Pro Squash Returns to One-of-a-Kind Private Home Court in Phoenix
by Dave Foley

February 9, 2016 - The PSA Tour returns to the Foley Squash Pavilion after a 5 year hiatus. This is one of the unique venues on the Tour, a single court in a private home situated at the base or scenic Camelback Mountain in Phoenix Arizona.

Record crowds of 200,000 people attended the Phoenix Open golf tournament this last Saturday, and a few of them stuck around to witness the opening round of the Ganem Vein Institute Cactus Classic 2016. Beautiful day for squash or just about anything in Phoenix today.  The high was 83 degrees with more of the same forecast for the entire week. Before play began, the players could be found relaxing and lounging poolside.  Some of the more adventurous lads went for a swim only to discover that an unheated pool in the middle of the winter in the desert is very similar to a cold plunge.  Not many braved it for very long.

Match play began with number one seed Joe Chapman defeating one of our USA hopefuls, Sam Gould 3-0.  Although Sam fought to a tiebreak in the second game, losing 12-10, he was not able to overcome his tougher opponent from the British Virgin Islands. The second match found Malaysian Valentino Bon Jovi Bong (one of the all time great tour names) defeating Mauricio Sanchez 3-0 in close battle that lasted 46 minutes.  Next up found the quick and feisty Irishman, Sean Conroy defeating Charlie Johnson 3-1.  After an easy first game winning 11-5, Charlie seemed unable to figure out Sean's new tactics and lost the next three games. Match number four was Jean-Pierre Britts versus Reuben Phillips.  Britts was in fine form after a week of  training with David Palmer in Orlando, but Reuben proved that Jean-Pierre still has some work to do, winning 3-0.

The second half of the draw began with Mark Broekman soundly beating the number 3 seed, Cameron Stafford 3-0 in 24 minutes.  With both "big boys" on court, it was tight quarters.  Next, one of our locals, Heraclio "Lakko" Salaiz was matched against a very strong Clinton Leeuw and lost 3-0.

Match 3 pitted David Baillargeon against Juan Gomez. The Canadian was moving very strong and smooth beating Juan 3-0. The premier match of the evening featured our local favorite, Australian and former PSA player, Peter Fantich playing the number 2 seed Addeen Idrakie. The much older, wiser, and possibly less fit Fantich extended the first game to an amazing 10 minutes and surprised the young Idrakie taking it 11-9.  Although old Peter fought hard, it was not meant to be, and he staggered off court unassisted losing 3-1 in 40 minutes. A massage is in order tomorrow mate, and no lessons juniors!

Good night from the desert.  Forecast is high of 80 with a low of 50 tomorrow.

Joe Chapman 3-0 Sam Gould                           11-8, 12-10, 11-4  (34 min)
Valentino Bong 3-0 Mauricio Sanchez                16-14, 11-8, 11-9  (46 min)
Sean Conroy 3-1 Charlie Johnson                      5-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-5  (52 min)
Reuben Phillips 3-0 Jean-Pierre Britts                14-12, 11-8, 11-9   (52 min)
Mark Broekman 3-0 Cameron Stafford   11-4, 11-3, 15-13 (24 min)
Clinton Leeuw 3-0 Heraclio Salaiz                     11-5, 11-5, 11-4   (17 min)
David Baillargeon 3-0 Juan Gomez                    11-8, 11-6, 11-2  (37 min)
Addeen Idrakie 3-1 Peter Fantich                      9-11, 11-6, 11-1, 11-6  (40 min)