Day 1
Our young Irish stars are a few days into the 2024 world junior experience here in Houston, Texas. They had a smooth journey from Ireland, through Chicago and were then met by the extreme heat at Houston airport.
The club, Houston Squash Club, is situated on a highway in a sort of industrial area. Not a footpath in sight. Certainly no strolls for a coffee between matches. It’s a very big squash club, two glass courts and 13 traditional glass backs. All courts play well and some even have the glass side walls for extra viewing pleasure – all in all a very impressive complex, courts scattered in all directions and the bleacher seating for the super bright show court will allow for big audiences.
The opening ceremony was held on the main glass court, a nice experience for all teams being introduced one by one and then seated to listen to the American national anthem performed by a singer kitted out in full Texas style denim, boots and hat.
With one of the biggest entries to any world junior championships, there are almost 250 players. All our Irish guys were facing world class opponents, all with mammoth tasks on their hands.
Danny Lynch was first up, facing top American Zane Patel. Danny held his own throughout the match, frustrated the 9/16 seed in all departments and had good leads in the first and third. A superb performance over all, one to be happy with but in the end a 3-0 victory to the American.
Conal Jackson pushed hard against a speedy player from Hong Kong. Showing glimpses of his brilliance, Conal managed to get to 6’s and 7’s but could not get close to the game balls. Great start for the 16 year old!
Yuv Pahuja an tan Snodgrass were both on the show court, a big change. Bright light, by cameras, big opponents- literally and physically.Yuv couldn’t manage to get into his Canadian opponent, always on the back foot but did put a good game together in the 2nd!
Tristan faced Marwan Asal, younger brother of Mostafa, who plays a similar style. Battering the ball past Tristan, then battering it straight into the nick. A super uncomfortable player to play against and one that will be a force going deep into the main draw. Tristan handled himself well for sure.
Day 2
Day two got off to a flyer. Danny Lynch put on a fine display to get a 3-0 victory over a South African player, finishing off the match at almost the exact same time as Ireland slotted the drop goal to beat the springboks in the rugby, great fun whilst sitting beside the South African team.
Yuv Pahuja had a Korean opponent, a team that posses some serious talent and could go deep. Yuv played out of his skin, amazing shots kept him in the running for the first two games but the third got away quickly but confidence growing.
Conal Jackson had another gutsy display against an Indian player who looked twice his age. Going two – love down, he mustered up something special to clinch the third. The fourth was a bridge too far.
Tristan Snodgrass was playing well in his encounter with a player from Guyana, going full throttle in the first and looking good. One nil up, at the start of the second, a lunge to the front left landed awkwardly for Tristan and he was rattled by this. He played out the match to no avail after some physio treatment but we will have to assess the full extent of the damage.
It’s hotel, bus and squash courts for the foreseeable for the team and travelling support, surrounded by some inspirational matches from the world’s best, they’ll be soaking it all up and learning as much as possible. Plenty more rounds to come over the next few days before the teams event.
Day 3 & 4
Our Irish team has had mixed fortune since day two. The way the championship works this year is that you’re guaranteed four matches, the positions don’t get played out through the event.
We got a true world championship feeling with a massive mix of nations to play and an abundance of different styles, techniques and tactics on show for us to learn from.
Yuv Pahuja had two more matches, first against an athletic French player, Mathias De La Colina, who out powered Yuv in most areas. As ever, the Belfast man did display some very sweet hitting, outstanding clean winners when his timing was on, but went down in three. Yuv’s fourth match, on day four, was against a Brazilian. What a match up it was. Yuv had to wait the full day for his game, going on last of all matches in the club. This didn’t affect him though, he was on fire. Taking a 1-0 lead, the winners were being thumped into all corners when the chances were there. The second was super close. Narrowly missing out 11-9. The Brazilian pulled away in the third and fourth, being roared on by his supremely enthusiastic mother, and closed out the match in four, ending Pahuja’s event. Lots of good squash played, lots of experience and inspiration gained for the team event!
Tristan Snodgrass, after the aforementioned incident whilst playing Louis Da Silva, decided to forgo his third match and let the strain on his ankle heal. This was a smart move as he was able to play the next round fully mobile and give it his best shot. Snodgrass faced Thomas Scott, from Australia. The two lads went toe to toe, battling every point, furious high paced rallies in the first two games. Both games went the distance, but also went against the Dubliner, narrowly. 9-11, 10-12. Tristan fought valiantly in the third but Scott pulled away and finished it off, 11-6. Also bringing Tristan’s individual championship to close. Teams to look forward to!
Conal Jackson put in a strong performance in his next match, he demonstrated his ability to punish opponents with some super direct hitting, great flat straight drives hitting dying targets in the back corners with impressive consistency, following up with deft touch to the front and some decent deception. He was too good for Mohryan Baksh, dispatching him 11-1, 11-5, 11-9. Moving on to his next battle, Conal faced a more familiar foe in a Spanish player, Javier Muñoz. This was tight! The whole way through, 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11, the score line tells it all. In total points, 50-49 to the Spanish. So hard to take, but that’s sport I guess. Fine margins decide so much. Conal was a class act though, a superb performance. Even the referee commented on how much he enjoyed the match.
Danny Lynch was in great form. He faced a formidable opponent in top Canadian player, Faazil Khan. Out powered for the most part, but the Galweigan certainly put up a fight. Taking the lead in the first and third but to no avail. Remaining ever resilient, Danny approached the next match with real positivity. A Columbian, Thomas Rodriguez. Much like Conal’s five set battle, Danny was trading point for point with Rodriguez and taking a share of the spoils to bring it to a fifth set. Playing in the glass court added to the drama, the white ball, bright lights, the clonk of the racket off the glass side walls and the noise. The suspense was immense. Going close to the distance in the fifth, Lynch closed it out to the joy of his team mates, 11-8. A great win. This brought Danny into Monday, the sole Irish player left. He faced a Japanese opponent on the same glass court. Again, the first game was incredibly close. 13-11 to Ren Makino. The two traded blows and perhaps Danny got a little caught up in a hitting battle, Makino attacking a little more in the second, every attack going his way to pull a two game lead. The third was better from the Irishman but not enough to stop Makino, going down in three.
All four players will now be in training mode for the team event. But we’re lucky enough to witness the matches in the main draw, today’s 1/4 finals were spectacular. I would highly recommend any squash fan to watch back, the drama and the upsets were a pleasure to behold, with capacity crowds and an amazing show court, Houston are certainly putting on a good show.
Days in build up to Team Event
As the lads prepare for the team event which starts on Friday, we’ve kept busy on the Houston courts. Training each day and sharpening the tools for what is set to be a big challenge. The four players have gotten plenty of motivation and inspiration from the immensely high quality surrounding us. Tristan trained some Aussies today, their coach is ex world no.4 Stewart Boswell, a nice little bit of extracurricular squash for him.
This event is the biggest ever gathering of international squash teams with 25 men’s teams and 17 ladies teams. Our pool stages, we have drawn the home favourites, USA, and the current European champions, France. With just three teams in each of the 8 pools, we have our work cut out but looking forward to the challenge.
Finals day today saw two amazing champions crowned – Mohamed Zakaria is officially the youngest ever men’s junior world champ, at just 16. Amina Orfi, the first to win 3 years in a row, she just turned 17. Future, if not current, greats of the game without doubt!!
The big surprise in the event was Korean Joo Young Na, a sensation, reaching the final. Particularly inspiring as Korea is not a squash stronghold, proving it’s possible from any corner of the globe.
Our closing ceremony for the individual event was this evening, the club owner and promoter, Jahanzeb Khan, treated all players to an outstanding feed in a Middle Eastern style restaurant, great chance for all players to mingle and hopefully make some friends that could last a lifetime.
We have a rest day tomorrow, a light practice only, and then it’s down to the serious business of the best part, the team event.
Team Event – Pool Stages
Three days of the world team championship event have passed and we have both of our pool games finished. This groups of U19 boys have been exceptional, a real credit to their country. All players have been enthusiastic, given their all in each match and their positivity has been instrumental in making the event so enjoyable.
The first team we played was the USA, a team stacked with top players and a funny line up. Typically, as the rules state, you play your strongest player at no.1, and second at no.2.. etc. the Americans line up had the individual events no.3/4 seed playing at number 3 on their team, a bit unusual.
But alas we took to the court with Yuv Pahuja first on against said opponent, Rishi Sirvastava, the U19 US junior open champion. The pace was frantic. Every ball was coming at Yuv a lot quicker than he had played against before and all his trademark winners were being returned with interest. He battled hard, chased down what he could and put on a good show. But the end result was 3-0 to Rishi.
Tristan Snodgrass up next, playing the American national champion, Rustin Wiser. This kid does not look like your typical squash player, more like a rugby player in his build. But he can move. Putting all his skills in display, he never really let Tristan settle. Very smooth and fast swing, with a nice hold, it was hard for Tristan to find a way to dominate the centre of the court. After going two love down, Tristan focused more on his basic squash, hit better targets and took the lead. He was playing with a lot of heart and got to 7-7 but Rustin pulled away to take the victory.
Danny Lynch was up next playing the top string match. He took on Zane Patel, who he had faced in the individual championship. Knowing how tough Zane is, this was a great challenge. All rallies were hotly contested, long and gruelling. The pace super high with some very entertaining squash. Zane played the first two games like a man possessed, he was leaping into every ball and cutting in volley drops from well in front of the T line. But Danny fought hard and got close, especially in the third game but it wasn’t to be.
We lost the tie 3-0.
Our next match against the European Champions, France, what a pool to be in, tough going. As a team, we just took it point by point and focused on our performance, controlling whatever we can.
This was our earliest match and we lined out with Danny, Tristan and Conal, playing order was 3.1.2. Conal up first.
What an opening game, Jackson coming out of the blocks firing, using attacking shots to great effect, counter drops and nice backhand hold and flicks. He worked himself into game ball territory, 4 times! But the French resistance was impressive and Conal ended up losing the opener 14-12. The second game ran away a little and the third was back into battle mode. Going all the way to 9-9, some great squash coming from the Dubliner. He fought hard but couldn’t get it over the line, unfortunately losing 3-0.
Danny Lynch was playing Amir Khaled-Jousselin, the rising star of French squash. Amir was the won who clinched the U19 euros title for France, with a giant win over Englands Abdulah Eissa. But with increasing confidence and performance, Danny was keen to show what he’s capable of. He took the game to the Frenchman, exhilarating squash, corner to corner stuff. Every rally competitive. A few crucial points going the way of the French, and Danny was 2-0 down but very much in the match. The third game, Danny had Amir keeled over a few times, considering the fitness of this player it showed how much work Danny had put into him. At 9-9, I definitely thought we’d be seeing a 4th game. Danny played an immaculate wide cross court, pretty much dying at the back of the court but somehow the referee awarded a stroke to France, baffling decision, and Amir needed just the one chance to convert match ball.
Tristan was playing Antonin Romieu, another famously good French player. Once a British open semifinalist. This guy was super quick and Tristan knew all about in the opening game. Nearly every drive Tristan hit was cut off with a volley. To control the T was a real mission. Romieu was moving Tristan a lot and clinical with his finishing also. Going two love down, the third game had more promise. Getting a bit of a lead, 6-4 up, things could have swayed the Irish players way with a couple more points. But again, the tenacity of the French, he dug in for the punishing rallies and found more winners than Tristan. Another 3-0 but a great battle.
The tie ended 3-0 but a display the lads can be proud of. Bridging that gap to the worlds best will be very possible if we can keep our players exposed to playing a such a high pace.
We continue into the next section of the draw, a top 16 spot no longer possible for us. But we will fight for every match and see how we fair out.
Team Event – Placings
What a day. The finest of margins can be so relevant in sport, for us, today couldn’t have been much closer as we topped our group to play for 17th place at the worlds.
Our morning match was against Germany. A team we had some history with from the European Championships this year. At that event we beat Germany in group stages but didn’t get out of our group, they ended up in 5th position, it was brutal. Today we beat them again and it looked like history may repeat itself. Tristan had a dominant performance, winning convincingly, 3-0. Danny played out of his skin, losing a real battle with the no.1, a great showing. And Conal had the pressure of the decider. Playing a super unorthodox power house of a hitter, Conal got off to a bad start, losing the first. However, his game plan was simple, he just needed to stick to his guns and he would get through. What a brave performance from the 16 year old, he did what was needed, winning three close games to take the win
Our second tie was against the Philippines, who Germany had beaten 2-1. Yuv got us started, playing against an athletic mover and solid squash player. He gave everything he had but in the third game it was evident that Yuv was in some pain, he unfortunately lost 3-0, but got some vital points on the board.
Danny had another rip roarer of a match. Full court action, some ridiculously good retrieving from both, apt that the match went the distance. Both players running on fumes, Danny unfortunately didn’t convert. Conal stepped up for the third match and thumped the no.3, a solid 3-0 performance but we were still devastated by the loss, it was all going to points count back to decide the group. We were level on match wins, level on game wins with Germany and topped the group by 5 single points, so incredibly close!
We now face off in another group with Spain and Switzerland, our final two matches.
Final Day
Another relatively early start for the team today, breakfast in the hotel for 0700, not something that we will miss much, same spread of scrambled eggs and potato cubes for two weeks, served on polystyrene plates, plastic cutlery and coffee in polystyrene cups, not a reusable item in sight.
The team in great spirits, looking forward to the challenge of the day! We had our 10am match against Spain, this time we played Tristan at 1, Yuv at 2 and Conal at 3. The guys have been putting in huge efforts so it’s great having a team of four to mix and match for different situations.
We were on the glass court today, it plays very well and has a cosy surrounding, players were very happy playing here! Tristan was up first against the incredibly awkward Marc Alterriba. Tristan was off to a flying start and got a few nice back wall nicks to help settle the nerves. The Spaniard fought back and clinched a tight opener. Similarly tight squash in the second, better tactics from Snodgrass to sneak it 12-10. Across the match, the tone never changed, long battling rallies, trading points, going the distance with huge efforts from both sides. Unfortunately it went the way of the more accurate Spaniard, 3-1.
Conal up next, a familiar foe in Javier Fraser Munõz. They had a giant battle in the individual event. Conal losing 11-9 in the 5th.
Today Conal was a little slow to start, going 5-0 down. Fighting, as ever, he clawed it back but lost the opener. In the second, he found his accuracy, hurting the left handed Spaniard with clinging counter drops on the right side wall. The third and fourth games were close but did not go the way of the Irish, both 11-6.
Yuv had an uphill battle with Adrian Revert Escutia. This guy was too quick, pouncing on anything Yuv hit loose and was pretty clinical in doing so. A valiant effort from the Irishman, gaining potentially valuable points in a tough contest.
Our final match of this years world championships was against Switzerland. A strong team, very consistent and fit. The tradition when playing teams at championships is generally to swap pennants or pins from your governing body. We have pins and pennants, the Swiss have toblerone, it’s a great swap, often hoovered up with 30 minutes of the tie finishing.
This evening, Danny, Yuv and Tristan played. Danny had a tough one, losing 3-0 with maybe his only sub par performance of the event, he has played extremely well throughout but wasn’t at the races today, mental and physical fatigue perhaps, combined with a Swiss player who was very stingy with errors and chased down every ball!
Yuv played a blinder in the opening game, going 8-0 up! And taking the first game. He played some exciting squash and forced the Swiss to go ultra defensive. His defensive lobs turned out to be very tricky and Yuv did play some great shots from a height but having to do so time and time again drew some errors out of the Belfast man. Tight all the way and a big effort but no joy for Ireland.
Tristan played a giant named Lasse. This Swiss player must be 6ft4 or 6ft5, anything in the middle was being punished and he had a very tidy backhand technique that allowed him to cut the ball in very well. First game was one sided, 11-1. But the next two were super close, 11-8, 11-8 and could have went either way. Just those slight lapses of concentration proving vital.
A three love loss for Ireland but an over all top twenty finish, which was above our seeding! What an experience, so many lessons learned, so much inspiration to keep improving. And what a bunch of lads, memories for life!!
Massive Thank you to David Noone for the Updates
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