Harrity (r) against Illingworth in front of a packed gallery.
Todd Harrity (r) against Julian Illingworth in the 2016 final.

One hundred and ten years after the first National Singles was held in Philadelphia, the tournament returns to town on March 7-11. It will be hosted by Philadelphia Cricket Club.

In addition to the eighteen men’s and women’s age-group divisions running from 35+ to 85+, the National Singles will feature an exciting men’s open draw, the S.L. Green. (The women’s open draw, because of a conflict with the Floridablanca Open, will be contested later this spring). This year’s S.L. Green is the largest draw in a quarter century with twenty-eight men signed up: sixteen players will go through two rounds of qualifying to complete four spots in a sixteen-player main draw.

The men’s open draw has been called the S.L. Green since 1990 when New York developer Steve Green generously donated prize money for the division.

For the second year in a row, the top three seeds will be Team USA’s three top-ranked professionals on the PSA Tour, world No. 52 Todd Harrity, world No. 63 Chris Gordon and world No. 78 Chris Hanson.

Twenty-six-year-old Harrity will be in search of a third consecutive national title. The Wayne, Pennsylvania-native defeated nine-time U.S. champion Julian Illingworth in a surprise 2016 final appearance, and is predicted to face 2013 champion Gordon in what would be a rematch of the 2015 final. Hanson, who missed the 2016 tournament due to injury, reached the semifinals for the first time in his career in 2015.

Other noteworthy entrants include 2013 finalist Gilly Lane, reigning U.S. junior champion Andrew Douglas, top 150 professionals Faraz Khan and Dylan Cunningham and newly-minted U.S. citizens Yasser El Halaby and Wael El Hindi.

View the draw on the S.L. Green tournament page and follow live scores on www.clublocker.com.