Burnt Open Preview: Lovejoy Grateful For U.S. Open Opportunity

The third and final event on Tour this week will be the Burnt Squash Open. The Challenger 5 level tournament will get underway on Friday, October 14, and will feature a 16-strong draw.

The Cullman Courts at the Mars Athletic Complex in Lakeville, Connecticut will play host to the tournament, which will run over four days, with Monday, October 17 seeing the winner of the event crowned.

Home hope Spencer Lovejoy will be the top seed for the competition. We spoke to the American, who has recently returned to the Tour after a period on the sidelines through injury.

“I feel much better about my game right now than I did a few weeks ago. I am coming off a two month foot injury and only started getting back on court for training about two weeks ago,” Lovejoy said.

“Overall I’m just really happy to be back on court. My ball control has been improving a lot since the injury, but my movement still needs some work as well as my match fitness.”

The World No.111 was one of the wildcards for the U.S. Open last week, coming up against fellow American Todd Harrity in the opening round in Philadelphia. Although he didn’t come away with the win, Lovejoy can still take the positives away from the contest.

“It was a great experience playing in the U.S. Open on Saturday. This was my first official match in months, so I felt the emotions were high and I couldn’t quite settle down. But I’m very grateful for the opportunity I got to play against Todd and I’ll be learning a lot from the match going forward,” he explained.

“I have watched my match recording back and I feel I definitely need to put more emphasis on getting my basic line and length as well as being patient with my balls to the front court.”

Lovejoy will be the top seed for the Burnt Squash Open this week in Connecticut, but that is not something he is thinking about. He also knows that good performances will help see his ranking rise back to his career-best of World No.66 and beyond.

“It’s [being top seed] not something I think too much about. At the end of the day it’s just another squash tournament so I like to treat it like that and try to stay relaxed,” the American said.

“Ranking is also something I don’t think too much about. For me, I want to feel like my level of squash is improving and I’m hitting my targets on court and making good decisions. 

“Obviously, it would mean a lot to be back in the top 100 in order to get into bigger tournaments, but after that it’s not really something that plays on my mind.”

Lovejoy’s nearest contender for the title will be Egypt’s Seif Shenawy, with India’s Abhishek Agarwal and Nigeria’s Babatunde Ajagbe making up the rest of the top four seeds for the event. Two more Americans will join Lovejoy in the draw, with Yassin Amir and wildcard Callan Venkatesan both featuring on the Tour for the first time.

The event takes place from Friday, October 14 to Monday, October 17 at the Cullman Courts in Lakeville, where Spencer Lovejoy is the top seed for the tournament. Follow the PSA Challenger Tour on Twitter and Facebook for daily updates from the event.

First Round Draw: Burnt Squash Open
[1] Spencer Lovejoy (USA) v Yassin Amir (USA)
Aaron Allpress (ENG) v [6] Abdelrahman Nassar (EGY)
[8] Muhammad Farhan Hashmi (PAK) v Karamatullah Khan (PAK)
Nicolas Serna (COL) v [4] Babatunde Ajagbe (NGR)
[3] Abhishek Agarwal (IND) v [WC] Callan Venkatesan (USA)
Petr Nohel (CZE) v [5] Sanjay Jeeva (MAS)
[7] Hamza Sharif (PAK) v Matias Knudsen (COL)
Shehab Essam (EGY) v [2] Seif Shenawy (EGY)