http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/sports/american-rises-to-rare-height-in-squash-rankings-all-while-hitting-the-books.html 2014-10-14 03:47:52 American Rises to Rare Height in Squash Rankings, All While Hitting the Books In September, Amanda Sobhy became the first American-born squash player to reach the top 10 on either the men’s or women’s world tour. === Amanda Sobhy will leave Harvard in the spring with a degree in social anthropology and no immediate plans to use it. In September, Sobhy became the first American-born squash player to reach the top 10 on either the men’s or women’s world tour. It has been a fast rise. Sobhy, 21, is the only American to win the world junior championship, a feat she accomplished on her 17th birthday, only five years after picking up the game. In a sport dominated by players from England and Egypt, Sobhy is part of a changing dynamic, the leader of a group of rising American talents. Emboldened by success stories like Sobhy’s and record membership numbers, U.S. Squash, the sport’s governing body, created an elite training and sponsorship program last year, hoping that it would groom the next generation of world-class players. Should she choose to take part in the program, Sobhy, Squash runs in Sobhy’s family: Her Egyptian father, Khaled, is a former top-ranked junior, and her mother, Jodie, won the United States national championship. Sobhy’s younger sister, Sabrina, is a rising junior player. “I was the guinea pig,” Amanda Sobhy said of her decision to put off a pro career for college. “Even if I dropped in level or didn’t progress much, I knew that I would still be 22 when I graduated.” Instead, in three seasons at Harvard, Sobhy has not lost a match, winning three straight national championships while simultaneously rising through the professional ranks. (In order to maintain her college eligibility, Sobhy must return any pro tour winnings that exceed the expenses she accrued while playing in the tournaments.) Earlier this month, she skipped her Friday classes to play in the Carol Weymuller Open, a professional event in Brooklyn. Sobhy did not win, and even though she “Looking at her from a junior career and how she has fared versus the other players, she’s capable of being the best in the world,” said Tommy Berden, the acting chief executive of the Women’s Squash Association, which runs the professional tour. In the small world of professional squash, Sobhy’s triple duty as a student, collegiate athlete and professional player is unusual. Internationally, top-ranked junior players often pass up college to join the pro tour. That was the route taken by another American, Olivia Blatchford. “I did consider college a little bit, but I wanted to play and give it my best,” Blatchford said after beating Sabrina Sobhy at the Weymuller tournament. “By the time I was about 16, I decided that I would always have my brain but I might not always have my body.” Now 21, “If I wanted to play for the money,” Sobhy said, “I would have stuck with tennis when I was younger.” Blatchford felt so much financial pressure that she quit the sport for four months when she was 19 to coach full time. She returned last September after U.S. Squash began an elite athlete program that subsidizes professionals based on their age and ranking. Blatchford receives a base salary of $12,000 per year, health insurance and reimbursement for expenses. She and Sobhy said she has not decided whether she would join U.S. Squash’s program after graduation or raise money privately, and her coach did not expect a talent drain. “College squash is improving because of the influx of talented international players,” Mike Way, the Harvard men’s and women’s coach, said. “So I think when we’re talking about American students, we’ll see them go to a top university, graduate, and then scratch the itch on the pro tour while taking advantage of the elite athlete program.” Sabrina Sobhy seems headed down that road; she learned of her acceptance at Harvard a day after losing in Brooklyn. David, the top-ranked player, said Amanda Sobhy’s future was bright. “Amanda knows how to prioritize when to study and when to focus on squash,” she said. “I think that’s a great trait that will help her on the tour. We’ll have to watch out when she’s only focusing on playing professionally.”