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For 49 grueling minutes, Colombia\u2019s Miguel Angel Rodriguez\u2014the highest ranked South American ever to play squash\u2014did everything in his power to fend off the three-time World Squash Champion Nick Matthew during the men\u2019s semi-final match at the NetSuite Open Squash Championships in San Francisco on Sept. 28.<\/p>\n
A racquet sport similar to tennis, squash is played on a cubed court where combatants strike a rubber ball against the playable walls of the court.<\/p>\n
And from the glass cube court assembled at Justin Herman Plaza, the 29-year-old Rodriguez lunged one final time for the tiny rubber ball, in a desperate attempt to keep his tournament hopes alive. <\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t reach the ball in time. Rodriguez, the No. 5 squash player in the world, fell to England\u2019s Matthew, No. 2 in world, by a score of 3-1. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy,\u201d said Rodriguez after the match. \u201c[Matthew] is one of the most consistent players in the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event, which took place Sept. 25-29 and featured some of the best international squash athletes, marked its fourth annual appearance in the city, and for the first time included a women\u2019s bracket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve had some great players from Latin America come over the years, because we\u2019re building up really the top tournament on the West Coast,\u201d said NetSuite founder Evan Goldberg. One of those players is Rodriguez, who is also known as \u201cThe Colombian Cannonball.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no way you get to that level in world squash without having a good solid game,\u201d Goldberg said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s from our hemisphere, and that\u2019s very rare to have someone up there. The last one was Jonathon Power from Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez started off his 2015 Netsuite Open tournament by eliminating the No. 30 ranked Carlos Salazar of Mexico by a score of 3-2. This year has been Rodriguez\u2019s best, as he capped it with his second squash gold medal in men\u2019s singles at the 2015 Pan American Games.<\/p>\n
But his journey toward squash greatness began long ago in his native Colombia.<\/p>\n
Following in the footsteps of his father \u00c1ngel Mes\u00edas\u2014who reigned as Colombia\u2019s national squash champion for 11 years\u2014Rodriguez was three when he first picked up a racquet. By age 8, he competed in his first national Colombian tournament, and won. When he was 15, Rodriguez decided he would pursue the sport professionally. By 17, he was able to defeat his father one-on-one, and eventually dropped out of college to turn pro at age 19, receiving his parent\u2019s \u201cundisputed\u201d support. <\/p>\n
“The thrill of representing a country, the adrenaline … I think it\u2019s an opportunity that only professional sports can provide,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cIn his era, my dad helped squash grow, because it was a new sport. What I\u2019ve accomplished, my dad never did. In that era, he didn\u2019t have the opportunity to travel like I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
But despite international stars like Rodriguez, along with Latino athletes such as Peru\u2019s reigning World Junior Champion Diego Elias, Mexico\u2019s greatest female squash player Samantha Teran, and Mexican duo Cesar Salazar and Alfredo Avila, squash is still relatively unknown in this part of the world, a sport reserved for the wealthy privileged elite. Goldberg is seeking to expand access to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re doing it in tennis. Obviously there\u2019s this amazing role model in Serena Williams. I think it\u2019s important to have role models like that and people that aren\u2019t necessarily from the mainstream of the squash world. And to encourage kids, play a sport that is very athletic,\u201d said Goldberg. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a Serena yet, but it could come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For 49 grueling minutes, Colombia\u2019s Miguel Angel Rodriguez\u2014the highest ranked South American ever to play squash\u2014did everything in his power to fend off the three-time World Squash Champion Nick Matthew during the men\u2019s semi-final match at the NetSuite Open Squash Championships in San Francisco on Sept. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":28124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[6515,6517,6511,6509,6513],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-28122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-en","tag-angel-mesias","tag-justin-herman-plaza-en","tag-miguel-angel-rodriguez","tag-netsuite-squash-open","tag-squash","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n