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06-Dec, Final:
Philly's Gilly takes Fairmount
title
Nick Hunter reports
The inaugural Fairmount Open saw Philly’s Gilly Lane
emerge the victor defeating Mexico’s Cesar Salazar in a
crowd pleasing final.
Gilly and Cesar had travelled through the draw with
comparative ease, and although both dropped games in the
semi-finals, they appeared to be at the top of their
games.
The final started nervously enough, with Cesar unable to
cope with the high tempo enforced by the Philly native.
Gilly was four points to nil up before Cesar troubled
the marker and closed it out with relative ease.
To the disappointment of the pro-Gilly crowd, the second
game saw him return the favour and Cesar easily run away
– 11/4 in the opposite direction!
The third told the tale of the final and delighted the
spectators with its intensity. Both players displayed
both remarkable physical resiliency and attacking stroke
making – with Gilly finally taking the game on his third
game ball after thirty five minutes.
The fourth game saw Cesar fade, and Gilly tenaciously
grab the title with a run of seven straight points from
4/5 – much to the delight of a packed and knowledgeable
Philadelphia crowd.
Overall the event itself was a rousing success, with
member clinics, a hardball pro-am and a variety of
opportunities for Fairmount members to interact with the
pro’s. Each day the players were greeted with
enthusiastic and packed audiences and plans are in place
to make next year's event even bigger and better.
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  Fairmount
Open 2009
02-06 Dec, Philadelphia, $6k |
Round One
03 Dec |
Quarters
04 Dec |
Semis
05 Dec |
Final
06 Dec |
[1] Gilly Lane (Usa))
11/0 11/7 11/6
Lewis Walters (Eng) |
[1] Gilly Lane
11/5, 11/9, 11/3
[5] Patrick
Chifunda |
[1] Gilly Lane
11/8,
11/9, 9/11, 11/8
[3] Wade Johnstone |
[1] Gilly Lane
11/4, 4/11, 15/13, 11/5
[2] Cesar Salazar |
[5] Patrick Chifunda (Zam)
11/6 6/11 12/10 11/5
Fernando Lopez (Mex) |
[3] Wade Johnstone (Aus)
11/6 11/1 12/10
Miled Zarazua (Arg) |
[3] Wade Johnstone
11/3, 11/9, 11/6
[Q] Lekgotla
Mosope |
[6] Erik Tepoz (Mex)
11/9 6/11 11/3
12/10
[Q] Lekgotla Mosope (Bot) |
[Q] Ryan Thompson (Nam)
11/9 11/4
11/7
[8] Stuart Crawford (Sco) |
[8] Stuart Crawford
11/6 11/4 13/11
[4] Arshad
Iqbal Burkhi |
[4] Arshad
Iqbal Burkhi
5/11, 11/5, 11/1, 11/9
[2] Cesar Salazar |
Lyall Patterson (Sco)
11/6 11/4 11/8
[4] Arshad Iqbal Burkhi (Pak) |
[Q] Paul Frank (Sco)
11/4 9/11 11/9 11/8
[7] Chris Truswell (Eng_ |
[7] Chris Truswell
11/9, 3/11, 11/4, 6/11, 11/3
[2] Cesar Salazar
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[Q] Omar El Kashef (Egy)
12/10 9/11
11/6 11/6
[2] Cesar Salazar (Mex) |
Qualifying:
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05-Dec, Semis:
Philly's Gilly
makes Fairmount Final ...
Nick Hunter reports
 Semi
final day at the Fairmount Athletic Club saw Philly
hero, Gilly Lane, kick off the action with a hard
won victory over Australian Wade Johnstone.
Gilly took off at his usual frantic pace and appeared
ready to run away with the match, until the gutsy
Australian used the height of the front wall and some
deft deception to drag himself back into contention.
Gilly finally drew away in the fourth to cement a place
in the final.
In the final, Gilly will play Mexican Cesar Salazar.
Cesar defeated Arshad Burki in a tough encounter
3/1. Arshad, who has been ranked as high as 52 in the
world, delighted the crowd with a vast array of
attacking shots.
The erstwhile Mexican, however, ran the ball down again
and again, forcing Arshad into some slightly over
ambitious strokes which found the tin with increasing
regularity.
The final promises to be a tough battle between two
young players, physically very strong and both moving up
the rankings. The local crowd will be excited with the
prospect of a “local” winner, the large Mexican
contingent will be keen to see an upset.
Tomorrow’s final kicks off at 4pm, with the doubles
pro-am, featuring Chris Wright and Rudi Willemse against
Maryann Crowe and Jamie Macaulay opening the proceedings
at 3pm.
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04-Dec-09:
Philly
Quarters
Nick Hunter reports
Quarter final action in the Fairmount Open went to
seedings, but not without the top four being made to
work hard for their victories.
First on
court was Arshad Burki against
Stuart Crawford.
Both players enjoyed runs of points
throughout, with Arshad pulling out an array of
attacking strokes.
Despite a typically game performance from
Stuart, the record will show 3/0.
Cesar Salazar, the number two seed, was on
court next against Chris Truswell.
Chris displayed remarkable skills throughout,
dropping and lobbing with remarkable aplomb –
however Cesar, a consummate mover, ran him down in
the fifth.
Top seeded Gilly Lane,
the American number two, crushed the always
entertaining Patrick Chifunda in
three games.
Gilly’s excellent movement, coupled with some
punishing length, gave Patrick little chance to
really impact upon the match.
Finally
Wade Johnstone defeated Lekgotla
Mosope in three games.
Wade, a former Victorian Institute of Sport
Scholarship holder, is now resident in Baltimore,
but still showed the high tempo attacking style that
he is renowned for.
Despite languishing in the 90’s through
injury, he appears destined to resume his rise up
the PSA ladder in the coming months
Tomorrow’s semi finals begin at 11:30, with coaching
clinics, softball doubles and a hardball doubles
pro-am from 9am.
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03-Dec-09:
Round One in Philly
Jamie McAuley reports
 The Fairmount Open produced
some spectacular squash, played in front of an
appreciative crowd.
Gilly Lane, currently based in
Holland, but a Philly boy through and through, won
in spectacular fashion. Gilly dispatched young
Englishman, Lewis Walters, in an emphatic three
games, much to the enjoyment of the spectators.
Other
matches of note included second seeded Mexican,
Caesar Salazar dispatching Omar El Kashef in four
games of quality squash. Omar, forced to come
through qualifying, did himself proud in what was a
superb exhibition of attacking squash.
Chris Truswell defeated another
qualifier, Paul Frank. With his two wins yesterday,
Paul proved he can still hum the tune, but
unfortunately today discovered that he couldn't
quite sing the song.
Finally, Stuart Crawford
dominated a game Ryan Thompson 3/0, and will look to
continue his form in a clash tomorrow with
Pakistani, Arshad Burki. Arshad himself, was
in scintillating form, beating wild card, Lyall
Paterson.
Play continues tomorrow evening
at the Fairmount Athletic Club from 5pm and then on
into the weekend.
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02-Dec-09:
Qualifying complete in Philly
Stuart Crawford reports
 Qualifying
concluded today at the Fairmount Open with only one seeded
qualifier making it through to the main draw.
After two
rounds of competitive matches, featuring a truly multi-cultural
draw, Lekgotla Mosope (Bot), Ryan
Thompson (Nam), Omar El Kashef (Egypt)
and Paul Frank (Scot/Aus/?) emerged to join the
main draw.
Standout match of the
first round of qualifying was Jonas Laursen's
defeat of Shahid Khan, the final two games going to big tie
breaks with Jonas eventually finding the shots when it mattered
to come through 14/12 in the fifth.
In the final round
Mosope played a gutsy match to outlast Ehimen Ehalen in the full
five games. Both men displayed a full range of skills and
enormous reserves of fitness to the delight of Fairmount
Athletic Club members.
After two tough rounds it will
be interesting to see if any of the qualifiers can recover in
time to put up a fight in tomorrow's main draw action.
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