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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
CSA Singles Tournament
Players Mentioned
El Halaby Stands One Match From Historic Fourth Championship
March 04, 2006 | Men's Squash
March 4, 2006
AMHERST, Mass. - A dream born four years ago is one match away from being realized. That dream, and college squash history, can be made by Princeton senior Yasser El Halaby, who is one win away from becoming the first male collegiate player to win four national individual titles. That last match could be his toughest in any of his four individual tournaments, as Harvard's top-seeded Siddharth Suchde stands in the way of history.
El Halaby began Saturday with a 9-3;9-1;9-3 win over 10th-seeded Gilly Lane of Penn. It marked El Halaby's 15th career national tournament victory by a 3-0 score; he has only been extended past three games four times in his career.
One such time came in the 2006 semifinal to Trinity's Gustav Detter, who previously defeated El Halaby 3-2 in the regular season. Detter, who upset third-seeded Julian Illingworth, the 2005 finalist, in four games. Detter rode the momentum to a big win in the opening game, but El Halaby settled soon after that and pulled out a 1-9;9-5;9-3;9-3 win.
It was not the first time El Halaby trailed in a semifinal. In three of his four national semifinals, the Cairo, Egypt, native dropped his first game and eventually pulled out the win. As a freshman, he dropped a pair of games 9-6 and 9-7 to Trinity's Michael Ferreira before coming back with 9-3, 9-7 and 9-1 wins. Last year, he dropped a 9-5 game to Suchde before bouncing back with 9-0, 9-2 and 9-0 wins.
Suchde will be looking to improve on his semifinal performance Sunday at 1 p.m. in the national final. Suchde won his quarterfinal match against Trinity's Jacques Swanepoel 3-0, and then he faced Princeton freshman Mauricio Sanchez, who completed a dramatic and impressive freshman season Saturday. Sanchez entered the tournament as the fifth seed and upset fourth-seeded Shaun Johnstone of Trinity 9-3;9-4;9-1. It was Sanchez' second win this season against the No. 1 player from Trinity. His run ended at the hands of Suchde, who topped the Princeton No. 2 player 9-3;9-7;9-5.
Both players will carry confidence into Sunday's final. El Halaby has won three straight titles and has beaten Suchde in each of the last two finals. On the other hand, Suchde handed El Halaby his worst loss in college earlier this season, a 9-1, 9-1, 9-0 decision.
El Halaby isn't the only Princeton player competing Sunday. The consolation final at 10:30 will feature two Princeton Tigers, junior Vincent Yu and senior Dent Wilkens. Yu topped Yale's Moshe Sarfaty, who he lost to in the regular season, by a 3-1 score in the consolation semifinal, while Wilkens defeated Cornell's William Cheng 3-0 in his semifinal.