WIPSA Draw added to LA Event
April 25, 2005, by Bob Hanscom
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

Strong Women's Field to Complement Men's Pro Event in LA

Natalie Grainger (in red) reached the finals of the Qatar Classic last week and is expected to compete in Los Angeles. photo © 2005 Fritz Borchert.

George P. Sape, Managing Partner for the law firm of Epstein Becker & Green,
announced today that his firm will once again be the Title Sponsor for this year’s United States Professional Squash Championships, hosted by The Los Angeles Athletic Club. The event will take place over the weekend of June 23-26, 2005. This long-running event, traditionally held in Los Angeles, was significantly upgraded last year and this year is further expanded, including a WISPA draw.

Epstein Becker & Green, the title sponsor, founded in 1973, is a general practice law firm with more than 340 attorneys practicing in 12 different offices throughout the U.S. – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, Stamford and Washington, D.C. – with affiliates worldwide.

The additional presenting sponsors for the event include, The Robin A. Sateriale Foundation, Robert A. Day, Feather Sports USA and JIVAGO International Fragrances.

Celebrating its fifth-year running, with former winners being Stefan Casteleyn, (2000)
Chris Walker, (2001) Preston Quick, (2002) Jamie Crombie, (2003) and Casteleyn again in 2004, it was announced that the event will have a new format this year, with a women’s professional division being added. In addition to the top eight U.S. male professional players, the event will feature eight of the top female players living in America today as well. The event is sanctioned by both the USSRA and WISPA.

The WISPA event is expected to attract an intriguing draw. Expected to compete are some of the best junior and senior female squash-players residing in the United States today. One of those being Natalie Grainger, former world #4 and current world #5, who now resides in D.C. She will be the top seed in the women’s pro draw. Grainger scored several upsets last week in reaching the finals of the Qatar Airlines Classic.

Natalie currently serves as President of WISPA and is the Assistant Coach of the U.S. Women’s National Junior Team.

Joining Natalie will be 18 year-old Lily Lorentzen of Greenwich, CT. Lily is taking a year off from college to pursue the WISPA tour before entering Harvard University. If her recent tournament results are any indication of how she’ll do, Lily will be successful. She won the 2005 under 19 National Championships and leads the squad that will represent the United States at the World Junior Individual and Team Championships later this summer.

In addition to Natalie and Lily, top US-based women expected to compete include: Ivy Pochoda, Shabana and Latasha Khan of Seattle and several Junior Team (under 19) members including Kristen Lange of Washington; Amanda Siebert of Greenwich and Emery Maine of Philadelphia.

For the men, with only eight spots in the draw available, no less than 16 of the best players now making their home in America have expressed interest in competing. They include:
Stefan Casteleyn; Patrick Chifunda; Jamie Crombie; Ronen Goldberg; Mark Heather;
Ben Howell; Imran Khan; Clive Leach; Ben Oliner; Dylan Patterson; Mike Puertas;
Muhammad Sadiq; Dan Sharplin; Stefan Viljoen; Karim Yehia and Jeff Young.

Based on tournament play, current national and PSA rankings, the United States Squash Racquets Association will determine the draw for the top eight of the above sixteen players This decision will be made by the closing date of May 13th.

A full compliment of amateur draws will be offered for the local squash playing community as well. More information may be obtained by contacting Bob Hanscom, LAAC Squash Professional at 213-630-5238 or e-mailing bob.hanscom@laac.net.

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