The second edition of the New England Open featured 143 players from near and far, including foreigners from San Salvador, Brazil and Canada. The tournament was tied to the U.S. Open where this year qualifying and first round matches at the Murr Center at Harvard were played along side the junior matches over the week-end. It made for a great three days of playing and spectating for the juniors.

Each of the eight age divisions had three draws, insuring each player at least three matches. A player losing his first match in the main draw went to the Consolation draw; the loser there went to the Plate. Hence, with 24 draws and the resulting 271 matches, there was plenty of action.

The BU13 draw of 19 was led by Dylan Cunningham, a member of the large Cleveland contingent. He cruised through the draw without the loss of a game, defeating C.J. Smith from New York in the final. Tripp Kaelin won the Consolation and Jack Blasberg, a product of Sharon Bradey’s Harvard Club program, won the Plate.

The BU15 draw of 30 was the largest. Pehlaaj Bajwa, son of the Harvard coach, was the top seed and made it to the finals where he met Montreal’s John Lamont, a frequent entrant in MSRA tournaments. John won in three, completing his tournament without the loss of a game. Michael Lillie won the Consolation and Matt ma the Plate.

Juan Flores from San Salvador and Trinity-Pawling School in Brewster, NY, has played often in our tournaments and has yet to lose. He didn’t this week-end either, running through the 28 player BU17 draw with a win over New York’s Jason Michas in the final. Patrick Cunningham, Dylan’s brother, took the Consolation and Ronald German, one of 44 SquashBusters in the field, took the Plate.

Another foreigner, Brazil’s Yuri Franca, hardly broke a sweat in dominating the BU19 without the loss of a game. Yuri is living in the Boston area this year before college. The draw was a full 16, including four Cleveland players. The Consolation was won by William Morris of New York and St. Paul’s; the Plate went to Dan Lesser.

The Girls’ draws were more thinly populated with two round robins. In the GU13

Hunter Sechrest from New York was the best of seven without losing a game. Almost similarly in the GU19, Margaret Chapman from Short Hills, NJ bested the other six entrants with the loss of only one game.

The GU15 draw of 22 was the largest and was book-ended by two seeds from the New York area: #1 Julianne Chu from Brooklyn Heights and #2 Campbell Sechrest from New York. They mowed everyone down on their way to the finals where Julianne won in three. Kristin Scillia from New Jersey won the Consolation, and Ashley Dona scored again for the SquashBusters by winning the Plate.

The most surprising draw of the tournament was the GU17. Julianne’s sister Elizabeth was the #1 seed, but couldn’t hold it, losing to Boston’s and Milton’s Alli Rubin in a four game semi-final. In the bottom half, #3 seed Sarah Loucks, fresh from a field hockey game, was upset by Corey Schafer who in turn marched on over second seed Dori Rahbar in the semis. Corey won the first two games in the finals, but couldn’t hold on as Alli won the last three. Sarah won the Consolation and Caroline Palmer the Plate.

This year’s New England Open is the first of three major tournaments run by the MSRA. Ironically, the next two are the first two week-ends in January – the Massachusetts Junior Open and the Frank Millet Championships, a USSRA selection event limited to the top 32 ranked players in each division.