NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Medicine Hat's Brock Janzer reaches for a shot during a Medicine Hat Open squash tournament match against England's Tom Walsh on Thursday at the Downtown YMCA.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Brock Janzer’s run at the Medicine Hat Open squash tournament reached an end on Thursday at the Downtown YMCA.
After cruising to victory over American Faisal Riaz Wednesday, the Medicine Hat product ran into England’s Tom Walsh in Thursday’s round-of-16 and was sent packing in a 3-0 loss (11-3, 11-4, 11-3).
“I thought I played fairly well, he just didn’t give me many openings to try and finish the rally,” said Janzer. “I thought I was in there with him, but just didn’t hit the winning shots to finish off the rally.”
Walsh, who sits 149th in the Professional Squash Association world rankings, says Janzer should have a bright future in the sport if he stays determined in his development.
“He’s got some potential,” said Walsh. “I just finished off quite well, which I was happy with, to get him off quite quickly in that sense. But if he keeps working it there’s definitely a way to the top for him in terms of pushing up the rankings a bit more.”
While it ended earlier than he could have hoped, Janzer says it’s always great to compete in front of a home crowd, and he’s thrilled to see the Gas City rallying behind his sport.
“It’s always fun to play in your hometown, having friends out to watch,” said Janzer, who sits 334th in the PSA world rankings. “I think it’s great that they were able to gather up some money from all the generous sponsors to put on an event like this. I think it’s good for Medicine Hat and great for the community to get out and see some real athletes.”
Janzer added he’ll spend the next month training and spending time with family before returning to tournament play in 2020.
“Nothing for a little bit until the new year,” he said. “There are a couple of tournaments coming up around Calgary, a couple PSAs. I’ll train hard over December, have a little Christmas break and then get back at it into tournaments.”
