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2004 Santa Barbara Open (formerly DARE) September 8 - 12, 2004 Santa Barbara Athletic Club by Robert Graham - Squash Professional Santa Barbara Athletic Club For the past ten years the Santa Barbara Open Squash Championships has been a fundraiser for the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department “Drug Abuse Resistance Education” program, more commonly known as D.A.R.E., and in that time we have raised about $400,000 for their program, just from this annual squash tournament. Shortly before this eleventh year’s event, the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department announced that they have dropped the D.A.R.E. program due to a combination of state and county budget difficulties, department manpower needs, and personnel retention issues. The proceeds from this year’s event (still being added up) will go to other youth programs that the Sheriff's Department sponsor and are developing to effectively replace D.A.R.E., possibly the Sheriff’s Activity League, which provides extra-curricular activities for under-privileged “at risk” kids. I am hoping that we can add squash to this program in the near future. This year’s Men’s Professional draw was again a $10,000 PSA sanctioned event, featuring 16 players from a variety of countries, ranked between #21 and #85, in the world. There were a few upsets to the seedings as the rounds progressed, and I nearly provided one myself in my first round match against Viktor Berg, a Canadian ranked #54 in the world, where the great support of SBAC members carried me through to a 2 games to 1 lead and 7/4 in the fourth game before my old body gave out and began to seize! The final score was 11/6 10/11 (2-0) 6/11 11/8 11/4 to Viktor. Stefan Casteleyn carried local southern California interest into the ¼ finals by beating Rafael Alarcon from Brazil 11/7 7/11 11/6 11/7 in 43 minutes in an entertaining match. Unfortunately in the next round he came up against two-time Santa Barbara Open winner, and #2 seed, Alex Gough of Wales, ranked #25 in the world. Alex’s all round game proved too much for Stefan who lost 11/5 11/9 11/4 in 36 minutes. The pick of the ¼ final matches set a new record for the longest match played under the new PAR to 11 scoring – unseeded Stacey Ross (England, world #65) beat #4 seed Cameron Pilley (Australia, world #40) 11/6 11/7 9/11 6/11 11/9 in 113 minutes. Who knows how long this would have lasted if they had been playing to 15!?! In the first semi final #1 seed, Paul Price (Australia, world #21) defeated #8 seed, Matthew Giuffre (Canada, world #61) 11/7 11/6 11/1 in a comfortable 26 minute match. The second match was much closer and longer, but also went with the seedings as Alex Gough defeated Stacey Ross 11/9 9/11 11/8 11/9 in 62 minutes. The final was an excellent display of controlled squash mixed with some fine attacking play, taking the ball early, and athleticism. After 70 minutes defending champion Paul Price emerged the winner by a score line of 11/9 10/11 (2-0) 11/8 11/8 in a final match that delighted the 175 strong crowd. I must say a huge thank you to our ever-present three main sponsors – Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, Santa Barbara Deputy Sheriffs Association, and Santa Barbara Athletic Club – for once again providing the prize money for the Professional event. To have this support year after year is so rare and very much appreciated. As usual we had a variety of amateur divisions that attracted local entries as well as some from as far afield as San Diego, Phoenix, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. CATE School also entered their new 19 player team in the lower divisions, some players playing for the first time, and others returning from last year. Full final results
were:
Robert Graham |
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