The past and present of U.S. Open squash floated past me this long weekend. First on Thursday I went to Diehl Mateer’s funeral in Wayne, Penna. It was a powerful experience, remembering the life of a great player who twice won the U.S. Open, and a great person, father, husband and friend. And worshipping together with so many past greats, all the national champions (and former doubles partners of Diehl’s) in attendance. A very incomplete list included: Charlie Baker, Carter Fergusson, Ned Edwards, Sam Howe, Bill Wilson, Dave McMullin, Palmer and David Page, Hobie Porter, Jamie Heldring, Rich Sheppard, John Hentz, Andy Nehrbas, Howard Coonley, Darwin Kingsley, Ben Heckscher, Morris Clothier, my father, and of course Gil and Drew Mateer.

On Saturday I spent thirteen hours at the first main day at the 2012 Delaware Investments U.S. Open at Drexel: watching juniors play down in the basement; women in the qualies in the courts on the main floor; and the men on the show court in the basketball arena.

More of the past: I watched matches with Sam Howe. The first U.S. Open he played in was in 1961, in Indianapolis (Roshan Khan beat Azam Khan in three in the final). And with Tom Poor, who was one of the key people behind the first portable court squash event in the country, the 1984 Boston Open. Look how far we’ve come.

I talked, within two minutes, with all three Americans to win a world squash title: Jack Herrick (world 45s in 1983); Joyce Davenport (world 50s in 1992) and Amanda Sobhy (world juniors, 2010). That was cool.

The highlight of the night was Chris Gordon’s breathtaking, breakthrough win over Hisham Ashour. At age twenty-six, he won his first World Series main draw match, beating a guy ranked fifty-seven spots above him. Talk about unexpected.