How long does a typical squash match last?

This question of how long a typical squash match lasts is a very interesting one, 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 adopt Par or American scoring, where every point counts regardless of who is serving. This tends to shorten the total game time as players constantly move their score on each play to their goal of 11 points. If they reach 10 points, each player must win by a clear 2 point margin 14-12. International scoring was played with a scoring method where a player had to be serving and win the rally to score a point.

I watched the longest game. 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 spread the floor and just wear Jahangir down. Gamal played the game plan brilliantly, but Jahangir matched him long for long. The first move 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 only 4 games long, 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 giving him cramps. He knew he couldn’t go on like this forever, but he was prepared to try and stick to the game plan. We had no idea how Jahangir felt, he may not 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 for him, and he withdrew 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 with a 5 minute warm-up the match lasted a total of 2 hours 7 minutes. It was played in 1981 on 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 fellow Australians. Vicki was fine the whole time, she was No. 1 in the world and Rhonda, her training partner and teammate, was No. 2, but the moment she flipped, she seemed to be more than Vicki could handle. to accept. Emotionally, it took Vicki years to come to terms 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 been striving for so long, lost some of her competitive edge and retired a couple of years later after the 1983 Women’s World Squash Championship in Australia. Again this is not uncommon in life to focus and drive towards a goal once achieved resetting a new destiny 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 of the competitors. Scoring favors the opportunist and with shorter plays the intensity must inevitably be high, any lapse in concentration likely means a point is scored, unlike in 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, concentrate, and muster reserves of strength and courage to ultimately emerge victorious.