2022 Alberta Open Champions - M. Laine and B.Schille

Women's and Men's Draws

Maddison Laine and Brett Schille take top honors at the 2022 Alberta Open.

After 3 full afternoons of Great Squash the 2022 Alberta Open Champions have been crowned.  With a cast of Alberta's Top senior and junior players taking to the BVAC courts the squash was entertaining and filled with many moments of sportsmanship, athleticism, passion and inspiration. 

Maddison Laine  of Calgary's Glencoe Club (GC) proved to be the class of the Women's Division dropping only 1 game during the event on her way to the title over Becks Dudley of the Edmonton Squash Club (ESC) in a back and forth 3-1 match.

In the Women's 3/4 Playoff, Ella Watson of the Glencoe Club triumphed 3-2 over the BVAC's Vahbiz Bulsara in a hard fought momentum-swing filled match.

In the Consolation Final Antonella Rodriguez (ESC) came out on top in a 3-1 decision over the quickly improving Rhona Green of the Royal Glenora in Edmonton.

Romina Rodriguez (ESC) used her power game to defeat the up and coming Georgia Watson (GC)

Brett Schille of the Calgary Winter Club (CWC) showed his dominance in the talent packed Men's Draw with a hard fought 3-1 victory over Eric Dingle of Calgary's Glencoe Club. (GC)  Though Noel Heaton (CWC) was successful in his semi-final match over Eric Dingle in a very tight 3-1 match, Heaton was unable to play in the final due to travel plans.  Schille, gratefully accepted the decision to have Dingle play for the Championship, a match that did not disappoint.

Third place went to Adrian de Vries, formerly of the Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton and now with the Glencoe Club in Calgary. Attempting to back up his 2022 Alberta Provincial Closed title, de Vries ran into a white hot Brett Schille in the semi-finals and lost a very tight and hard fought match which show cased both the amazing athleticism and shot making skill of both players.

The Consolation Final saw Mo Hamour of the BVAC and Noman Khan of SCSC take to the Power Glass Court in the final match of the event.  Both players, physically exhausted after enduring 4 matches over the 3 days, punched their ticket to their 5th matches for the Consolation Championship after winning  5 and 4 game matches respectively, earlier in the day. In, arguably, the most entertaining match of the tournament, Noman Khan came out on top in a 3-2 victory. Court coverage, agility, speed and incredible shot making were on full display in this classic battle of wills and throw all caution to the wind, inspired match.  Both players left everything on the court to the delight of the audience, that made the smart choice to stay and take in the action.  Having watched most of the matches during the Canadian and Alberta Open, this match was definitely the highlight of the week, truly showcasing sportsmanship, creativity and athleticism, heart, love and passion for our great sport!  A video of this match would be priceless!!

A big shout out to:

Our Officials: Ben Groot, Rob Heaton, Colin Schille, Joe Ellis and Caroline de Vries for taking time out of their Easter weekends to work behind the glass and make the event better for our players and organizers.  No easy task to sit in the hot seat with the goal of ensuring a fair outcome for the players- no video reviews to rely on and no shoulders to lean on - Your efforts, contribution and dedication to our sport are much appreciated!.

To the Bow Valley Athletic Club (Dean, Darren, Colin and Vanessa) we express our extreme gratitude for opening your doors to us to run the event.  We also can't thank the BVAC F&B staff enough for the great service and hospitality and for keeping the doors open and lights on well past closing time on Friday and Saturday evening to accomodate the later matches!

To Squash Canada, Jamie Nicholls and Samantha Cornett for all their hard work and dedication in making the 2022 Canadian Open possible.  For allowing us to access the Power Glass Court for the 2022 Alberta Open, for keeping the bleachers up and for all the access given to our Junior and Senior players during April.  What a great experience for those that took advantage of the opportunity to get on the Power Glass Court.

And last but not least to Arthur Hough, our tireless Provincial Coach, for the many hours spent maximizing our time on the Power Glass Court with our Provincial Junior and Next Gen Squads and Senior Players over the month of April as well as helping to keep the 2022 Alberta Open running smoothly over Easter weekend.

I also want to send a shout out to a number of the PSA Pro's who took the time to get on courts (singles and doubles) with some of our Junior and Senior players while they were here.  What a great experience for our up and coming stars to be able to step on the court with these players - memories and experiences that are priceless and last a lifetime - great to see these PSA players giving back to the sport they love and inspiring the stars of the future - can never have too much inspiration!  Endless smiles bigger than the faces they are on!!!

Discussions are in the works for 2023. Fingers crossed we can continue building on the great success of this past few weeks!