How long does a typical squash match last?

This question of how long a typical squash match is very interesting, because with it comes the inevitable problem of how to ensure that you are physically and emotionally fit enough to withstand all the demands that the squash match will bring.

Recently, there has been a shift in both the amateur and professional to adopting Par or American scoring, where every point counts regardless of who is serving. This tends to shorten overall game time as players constantly move their score up to their goal of 11 points on each play. If they get to 10 points, each player must win by a clear 2 point margin 14-12. International scoring was played using a scoring method where a player had to be serving and win the rally to score a point.

I witnessed the longest match. It was played at the 1983 Chichester Open in England between Jahangir Khan, world champion from Pakistan, and Gamal Awad, number 1 from Egypt, whom I coached between matches. He had been my training partner for a couple of years and we had discussed a plan.

The first game lasted 75 minutes. The plan was not to open the court and just wear Jahangir down. Gamal played the game plan brilliantly, but Jahangir matched him length for length. The first play took 7 minutes and resulted in a let, meaning the point was replayed!

The first point was scored after 15 minutes and the entire match, which was just 4 games, was 2 hours and 46 minutes. What do you say to a guy who came back from an 8-1 deficit to win the game but has to face the onslaught of winning 2 more games? All Gamal could ask me was to please rub his legs because they were cramping. He knew he couldn’t go on like this forever, but he was prepared to try to stick to the game plan. We had no idea how Jahangir felt, he couldn’t have been great, but that first game had taken its toll.

He played the rest of the match and in the middle of the second game he started looking for winners because he knew he had given everything he had to give. The final result was 9-10,9-5, 9-7, 9-2.

The interesting thing about this match was that Gamal was never the same again. This match broke his spirit, the realization that he couldn’t beat Jahangir was devastating to him, and he retired from the competition a few years later.

Squash lost a legend when in 2004 at the age of 49 he died suddenly of a heart attack.

The longest women’s match was 1 hour 57 minutes, with 90 seconds between games and a 5-minute warm-up the match lasted a total of 2 hours 7 minutes. It was played in 1981 at Mayfair Parkway in Toronto in the Women’s World Championship final between Rhonda Thorne now Clayton and Vicki Hoffman now Cardwell.

This match also had a tragic outcome, the loss of friendship between these two Australian compatriots. Vicki was fine all the time, she was number 1 in the world and Rhonda, her sparring partner and teammate, was number 2, but the moment she was reversed, it seemed like more than Vicki could handle. accept. Emotionally, it took Vicki years to come to grips with this. This is often the case in life when the status quo is upset, the new order is not always easily accepted.

This match even changed Rhonda, who having achieved the goal she had strived for for so long, lost some of her competitive edge and retired a couple of years later after the 1983 World Women’s Squash Championship in Australia. Again this is not uncommon in life to focus and drive towards a goal once achieved resetting to a new destination is often very challenging.

Now most amateur matches last around 35 minutes for amateurs and 45 minutes for professionals. This means that there has been a slight change in the emotional and physical demands on the competitors. Scoring favors the opportunist and with shorter rallies the intensity must inevitably be high, any lapse in concentration is likely to mean a point is scored, unlike international scoring where there can only be a loss of serve.

However, be sure that anyone who wins a major competition will have to focus, focus, and muster reserves of strength and courage to ultimately emerge victorious.