EL HALABY and ILLINGWORTH take separate routes to the pros  

The two most famous members of USA college squash class of 2006, Princeton's Yasser El Halaby and Yale's Julian Illingworth, both will make their PSA tour debuts on separate continents this July and August.

Yasser El Halaby and Julian Illingworth - linked in CSA history.

Yasser El Halaby, the four-time USA college champion, decided to return to Cairo for training, after which he has plans to make a try at the pro tour.

"I don't really want to say anything or create any publicity before I do something good," the characteristically modest champion told SquashTalk before he departed the USA in June. "I really wanted to do this - see how well I can do," El Halaby said. "There will be plenty of time to try other careers later."

Julian Illingworth, who is indelibly linked to El Halaby in the minds of USA college squash fans, is taking a different route. Illingworth has signed a sponsorship agreement with Dunlop USA and will take part in an exhibition tour of the USA - the "Dunlop Power Tour" being organized by Jonathon Power and Dunlop this fall.

Illingworth, on whose shoulders the near-term international hopes of the USA squash community rests, began July with an exhibition with Peter Nicol in Williamstown, MA and after a July training interval, will play three events this August in New Zealand: The Whakatane - Bay of Plenty Open, the Auckland Open and the Central Open. Illingworth starts in the main draw of the first and third events, both "super satellites" and is in the qualifier at the Auckland Open, a one star event. Then Illingworth is hoping to secure a spot in the new Village Open in New York before heading to the west coast for three events in Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco. Illingworth has set up a website at www.julianillingworth.com

El Halaby's campaign begins with two events in Egypt - the Alexandria Open and the Heliopolis Open. He is in the qualifier of both events, against strong fields.