weekend.
The Juniors event was a round robin format with James Yan coming out in a strong first place and Josh Zeitlin taking second. James started playing a year ago and is one to watch for the future!
In the adult sections there were 6 divisions from 3.0 (where Rhonin Faruqi triumphed over Divya Patnam in a 3 game victory in the final) to 5.5 level (where Arav Bhagwati, one of the Bay Area’s strongest juniors edging out Shivin Kumar in 4 games).
Elsewhere in the 3.5s, Chris Evdaimon won a 5 game thriller with Isha Gupta that saw Chris come from 2 games to 1 down before taking it 11-8 in the 5th game.
Meanwhile in the 4.0 division long time sparring partners Eli Abbe and Atul Tiwary faced off in the final, Eli took it in 3 games but not before dealing with 3 tie-breakers.
The 4.5 division was a youthful affair with Humza Rabbani meeting Samira Sankaran in the final, Samira is one of the many juniors at Squash Zone who will go on to play squash in college next year. Humza took the title this time in 4 close games after losing the first.
The penultimate final of the day was contested between Pankaj Srivastava and Peter Thompson – this event fittingly ending with some of our more established players taking to the courts! Pankaj won out in 3 after surviving a 3rd game tie-break.
The final of the 5.5 between Arav and Shivin was watched by an interested crowd fueled by BBQ and refreshments watching high quality squash as inspiration for next year!
The $242,000 Men’s and Women’s Gold PSA World Tour event is expected to attract the world’s best pros to San Francisco, including defending champions Ali Farag (EGY) and Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG). All Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals on the glass court at Embarcadero Plaza September 27-30.
NorCal Squash’s annual team tournament wrapped up with some spectacular squash at the Bay Club San Francisco April 19-21. The top teams in four divisions represented the Bay Area from Marin to San Jose and San Francisco to San Ramon. Congratulations to all the players for a great season and making it into the finals. After many hard fought matches the winners were:
Division 1
1st place: the Bay Club Santa Clara, captain Jimmy Li
2nd place: the Olympic Club, captain Kenneth Chan
3rd place: the Bay Club Santa Clara, captain Venkitachalam Gopalakrishnan
Division 2
1st place: the Bay Club Marin, captain Nathaniel Mosse
2nd place: Oakland Tinmen, captain Kim Ben Khoo
3rd place: Divone 2, captain Vivek Ravi
Division 3
1st place: the Bay Club Santa Clara, captain Mehma Jolly
2nd place: UCSF 3, captain Michael Song
3rd place: the Bay Club Marin, captain Sam Swire
Division 4
1st place: the Bay Club Santa Clara, captain Rachel Yun
2nd place: Squash Zone 4, captain McGee O’Neil
3rd place: the Bay Club Cupertino, captain Jude Tantawy
Squash Zone hosted the 2nd edition of the annual Squash Zone Silver on March 29-31st. With a entry list of over 80 and plenty local and out of state interest, juniors converged on the facility in Redwood City for a fun yet competitve weekend of squash supported by NorCal Squash.
BU11: This age group definitely won the hearts of all the spectators, with rackets nearly as tall as themselves 11 kids battled it out for the prize. Gautham Suresh prevailed in a very closely fought 5 game match on the glass court. Suresh held a off a spirited defense from Arjya Saha who came back to level the match from 2 games down but couldn’t quite edge it in the 5th game. A match played with great sportsmanship and skill, truly a joy to watch.
BU13: Two round robins culminated in Abhinav Athreya facing off against Faizaan Mustafa in the final on Sunday morning. Again, as in the Bu11 final, Abinav went 2 games up in the first two games only to see his lead shattered as Faizaan made his way back to a 2-2 tie. In the 5th game Abhinav’s lower error count was the difference on the day and he came away with the Bu13 title.
BU15: Going to form with yet another closely contested final Nachiket Desai of Cupertino had a relatively easy run to the finals only dropping 1 game on the way. Likewise, Nikhil Prasad of Fremont reached the final smoothly winning all his matches 3-0. Prasad, playing in 2 divisions this weekend, did not let tiredness get the better of him and game back from a 2 game to 1 deficit to win 11-9 in the 5th game.
BU17: In the most populated draw of the event 24 players were whittled down to 2 players with number 1 seed Abhimanyu Gupta taking the spoils on the final match of the event. His closest match having been in the semi-finals against Bharadwaj Sasikumar where he won 3-1. In the other half of the draw Vaibhav Turaga of El Dorado Hills pulled out a suprise victory over no. 2 seed Bharadwaj’s brother Bhavesha but couldn’t quite produce the same upset losing out in 3 close games to Gupta.
Gu13: This was a combined division with Gu11 players alongside their older counterparts. Isha Gupta came out victorious with a clean record in the Round Robing winning all 3 of her matches. Eva Chow came in 2nd with her only loss coming against the eventual winner.
Gu17: This was a combined division with Gu15; the quality of play was extremely high with Dina Morsy of Danville and Ashna Tumuluri of Redwood City battling it out in the final. In a closely fought match with an 18-16 scoreline in the 3rd Dina took the trophy coming from a game down to secure a 3-1 win.
Gu19: The two round robins were won by Ellyn Xu and Fatima Abdelrahman who won all their respective matches. In a very close final where all games went down to the wire Fatima was able to nudge out a win in the 4th game tie-break to take the Squash Zone Silver title. Thank you to all those who supported this event (NorCal Squash and the team at Squash Zone). Well done to all competitors involved, it was a great weekend of high quality squash
matches, sportsmanship and camaraderie.
