Twenty-four-year-old Chris Hanson reached a career milestone in June’s PSA world rankings, breaking into the world’s top 100-ranked players at ninety-eight for the first time in the Dartmouth graduate’s young career.
The Bedford, New York-native was boosted by qualifying for the $25, 000 Life Time Houston Open in early May, which included a five-game qualifying final victory over former world No. 79 Clinton Leeuw. Hanson then reached the qualifying finals of the $35, 000 Internacional Sporta Open. Hanson’s only PSA appearance in June saw the American lose in four games against Canadian national champion Shawn Delierre in the first round of the $15, 000 Costa Rica TC Open.
Happy to b in the PSA top100. Thanks to @USSQUASH @goaloop @BOASTusa @BOMBAS @LifeWorx @Gatorade @controlthet @DartmouthSquash u r the best!
— Chris Hanson (@Chris_R_Hanson) June 2, 2015
Hanson’s top 100 compatriots Chris Gordon and Todd Harrity maintained and improved their rankings respectively this month. Gordon continues his status as the top-ranked American male, maintaining his position as world No. 57, while Harrity rose three positions to world No. 70.
On the women’s side, recent Harvard graduate Amanda Sobhy dropped one position to world No. 11. The twenty-one-year-old traveled to Alexandria, Egypt last week to compete in her first professional tournament since graduating—the $100, 000 Alexandria International. The two-time U.S. champion lost out to English world No. 4 Laura Massaro in the second round.
Olivia Blatchford reached her highest world ranking since 2011 this month, world No. 35, bringing the Wilton, Connecticut-native one step closer to her highest world ranking of world No. 32, which she reached in October 2011.
Amanda Sobhy’s younger sister, Sabrina, matched her highest world ranking of forty-seven this month, propelled by qualifying for the main draw of the world series British Open last month, and will follow her sister’s footsteps at Harvard this fall.
Hanson, Gordon, Harrity, Amanda Sobhy, and Blatchford will all represent the United States in the Pan American Games July 10-18.
