Bear Stearn TOC Draw in NYC
Thursday "live draw" for Grand Central Event
Feb 18, 2004 © 2004 by Beth Rasin

Follow all the action at the TOC at www.tournamentofchampions.org

For the first time, the making of the draw for the Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions, the largest professional squash event in North America, will be a public event. On Thursday, February 19 at 5:00 PM at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, defending champion Peter Nicol will be joined for the public draw by participants in StreetSquash and CitySquash, two youth mentoring programs that work with teenagers in Harlem and the Bronx, teaching them the fundamentals of the sport, preparing them for competition and providing ongoing academic support.

The tournament entrants, including virtually all of the top 24 players in the world, will be selected for placement in the championship draw. The making of the draw will determine the opening round match-ups as well as likely opponents in later rounds. Of particular interest will be whether two-time titleholder Peter Nicol and four-time champion Jonathon Power of Canada will end up in the same half of the draw. Nicol, a Scotsman who now calls England home, held the world #1 ranking for 24 consecutive months until dropping to the #3 spot in December, resulting in his being seeded #3 for the event.

Power, the first and only North American to attain the #1 world ranking when he ascended to the top spot in 1999 and again in 2001, is coming back after suffering a broken wrist and an ankle injury on court in December. Nicol and Power have met three times in the Tournament of Champions finals and 35 times in the course of their long-running rivalry. Nicol has a one-match edge with 18 match victories over Power.

Thierry Lincou, the first Frenchman to become world’s top-ranked player, is the #1 seed and John White of Scotland is the #2 seed.

The Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions -- where athletes who can turn on a dime, have the reflexes of a cat and the stamina of a marathoner compete in the midst of the train announcements and the tens of thousands of commuters heading home -- is a uniquely New York City scene. A four-walled glass court weighing 20,000 pounds as well as stadium seating for 500 spectators will be constructed in Grand Central Terminal in the 48 hours prior to the first match being played.

Unlike other major sports events, where you must have a ticket to get in, the front wall of the Tournament of Champions court is left open to the public. As a result, the event attracts a wide variety of spectators -- including the seemingly homeless man who mumbles as he’s watching and turns out to be knowledgeable spectator. Or the high school kids who stop for a minute, rate it high on the coolness quotient and stick around for an hour.

Debunking the myth of squash as only an East Coast Ivy League sport, the field of competitors includes young men from every continent and mostly working class families. Among the top 16 players in the game, eight nationalities are represented. For these athletes, squash has been the road to success. Their on-court energy is intensified by the knowledge that people who have never before seen the sport are getting to see them play – in the center of one of the world’s great cities.

Other activity during the tournament week includes the U.S. Teaching Pro Championships, open to full-time teachers of the game and featuring top Americans and many high quality international players now coaching in the USA; and extensive recreational competition in the Grand Open, a companion city-wide amateur tournament.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Grand Hyatt Hotel lobby
Thursday, February 19 5:00 PM Draw Defending champion Peter Nicol, StreetSquash and CitySquash

Vanderbilt Hall, Grand Central Terminal
Wednesday, February 18- Friday, February 20 Court is constructed
Saturday, February 21 Noon First round 6:00 PM First round
Sunday, February 22 Noon Second round 6:00 PM Second round
Monday, February 23 6:00 PM Quarterfinals
Tuesday, February 24 6:00 PM Quarterfinals
Wednesday, February 25 6:00 PM Semifinals
Thursday, February 26 6:00 PM Finals

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