2009 METROsquash Windy City Open
Squash Championships

2009 Tournament Results:

The 28th annual METROsquash Windy City Open Squash Championships will be held March 5 - 9, 2009.

As always, the event will feature outstanding professional and club squash. The professional portion of the event this year will feature a high quality professional 8-man draw competing for a $7,500 purse, including current U.S. Men's #1, Julian Illingworth, and 2008 Windy City Open champion, Mark Heather. In conjunction with the men's event, there will be two professional women's exhibitions.

Also, 10 lucky patrons will be drawn from a hat to challenge one of the professional women to one game to 11 points, par scoring. Whoever scores the most points will win a new Wilson racquet.

We are now aligned with METROsquash (Chicago's urban enrichment program for underserved youth) and one of the primary objectives for the 2009 event is to help METROsquash gain exposure and support. METROsquash is in its fourth season and has a transformative impact on Chicago Public School students through squash, academics, travel and community service.

Last year's event gave us a lot of exciting matches with the Men's event ending in a closely fought Final between the eventual victor, Mark Heather (England), University Club of Chicago Head Squash Pro, and Tony James (Australia). The Women's event was also very exciting with both the number 1 and 2 seeds making it to the final, where the #1 seed, Samantha Teran (Mexico) played a fast and exciting game to edge out #2 Latasha Khan (USA)

The amateur (club player) event is one of three skill level tournaments selected by US Squash to be part of the "Regional Skill Level Series' as a qualifying event for Nationals. While participation in one of these regional tournaments is not required for entry into the Skill Level Nationals, these tournaments are the best opportunity to meet the strongest competition prior to the Nationals. This year, the winners of each division at each Regional Skill Level Series tournament will earn free entry into the US Squash Skill Level Championships, being held at the Fairmount Athletic Club, Philadelphia, April 17-19, 2009. In future seasons, these Regional Skill Level Series tournaments will evolve into a Qualifying Series for entry into the Nationals, requiring players to compete in at least one Regional event before competing in the US Squash Skill Level Championships.

In previous years, the tournament was capped at 200 amateur entries. This year, with the addition of the Lakeshore Athletic Club and the Union League Club as co-hosts of the tournament, we are expecting to handle 300 entries. All amateur events include a consolation draw. All participants in the amateur draw will be required to be members of the U.S. Squash Association.

In 2010 we are planning to host a Super Series PSA event in September where we will stage the court outdoors in Millennium Park (across Michigan Avenue from the University Club). It will be a spectacular event to showcase our sport, METROsquash, and hopefully the site of the 2016 Olympics! To create awareness of that event we are having a special exhibition for our corporate and platinum level sponsors on Monday night, March 9th, that features two former world champions-John White and Jonathon Power. Club members and patrons can view this match on closed circuit TV at the University Club.

Register to become a METROsquash Windy City Open player or a patron.