Nine members of Team USA will compete in the 2020 J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions as one of the sport’s most iconic events returns to Grand Central Terminal, January 9-17, in New York City.
The ToC—retitled in 1992 and the sport’s longest continuous pro tournament since 1999—will once again take place on the state-of-the-art all-glass Squash Engine show court staged in Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall. Hundreds of thousands of passersby will have a chance to witness the sport at its highest level on their commute through Grand Central with the tournament’s unique free front wall viewing, while squash fans can guarantee their seats today by purchasing their tickets at tocsquash.com/tickets.
The opening day of match play will feature a sold out All-American evening session on Thursday night as Todd Harrity, Chris Hanson and Chris Gordon all take to the glass court.
Hanson, one of two wild cards with Gordon, will face Mexico’s Cesar Salazar first at 7pm and will hope for his first victory on the glass court in Vanderbilt Hall. One year after defeating Hong Kong’s Yip Tsz Fung on the glass, Harrity returns to face Yip’s teammate Leo Au at 7:45–a rematch of the 2019 PSA Men’s World Championship first round, which Au won. Gordon, a New York City native, will close out the session against Connecticut-based Australian Ryan Cuskelly in his first match on the glass court since 2009.
A record six American women enter the main draw together. World No. 7 Amanda Sobhy–a finalist in 2016–will hope to make a breakthrough as the tournament’s seven seed, and is seeded to meet FS Investments U.S. Open champion Nouran Gohar in the quarterfinals. Sobhy opens up her tournament on the glass court Saturday against either England’s Emily Whitlock or Hong Kong’s Ho Tze-Lok at 7:30pm. World No. 17 Olivia Blatchford Clyne opens her tournament against English twenty-year-old Jasmine Hutton at the Princeton Club Friday at 4:45pm.
Sabrina Sobhy, amidst her first season as a full time professional, opens her campaign against Hong Kong’s Joey Chan at the Princeton Club on Friday at 5:30pm. Princeton graduate and world No. 33 Olivia Fiechter then follows on at the Princeton Club against Belgium’s Nele Gilis.
Seventeen-year-old Marina Stefanoni will make her third wild card appearance against England international and Yale graduate Millie Tomlinson at New York Athletic Club Friday at 6:15pm. World No. 45 Haley Mendez aims for her first career ToC victory against Tinne Gilis Friday at 6:15pm at the Harvard Club.
One of seven PSA World Tour Platinum events in the 2019-2020 season, the ToC offers equal prize money for men and women with a record total pool of $390,000. The tournament’s longstanding official non-profit beneficiaries are StreetSquash and CitySquash, after-school programs providing urban students with squash instruction, tutoring, mentoring and community service opportunities.
Watch live coverage from Grand Central on SquashTV and the Tournament of Champions Facebook page. For more information and tournament coverage visit tocsquash.com.
