The Jim Bentley Cup returns to the Cambridge Club, November 17-21, with the tournament’s highest prize money purse in the SDA era with $30,000, attracting a field of top tewill emams with a new look to Toronto.
The increased prize money makes this year’s Jim Bentley Cup the only sanctioned gold level event on tour with an eight-team draw
The new SDA season has brought with it a number of partner changes in the world’s top twenty players, without a single team from the 2015 Jim Bentley Cup main draw returning in 2016 with the same partnership.
The changes start at the very top including both 2015 Bentley Cup finalists. Following the retirement of world No. 1 Ben Gould, world No. 2 Damien Mudge moved to the right wall to make space for last year’s player of the season and world No. 3 Manek Mathur and the left.
Mathur & Mudge enter the draw as top seeds and are predicted to reach the finals where they could face two seeds and Mathur’s former partner Yvain Badan, now with fellow Trinity alum Mike Ferreira on the left wall. The top two seeds have already forming a rivalry this season having met in both the Maryland Club Open and Big Apple Open finals.
After earning rookie of the year accolades in their SDA season debut in 2014-2015, Australia’s Scott Arnold Canada’s Robin Clarke have split up in favor of more experienced partners. Arnold will pair with fellow Aussie and world No. 12 Matt Jenson on the left wall as the three seeds, while Clarke teams up with England’s world doubles champion and world No. 11 Clive Leach as the four seeds.
The Jim Bentley Cup—namesake of the Cambridge Club founder—has a long tradition of elite squash doubles with a history that has included a variety of unique events. For many years, the Bentley was held as an invitational, where the club determined the pairings, matching top PSA softball singles professionals from around the world with the best in hardball doubles.
The Bentley’s winners list is an illustrious one with rich history, including names such as Mo Khan, Gul Khan, Aziz Khan, Peter Briggs, Gary Waite, Mark Talbott, Stuart Boswell, Martin Heath, Paul Price and the son of the tournament’s namesake, Jamie Bentley.