World Squash Masters

      For the first time ever, the World Squash Masters is taking place on North American soil.  This tournament takes place every 2 years and is open to anyone who is 35 years or older.  This is the Olympics for squash players who continue to play competitively.  The draws are full of former top PSA players and even some still playing on the PSA tour.  This year's event saw over 800 players enter from 59 different nations, including 52 from Canada.
      Of those from Canada, 4 Windsor Squash players made the 10 hour drive to Charlottesville, Virginia.  Craig Guthrie(45+), Dave Morrish(50+), Jay Patel(55+) and Al Valente(55+) are all representing WSF in their respective age divisions.  Unfortunately, this was the best representation Windsor could get. 
      As you can imagine, the draws in this tournament are huge.  The 45+ draw has 101 players in it, while the 50+ had 90 and the 55+ had 119.  So for Al to win the tournament he will have to play 5 matches (not to mention beat 5 former top 20 PSA players and Canada's national champ from this year).  But it is not about winning, it is about competing and trying your best, right?
      First up in the first round matches were Jay Patel and Craig Guthrie.  Jay chose the right tournament to make his debut and he started in spectacular fashion.  At times, Jay seemed to be easily controlling this match.  However, his opponent continued to fight back and pushed Jay into game 5.  Jay had 3 match balls but was unable to close out his pesky opponent, losing 15-13. 
      Craig's first opponent was a veteran of the tournament circuit and started out hitting soft volleys and hard kills.  While Craig stayed in the rallies, he wasn't able to take a game off of his opponent.
     Next up was Al.  Al was playing a hard-hitting leftie from the British Virgin Islands.  Al got off to a slow start and had some difficulty adjusting to the pace of the court.  After going down 2 games, Al decided to turn it on (yes, boast) and ran out to a quick lead.  However, in the end he wasn't able to take advantage of his lead and lost in 3. 
     Next up, Dave Morrish tomorrow!

Live streaming can be found here. 
Complete draws can be found here.