Isle of Man Squash Rackets Association’s annual Santander Open tournament took place at the National Sports Centre last week.

The competition was played using the Monrad system which enables all players to have a match in every round.

In the first round, matches normally go according to seeding as there is often a large disparity between playing levels, but in the middle of the draw more closely-ranked players meet, resulting in some tight matches.

The 16th and 17th seeds, Magnus Lamprecht and Christian Webster, had a very close encounter with Lamprecht coming back from 2-1 down to win 3-2. Two other matches went to four games, with Andrew Brown and Julien Uzzell both taking a game off their higher-ranked opponents Alan Macnair and Shaun Wyllie respectively.

The second round produced two very close 3-2 results. StoneArt team-mates Steve Baker and Lyndon Cheetham had a good battle, with Baker getting the win, while Angus Hopkinson put on a really good performance to beat James Ramsey, a player ranked about 10 places above him.

Chris Cave did well to take a game off Oliver Wait as did Vicki Watterson who, despite struggling with a hand injury, took Stephen Pitts to four games.

In the third round, the quarter-finals, top three seeds Ashley Sandyford-Sykes, Thom Whiteway and Pat Fitzpatrick all showed why they play for the Isle of Man with easy 3-0 wins.

Junior player Webster proved what a fine young prospect he is with another good performance, taking a game off top-20 player Ramsey, while another noteworthy match of this round was between Lamprecht and Cave, which ended in a 3-1 victory to the latter.

Probably the closest contest was between Sharks captain Dave Freer and Shaun Wyllie. The former paved the way to a 3-0 victory by clinging onto victory 16-14 in the first game and went on to finish the match with 11-9 and 11-8 scores against his higher-ranked opponent.

Semi-final night usually brings close matches as the players are very evenly matched at this stage and this one did not disappoint, with the four island players remaining undefeated and battling it out for places in the final.

Malcolm Levy came back from 2-0 down against Sandyford-Sykes to claim one final spot and the other went to Whiteway who came out on top in a 3-2 thriller against Fitzpatrick to claim the other.

In the block of players ranked five to eight, Hopkinson got a very good result. He has made steady progress climbing up the rankings this season and, in his match against Wait, he came back from 2-0 down in games and a match point against him to surge on to a 3-2 victory.

In the nine to 12 block, it was Freer who continued to impress with a 3-2 result against the higher-ranked Cave.

In the lower half of the draw, the matches between players ranked 21 to 24 recorded two 3-2 results. Pitts and Uzzell took it in turns to win games but the former got the odd numbers so claimed a 3-2 victory.

Santander Racketeers Academy players Brown and Fraser Dorling had a really close match with two games going to each before the latter eventually won 3-2. Congratulations also go to 28th seed Sarah Simpson who performed well to better her original seeding with a 3-2 victory over Harry Douthwaite.

The final round of matches determined the players overall position in the tournament table from one to 28. Working from the bottom of the draw up, there was a fine performance by Uzzell who beat Brown 3-2 to claim 23rd spot.

Santander employee Marc Taggart gained 19th place, while higher up the draw Outcasts players Cave and Liam Davies had a five-ame encounter, with Cave recording a 3-2 win to grab 11th.

Baker played Wait, a player more than 40 years younger than him, for seventh spot and this time it was youth that triumphed, Wait playing very well to be a worthy winner.

Ramsey, only lost one match in the tournament and beat team-mate Freer 3-1 to gain ninth spot, but congratulations go to the latter who enjoyed a good tournament and improved his overall island ranking by about 15 places.

The third-placed player was another competitor who only lost one match, his semi-final. This slot was decided when Sandyford Sykes played Fitzpatrick, the former showing his class by taking the match and third place with a 3-0 result.

The plate final took place between the 17th and 18th ranked players, Darren Smethurst and Harvey Douglas. He latter seemed to really apply himself and kept his error count very low to claim the much coveted prize by a score of 3-1.

The main final was between Whiteway and Levy, with the latter managing to clinch the first game 14-12 but Whiteway fought back to take the second and third games 11-7 and 11-8.

Whiteway looked to have one hand of the trophy but Levy snatched it off by taking the fourth game 11-8, therefore the winner of the fifth and final game would determine who would be crowned island open champion.

Both players started the final game in very determined fashion but it was the younger man, Whiteway, who displayed greater strength, stamina and skill to claim the victory.

IoMSRA would like to thank Marc Taggart and Santander International for sponsoring the tournament.