Julian Morrison and Mary Mahfood were crowned national champions of Jamaica as the 2023 Jamaica Squash Association Senior Squash Championships came to a conclusion in Kingston on Saturday.

Morrison rallied from a game down to win a four-game thriller against Ashante Smith at the Liguanea Club in New Kingston to win his second national title. Morrison won 6-111, 11-4, 11-8, 11-7.

Meanwhile, Mahfood claimed her second consecutive title after making quick work of Lauren Mahfood, 11-3, 11-5, 11-5, in the encounter that lasted less than 30 minutes.

The top-seed Morrison advanced to the final by defeating number-three seed Bruce Burrowes in a stirring battle 11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 11-4 on Friday night. Smith, meantime, the number-six seed shut out second-seed Tahjia Lumley 11-7, 11-4, 11-7.

Mahfood enjoyed a much easier route to the final steamrolling number-three seed Savannah Thompson 11-2, 11-5, 11-1 in her semi-final.

In contrast, Lauren was forced to dig deep to overcome Sanjana Nallapati, the fourth-seed in a five-game battle royal 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-13, 13-11.

Former junior champion, Julian Morrison broke through to win his first senior national title at the recent 2022 All-Jamaica Senior Squash Championships held at the Liguanea Club in New Kingston. Meanwhile, Mary Mahfood returned from her hiatus to win a second women’s singles crown.

The absence of nine-time national champion, Chris Binnie, made it a more open contest in the men’s draw with Morrison, a former Junior Caribbean champion, Jonathan Walker, along with Tahjia Lumley and 2009 Champion, Dane Schwier, among others all in contention for the title.

Morrison dispatched Schwier 11-6, 11-9, 11-3 in the semi-finals where Walker toppled long-time rival, Lumley 8-11, 11-1, 11-3, 7-11, 11-6 as the respective winners earned a place in the championship final for the first time their individual careers.

With everything to play for, the in-form Morrison held off Walker in a no-holds barred battle of skill and will. No sooner had Morrison taken the first game 11-9 than Walker came roaring back to even the score, winning the second 11-9.

 The younger Walker then looked set to secure the lead in the third but Morrison dug deep and rallied for another 11-9 win. The hard-fought third game tipped the scales in Morrison’s favour and after a number of unforced errors from his opponent, he claimed the fourth game 11-6 to win his first All-Jamaica Senior title.

The competition among the women was equally competitive.

Returning to competitive action for the first time since winning the Women’s title in 2015, Mary Mahfood fought off the challenge of promising junior player, Katherine Risden, 11-9, 11-2, 11-7 in the quarterfinals before toppling the number-one seed and reigning All-Jamaica Under 19 girls champion, Savannah Thomson 7-11, 11-2, 3-11, 12-10, 11-7 in a bruising semi-final to book her spot in the finals. 

In the title match, Mahfood went head-to-head with the number two seed, rising star, Mia Todd, who had a more straightforward route to the final. She did not drop a set as she dispatched Nathlee Boreland 11-4, 11-3, 11-3 in the quarterfinals and then Melissa Lue Yen 11-5, 11-4, 11-6 in the semi-finals. Mahfood, however proved to be a much greater challenge and although Todd took the first game, the former champion recovered form to win 7-11, 11-6, 14-12, 11-8.

Other category winners included Kyle Gregg who beat young Aman Dhiman, 11-8, 15-13, 8-11, 11-8, to take the Men’s B title, and Nabeel Jawad who prevailed in a round robin fixture to win the Men’s C draw.

In the Men’s Over 40 category, Jerazeno Bell beat Mark Haddad 11-2, 11-2, 11-5 while Brian Yong turned back Warren Burrowes 7-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-4, 11-5 to win the Over-50 title.

Tahjia Lumley and Melissa Lue Yen placed third in the Men and Ladies main draws, respectively, with Lue Yen beating Thompson 11-4, 12-10, 8-11, 10-12, 11-2 and Lumley winning 11-5, 12-10, 7-3 after Schwier retired injured in the third set.

Additionally, Mia Todd won the David Bicknell Award for exemplary performance and sportsmanship in the Ladies Competition while Allan Roper won the Tony Burrowes Award, the corresponding honour for the men.