by Jason Jewell, World No. 118

Fine white sandy beaches, coconut trees, coral reefs…a treasure of luxuries that are not often associated with the life of a professional squash player. In fact, many of my experiences as a PSA professional over the past two years bear to mind situations of discomfort: sleeping on hardwood floors; 14 hour weight-shifting third class train rides; being suspected as a Colombian drug smuggler at the US-Canadian border just because I had been to Colombia – boy, could this list turn into a statistician’s wet dream! However, when I traded in my post-Ivy league $70,000 Wall Street entry level job for life on the pro squash tour, I knew there had to be more consolation than my moralistic cheer: "For the love of the game!" Indeed, there was, is, and hopefully always will be a huge reason: J-A-M-A-I-C-A. To be sure, it was the first annual Jamaica Open held July 16-23 at the four star Swept Away resort in Negril that made me reel "Ya, mon everting’s chris" off the tip of my tongue.

The man responsible for this squash festival was Andre "The Legend" Maur. Along with his "left hand" partner in squash, his wife Danielle, Andre has taken part in the resurgence of a professional squash tour in North America. In April, he held his first PSA event in Atlanta at the Concourse Athletic Club, where he currently reins as head squash professional. For the Jamaica event, he compiled an impressive list of sponsors, including deals with Swept Away Resort and American Airlines that allowed for rates that would have sent 99.9% of the travel industries bargain-hunting agents out of business. Amateurs came to this event from New York, New Jersey, Seattle, and Atlanta. I even convinced Papa Jewell to fly down from California.

When all "the boys," as PSA players refer to our collective selves, arrived after several daunting forty-eight hour journey’s, we all sort of stared at each other in the 80-plus degree Caribbean Sea and shrugged our shoulders as if to say: "This ain’t too bad…No, I think I could REALLY get used to this." When one of the players, Ronivaldo Santos of Brazil, told me: "I loof dis lie," I realized that I wasn’t the only one who was thinking good riddance to hardwood floors. Ronivaldo, the Brazilian number one and world number seventy-one, used to wash car windows on the streets of Sao Paulo before his squash talent was exploited by Brazilian squash promoter, Tariq Kamal. I think the idea that we could go for a coral reef shallow dive in between practice sessions never really had a chance to sink into our thick squash skulls. In fact, when I close my eyes tightly and focus, it still seems like a dream.

As at most four star resorts, the entertainment was divine and incessant. Andre seemed to derive a certain pleasure from sharing the islands’ pleasures with his importees. Thus, each second of the day was planned with activities ranging from scuba diving to volleyball to classes on how to speak the local language, Patwa. In addition to this, Andre organized daily off-site adventures: one evening of thirty foot cliff-jumping and sunset-gazing at the world famous Rick’s Café; an afternoon of golf; an evening booze cruise; and, a night out at the beach nightclub, Alfred’s. Oh, and don’t forget the infamous adult playland, Hedonism II! All of us succumbed to curiosity and attempted, at one point or another, to get a glimpse of this legendary resort just two miles upwind. One guy reasoned that he would blend in that much better with the resort guests if he windsurfed right up to the shore of "Hedo!" As for the food, well, even the strictest nutritionists of us overindulged in the exotic cuisine. Squash became even more difficult to focus on when we found out that drinks were inclusive. And drinks they had: a motley assortment of names and fruits and colors. But, basically, ordering a drink boiled down to one thing: Appleton’s. If the bartender did not follow your drink order, he just shook his head and said: "Ya, mon, I know the drink…it has rum in it, right?" And, what about all those rumors that you’ve heard about Jamaica and ganja? Yeah, they’re true. But, before it would appear that I am walking too far into the deep end, it should be noted that the Swept Away resort is mostly a cozy romantic resort for couples.

Despite all these distractions, it may have been the cozy romantic aspect of the resort that kept the quality of the squash matches absolutely stellar. In addition, the galleries were full of enthusiastic, albeit well-tanned, squash fans. For those squash enthusiasts who are not Anglophiles, it will be of great interest to trace the continued ascension of Shahier Razik and Viktor Berg in the world rankings to numbers forty and fifty-seven, respectively. Viktor lost to number one seed Amr Shabana in the quarter-finals, while Shabana defaulted after the third game of the semi-final to Juha Raumolin. Shahier beat Bradley Ball of England in the quarter-finals before going down to Omar Elborolossy in four games in the semi’s. It was just last July that Shahier stood at world number one hundred twenty-eight. Keep an eye on these two excellent next generation Canadian athletes! [You can follow the PSA rankings at www.psa-squash.com/ranking]

The final matched Omar "The Pyramid" Elborolossy against Juha "The Flying Finn" Raumolin. Coming into the event at number 26 in the world, Omar stands at an incredibly powerful 6’4 and displays brilliant reach and economy of movement. This Egyptian has also developed a reputation for himself on the tour as one who rarely loses to players outside the top twenty, as well as one who occasionally stages victories against the sport’s very elite. Juha is methodical, disciplined, and determined and not without his own arsenal of shots. As a PSA player myself, a friend of the two finalists, and the referee of the final, it was my observation that Omar was clearly the favorite to win just in that he had an edge in economy of movement and stroke production. Juha was going to have to be patient and hope that he could use his superior conditioning to prevail. In short, Juha was going to have to work almost twice as hard as Omar. The good news was that Juha derives just enough sadistic pleasure from overexertion in intense heat to be up for the challenge. The stage was set for an interesting confrontation.

The first two games did go somewhat quickly, with Juha going down 15-11, 15-6. However, as would also be expected, a very critical point came in the beginning of the third game. Despite losing the first two games, Juha’s attritional persistence was beginning to pay off. Following a very long rally at 3-3, Juha looked directly at Omar before serving and I believe realized that although he had been pushing hard through the whole match, he would have to push particularly hard now because Omar was showing signs of fatigue. After taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to steady his heart rate, Omar was not up for Juha’s vicious attack. Juha went up 7-3, but then another crucial point came. Juha was working very hard and a close referee decision was made that he disputed, something he rarely does. Omar would have picked up on this rare outburst as s sign that Juha was now weakening physically. However, one must chose their battles in this game, and Omar could not or chose not to stage a comeback. A smarter strategy would be to use his superior control to make Juha struggle to win the fourth while he only pushed at 70% or so. With this plan, Omar would be able to push hard enough in the fourth to take the match. Almost like clockwork, that is what happened. Juha won the third game, 15-9, but at too much personal cost. I would not doubt that even Geoff Hunt, perhaps the fittest man to have ever played the game, would have upturned eyebrows at the potentiality of keeping up the pace that Juha was maintaining. The well-fought battle was over, 15-6, with a prevalent "Pyramid" to boot.

The prize money was presented at the Saturday night banquet, with Omar taking away an Ebel watch for top honors. Andre did a wonderful job and is hoping to hold a third PSA event later this year. And, if there was a program "Lifestyle’s of the Rich and Famous" and another one "Lifestyles of the Poor and Deslolate," I would probably one of the elite few with the perspective to write for both of them!!! I would get along smashingly with Joseph Conrad: my life is one big duality. Yeah, baby. Keep squashin’and I’ll see you at the Jamaica Open II. In case you were wondering, "kin de teet" means "skin the teeth" in Patwa, the expression used for "smile."