Men's Hyder Trophy Draw:
[draw]
June 4, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004

Heather Leads Field at Hyder in NYC

Richard Chin goes into action in another edition of the Hyder Trophy photo © 2004 Debra Tessier

Mark Heather heads the seeds in the 2004 Quentin Hyder Invitational, which lost several leading players when it was rescheduled from early May to this weekend, where it conflicts with a PSA event in California. The top three seeds, Heather, 2001 and 2002 S. L. Green champion Damian Walker and
2003 New Zealand national champion Daniel Sharplin, in that order, were all given byes to tomorrow's quarter-final round, with the remaining 10 entrants scheduled to play their first-round matches this evening at the host Sports Club/LA in Manhattan's upper east side.

Heather's tournament debut will be against either Jonny Smith, who played a prominent role in the Trinity College championship teams of 2000-2003, or longtime New York Sports Club banner-carrier (and head pro) Eric Christiansen.
The quarters and semis will both take place tomorrow, with the final set for early Sunday afternoon.

Fourth seed Clive Leach, also in the top half and recently of ISDA doubles fame but a former No. 26 on the PSA tour, will begin today's round of 16 action when he takes on Ben Desombre, the head professional at the host club, at 5:30. The winner of that match will then face the winner of the match between three-time S. L. Green finalist Richard Chin and Ben Oliner, both of whom participated in the U. S. team trials at Westchester Squash this past weekend.

Walker finished second in those trials and first overall in an overall formula weighting performance in the team selection events, the S. L. Green and the trials, though he has declined the opportunity to play in the Pan American Federation Cup late this month. He lost an exciting five-game quarter-final to Viktor Berg in last year's Hyder after leading two games to one, and his path to the semis of this year's event requires him only to defeat whoever wins tonight between Dylan Patterson and Jude Odeh.

The remaining bottom-half quarter-final will pit Sharplin against either several-times U. S. 30-and-over champion Francis Odeh or ISDA top-30 Steve Scharff. That quarter should provide an interesting contrast in styles, regardless of who wins tonight, since Sharplin is a recognized stayer and both Odeh and Scharff are creative shot-makers.

The draw thus contains an interesting and eclectic mix of veterans of U. S. teams, PSA and ISDA stand-outs, past and present, and aspiring youngsters, all competing in an environment that will also be charged with the many amateur and age-group flights that always attend a Hyder tournament. If this weekend's tournament can match the drama that characterized the WISPA women's event last month, in which Shelley Kitchen rallied from two games to love down to defeat top seed Fiona Geaves in the final, it will have proven a successful event indeed.

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