Nineteen-year-old Andrew Douglas collected the first PSA World Tour title of his career, defeating U.S. teammate Spencer Lovejoy to top the $5,000 BTMI Barbados Open this weekend at the Barbados Squash Club in Christ Church.
The sixteen-player draw saw Douglas and Lovejoy upset the top two seeds on their way to the final, which marked the first career PSA final appearances for both players. Lovejoy, a rising junior at Yale, recorded two, 3-0 victories before upsetting Portugal’s top seed Rui Soares 11-6, 11-8, 11-13, 12-10 in the semifinals. After a 3-0 first round win, Douglas took out Englan’s two seed Lyell Fuller 11-9 in the fifth to reach the final.
In what was a rematch of the 2016 National Juniors final, Douglas produced the same result, beating Lovejoy 11-7, 12-10, 11-9 in forty-six minutes.
“It feels incredible to get my first PSA title, it was the result of a lot of struggle and hard work,” said Douglas, who just wrapped up his freshman year at Penn. “I prepared well and I’m happy with my mentality all week. It was made even more special playing Spencer, someone who I’ve competed with since we started playing. He had a great week and we really enjoyed making the final together.”
The result will help both players’ world rankings as they juggle collegiate and professional squash going into their second year of college. Douglas, a two-time U.S. junior champion in 2016 and 2017, has completed in twelve PSA events so far in his young career and currently sits at No. 161 in the world rankings, with Lovejoy just behind him at No. 169. Douglas has reached the finals of the two most recent S.L. Green U.S. Men’s Championship finals at just eighteen and nineteen years of age, respectively.
“I want to thank firstly my parents and my coaches Laurent Elriani and Gilly Lane,” Douglas added. “Also I want to thank Alberto Rezende, Fabian Kalaitzis, Tecnifibre, US Squash and all the people who are behind me not only when things are going well.”
Douglas will continue training over the summer in preparation for representing Team USA at the 2018 Pan American Championships in the Cayman Islands, August 26-September 1.
