The Jonah Barrington Column: February 2024

One of the sport’s greatest thinkers and a pioneer for the professional game, Jonah Barrington offers his thoughts on all of squash’s biggest talking points in his monthly column – written exclusively for the PSA World Tour website.

In this month’s column, Jonah discusses the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions and looks ahead to the Windy City Open presented by the Walter Family, which begins next week in Chicago.

By Jonah Barrington

It may well seem a far distance away as the pro season gathers pace into 2024, but the ToC tournament was, as ever, a blazing beacon heralding in the New Year.

Ali Farag remains the boss, but he will expect that nothing but the best will continue to stave off the chasers.

Diego Elias has to keep his tail up, withstand such battles with Mostafa Asal and be capable of putting an increasing pressure on the present World Champion in the next sequence.

Mostafa will be the No.1 sooner rather than later, and he has done much to appease but may well always face those who will try to find a way to milk those past indiscretions.

In his semi with Diego, he made considerable efforts to contain, even at times, very legitimate movements (to his disadvantage I may say) but the athleticism around the substantial Peruvian into the front forehand corner was nothing short of remarkable.

When it was suggested on one occasion that he had blocked his opponent’s journey to the forehand deep, even the commentators remarked how SMALL he had actually made himself!

He has to accept though that there will always be those who will never be anywhere near his corner.

Victor Crouin has continued to gain in experience but has yet to come to terms with, for example, the brutal power of Asal and fertile skills of Farag and Elias.

He is more at ease when encountering Paul Coll who, at his very best, is a physical and mental monster but is still very much in the process of development under Robert Owen.

But I am expecting Victor’s challenge to those peers will continue to grow, providing his hunger to achieve remains close to obsession.

Nour El Sherbini is quite simply something else. There have been many outstanding women players and some who have reached out for greatness in their time.

I started out with Heather McKay on her annual mission to London and, as with other champions both in the women’s and men’s games, I have always had some certainty that the very best would almost certainly have adapted to make the necessary changes and will have been very competitive in the modern game – regardless of changes to rackets, strings, scoring systems and the very courts themselves.

Heather would have been one of the great players today.

She took on Sarah Fitz-Gerald when apparently in retirement (over 42 but correct me if necessary) and Sarah, I was told on very good authority, (in retirement also and over 40) was getting the better of Nicol David (when she was World Champion) in exhibition matches.

Now we could go on to discuss whether Nicol would have realised what she would have had to do to take her game up to where the bar was set, and I suspect she would have.

That bar is now set higher than ever before and although Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy have reached out to greatness, El Sherbini is the one still raising it ever higher.

She is the greatest player I have ever seen and I am sure I would have found her even more extraordinary if I could be privileged to see her live on stage rather than on a screen – maybe one day.

There has always been dissent and discord on court in competitive squash. I have seen it on significant occasions at club level, let alone on the professional circuit. At the top end of the game, where emotions can inevitably be difficult to contain, the overriding but essential desire to win allied to frustration can lead to a meltdown.

I have been there on much more than the odd occasion, so I can’t be sanctimonious about it, can I?

I almost always regretted the circumstance because, unlike John McEnroe many moons ago, it never really helped me to win a match, and I really had no affection for losing.

Geoffrey Hunt never seemed to lose control, but then he was winning most of the time!

Once in South Africa I was in a tight fifth game (which I deserved to win), when at the critical stage he argued with the referee to such an extent that the guy completely changed his mind. Shocking really Geoff, in fact, unforgivable!

Obviously, the leaders in our sport need to be mindful that they are in part selling a product and when the emotions are set to overflow, enough is enough.

Nouran Gohar is a fantastic player and I have compulsively viewed her for many years – she has an amazing inner drive, power and depth in itself and a dynamic style of play never seen before in the women’s game.

She is currently in a very testing phase with the recent injury syndrome and, I would imagine, other factors.

Both Hania and she must show the way to the younger players and at times take a little leaf out of El Sherbini’s book.

Only her parrot and dog can appreciate if she is as temperate as that!

Oh, by the way, I only once didn’t shake hands at the completion of a match, which I did just happen to lose, but 50 years later I do regret it!

I am very proud of my son Joey. It might actually surprise him, but it is time I stated it in print, at least before it is too late.

Yes, it does come to everyone sometime.

He became a good pro despite not having a comprehensive junior background and would have at least got well inside the top 16 had he been more obsessive (“Unlike you dad, I want to enjoy a bit of a life!”)

He was pretty well the first SQUASHTV commentator when he was ousted from the current tournament he had been competing in.

The payment for that was around 10p a match, and he did hundreds!

There was little or no tuition and much of it was random and haphazard. He is now, many years on, the lead commentator and that is an exceedingly difficult job.

SQUASHTV is the only real outlet for our game – publicity is minimal, when compared to UK media 50 years ago!

He is constantly trying to be creative with the presentation and those working on site with him are providing their very best endeavours.

The late Ron Pickering, that iconic athletics broadcaster, told me of the jealousy and spite that could arrive on his doorstep and in the mail, and in recent times I have noted with considerable ire ‘snidey’ sniping in the direction of the commentary team from one or two who should know better.

It is still not a good idea to upset me, so beware.

USA is literally on fire this month and I can’t wait for the Windy City.