A unique sporting venue.

New York, NY, Nov. 18, 2011 The world’s largest squash spectator event, the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions, announced today that the 2012 championships will include a women’s professional draw in addition to the men’s PSA World Series Gold championship draw.

“We are absolutely thrilled that we are able to host the top professional women squash players in addition the best men’s players for the upcoming championships,” says John Nimick, president of Squash Engine, Inc., the event promoter.

Grand Central gets ready for world's greatest squash.

“The inclusion of the top ranking players from both the men’s and women’s professional tours is especially fitting given the iconic status of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions in the global squash community.” Recognized by Yahoo last week as one of the top ten of the world’s “most unusual sports venues,” the J.P Morgan Tournament of Champions will take place January 20-26, 2012 in Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal.

Sanctioned by the Women’s Squash Association (WSA), the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions women’s draw will feature a 16-player main draw and a 16-player qualification tournament.

Individual tickets and patron packages are available at www.tocsquash.com

JP Morgan, a global financial services company, is returning as the title sponsor and Lexington Partners as a gold sponsor. New sponsors supporting the event are silver sponsors NBC Universal and Sea Island and bronze sponsor New York Observer. The JP Morgan Tournament of Champions is also supported by returning sponsors Cayman Islands, Rums of Puerto Rico, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, Dunlop, Campbell Apartment, Columbia Hospital, New York Life and the St. Giles Hotel. The tournament’s official charities are the urban youth enrichment programs StreetSquash and CitySquash. The J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions is operated by Squash Engine, Inc. an affiliate of long time management company Event Engine, Inc., the largest commercial squash promotional company in the world.

My coach, Liz and I at the Brooklyn Museam

As the tournament began, my focus was fully on the tournament ahead at Brooklyn Heights. Brooklyn is a nice quaint neighbourhood where everybody seems to know your name and starts greeting you as you walk along the streets. You feel at home straight away and the best part about this tournament is the players were home-stayed throughout the week. I was lucky that the Mendez family was looking after Annelize and myself—treating us like royalty and feeding us well too. Now, we’re set to go…

Opening act—Round 1 with Emma
Played Emma Beddoes for the first time and was keeping a great momentum throughout the match. She played a long match with Squash Stars Line from Denmark the night before so that may have given me more chances to play my game and win it in straight sets.

Quarter Finals against Vanessa
Vanessa Atkinson and I have had past experiences playing each other so there was a good chance it was going to be a close match. She moved the ball well while I tried to step up my game with her. In the third game, she was leading 10-8 but I wasn’t going to let that game go. Off the return of serve at 10-10, I hit a forehand drop shot that rolled out of the nick. I took advantage of the lead and won 12-10 to win the match.

Semi Finals and it’s Jenny
It’s Jenny Duncalf in my third tournament in a row and she was geared up for it. Firing everything from the very start till the end without any mistakes. I was working the court but any slight opportunity that presented to her, she took it. That day was her day and some unforced errors from me didn’t help get me out of the situation. Just one of those days losing 3-0. I will take this experience and move forward now.

It sure was a worthwhile trip being in a city like New York where there’s plenty to do. One can only wish there was more time to discover the city better. This gives me a good excuse to come back here again so I can do better in this tournament next time round.

Next week: Off to Doha for the Qatar Classic!

Can you guess which one I carved! Clue: Witches brew!

The next highlight of my weekend was the New York City Marathon on Sunday. A good group of us which included fellow Squash Star Annelize Naude, my coach Liz and some other friends were cheering on our friends who were running that day. It was fantastic because I got great complimentary tickets from Asics (Thanks, Asics!) and got to be right at the finishing line of the marathon! It was amazing to see everyone who were involved in the marathon giving their heart and soul to cross the finishing line. We had a fantastic view of the runners whizzing by Central Park and got to witness first hand the buzz and the emotions that filled the air as the runners were greeted by their families and friends at the finishing line.

At the finishing line!

Next up! To the United Nations HQ! The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) of Malaysia got in contact with the Headquarters of UNDP in New York City and arranged for me to meet the UNDP’s Spokesperson and Senior Adviser of the Communications Office at the UN Plaza across the impressive UN Building! I’m glad I was given this opportunity to meet the spokesperson, it definitely gave me an insight of their future plans for my position.

The UN Building!

Apart from all those major events, I managed to squeeze in a little sightseeing, sampled some great food, and window shopped too. I am just loving the vibe of what this city has to offer. Still, there’s more in store and that is the tournament that is coming up tomorrow (Thursday)! So for now, it’s back to squash!