For the ninth year, the tri-club hosted—Greenwich Country Cub, Round Hill Club, and Field Club of Greenwich—Chilton North American Open Doubles (NAO), a Squash Doubles Association (SDA) Platinum event, will be held concurrently with the Harrow Greenwich Invitational singles in Connecticut January 23-26.
The NAO has been one of the most prominent and prestigious SDA events—with the second largest tour prize money at 40K. Since 1931, the event has drawn some of the best players in the world, including squash legends like Mark Talbott, Viktor Berg and Gary Waite, all former NAO champions. In its seventy-fourth iteration, not much has changed in 2015.
Damien Mudge & Ben Gould, joint world No. 1’s and 2014 NAO champions, are once again the top seeds in the tournament, facing a qualification team in the first round. Last year Mudge & Gould made history, winning Mudge’s eleventh title, breaking former teammate Waite’s tournament record of ten. Mudge & Waite won six straight NAO doubles titles from 2000-2006.
The NAO features a sixteen-team main draw with four qualification spots.
Viktor Berg & Hamed Anvari, first time partners in the recent St. Louis Open, who upset two top seeds— including world No. 4 Manek Mathur & world No. 3 Yvain Badan—are also headed to the NAO for the first time. The pair will meet a to-be-determined team from the qualification round.
For more information, visit the official North American Open Doubles tournament page.
The first round of matches will commence today at 6:30pm local time at the Field Club of Greenwich, and will be scored live on sdaprotour.com/live.
Tournament proceeds and donations support the North American Open/Greenwich Open Scholarship Fund in partnership with US Squash, which provides financial assistance to participants in urban squash programs, as they elect to attend private secondary schools or college. To donate and find out more, visit the NAO/GO Fund page.
In addition to the SDA tournament, a men’s and women’s singles event, the Harrow Greenwich Invitational, will also be hosted in in Connecticut. For the first time—the tournament is usually a women’s only event—it will feature a draw for men.
Some of the best players in the world, including the world No. 2 Raneem Weleily, as well as former world No. 1 Natalie Grainger, will compete in the women’s draw. The men’s side also features many top players, including world No. 14 Daryl Selby, with local pros Phil Barker, Zac Alexander, and Liam Kenny, all drawn from the Greenwich host-clubs.