MSRA Season Kicks Off With Millenium Open

Sports Club/LA hosted the first annual Millenium Open this past weekend to open the 2006-07 Metropolitan Squash Racquets Association (MSRA) season. Eighty-three competitors battled ferociously in five different competitive categories, and the five finals featured a number of stirring comebacks and five-game marathons.

The Open final, however, went in straight games to second seed Alex Preston, who completed his four-match, 12-game march through the 5.5/6.0 Combined draw with a 9-4, 7 and 4 Sunday afternoon final over Princeton Club head pro Ben Desombre, the top-seeded Frenchman who returned to the upper-east side of Manhattan club where he had served as head pro from 2002-2005. Desombre similarly hadn't dropped a game prior to the final, and his flashy game, featuring wrist-flicking deception, look-away shots and brainy finesse, was on full display as he and his much-younger British-born foe played on even terms and with many hands-out to 4-4 in the opening frame.

Preston, who was hoping to add this title to the three 5.5 flights he won last year, had played on the squash varsity in Birmingham University in London several years ago, and has a solid, no-frills blue-collar game premised on pace, positioning and depth. His gritty retrieving, surprising in a man of his relatively large dimensions, eventually took its toll on Desombre's patience, and the remainder of that 9-4 game went swiftly due to a host of Desombre tins.

Chastened by that late-game slump, the Desombre jumped out early in a second game he clearly needed to win. But his 4-1 advantage slowly began to dissipate under Preston's constant pressure, which eventually created a tie at 7-all and, several hands-out later, a game-ending spurt that put Preston ahead, two games to love.

It was evident from early in the third that Desombre had shot his bolt in his valiant but vain effort to salvage the second game. He bravely tried to dig himself out of a 0-5 hole, closing to 4-6 and showing signs of possibly carrying this rally even further. But Preston regained the serve on a tight forehand rail and, as he had done in each of the first two games, stormed unstoppably to the finish line with a string of hard-earned winners.

Both contestants had shown their mettle in moving through a very strong draw that included a bunch of familiar names and former MSRA title-holders, three of whom, namely Soli Mehta, Rahul Nayar and Ed Klaris, failed to make it into the second round. A whole new batch of formidable high-tier amateur stalwarts is clearly emerging. Desombre had defeated Mehta, Nick Monogenis and Lincoln Club pro Eli Slyder, while Preston rose superior to Alex Kam, Chris Delaney and former college standout Vineet Asthana.

In the only other straight-game final, the Men's/Women's 3.0, Carrie Simpson of Toronto had too much offense for Jennifer Gabler to handle. Gabler, who played in the middle of Dartmouth's varsity lineup two decades ago, still has the shot-making and flair that served her so well during her intercollegiate career, and she demonstrated both in blitzing through her Hyder Cup draw in Brooklyn this past May and in similarly dismantling all of her pre-final opponents. But Simpson's complete all-around game and noteworthy athleticism carried the day in a competitive but ultimately convincing final.

The Men's 3.5 also went to an entrant whose long-distance traveling to play in this event was fully rewarded, namely William Murrell of Virginia, who prevailed in four games over James Young. The outcome represented a frustrating case of deja-vu for Young, who had reached three MSRA finals in this category last season, only to come up just short in all three.

The Men's 4.0 final was highlighted by the best comeback of the day when Mark Gannon, who had been tactically out-played and frequently wrong-footed in winning only one of the first three games, surged through a one-sided fourth game against Yousuf Siddiqui (who let the last few points go to save himself for the fifth) and then determinedly wiped out a 3-7 fifth-game deficit and swept past his tiring foe to a rousing 9-7 close-out.

Lastly, the Men's 5.0 final pitted two members of the host club, namely Sandeep Gill and Harry Gordon. The latter, who has "won" the last few practice sessions between these two frequent sparring partners, showed a conditioning level that strongly belied his just-turned-50 status and earned him the opening game. But Gill's touch, power and shot selection enabled him to attain small mid-game leads in each of the next three stanzas and he benefited as well from a killer point in mid-third that exhausted both players but seemed to take a more lasting toll on Gordon. Gill's leads were always under threat but he managed to stay on top until a tight forehand drop-shot clung too close to the right wall for Gordon to steer back into play, concluding this tough battle which, however, like all the other finals as well, was marked by excellent sportsmanship by both contestants.

The tournament was a huge success, as witness the presence of a large crowd to watch the finals in the midst of a gorgeous autumn afternoon. Tournament Chairman Eddie Kapur, who has been the Sports Club/LA head pro since this past December, has gotten the MSRA season off to an excellent start, with the Village Open, a stop on the PSA pro tour, to follow less than two weeks from now.

5.5/6.0 DIVISION Results/Recap

Round of 16:
Ben Desombre d Soli Mehta, 3-0; Nick Monogenis d Jonathan Marmur, 3-1, Eli Slyder d Rahul Nayar, 3-0; Matt Churchill d Richard Wu, 3-0; Adam Walker d Ed Klaris, 3-0; Vineet Asthana d Robert Chen, 3-0; Chris Delaney d Steven Moss, 3-1; Alex Preston d Alex Kam, 3-0.

Quarterfinals:
Desombre d Monogenis, 3-0; Slyder d Churchill, 3-0; Asthana d Walker, 3-1; Preston d Delaney, 3-0.

Semi-finals:
Ben Desombre bt Eli Slyder, 3-0;
Alex Preston bt Vineet Asthana, 3-0.

Final:
Alex Preston bt Ben Desombre, 9-4 9-7 9-4)