New York, NY – The 20,000 pound glass court has been assembled in Grand Central Terminal after 24 hours of careful construction, the qualifiers making it into the main draw have been determined, and the best squash players in the world are ready to take New York City by storm in the Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions.

In one of three upsets in the final round of qualifying play at the New York Athletic Club, unranked Princeton University sophomore Yasser El Halaby defeated Brazil's Rafael Alarcon in five games. The Egyptian-born El Halaby will meet #11 seed Graham Ryding of Canada in one of the lead-off matches in the first round of play.

In another nail-biter, Patrick Chifunda of Zambia, currently ranked 123rd in the world, survived a five game match against a player ranked 73 spots above him in the Professional Squash Association world rankings. Chifunda defeated 50th ranked Mark Heather of England to earn the right to play the #5 seed, Australia’s David Palmer, in the evening session on the glass court at Grand Central Terminal.

The very last match of the evening nearly took the roof off the New York Athletic Club as its assistant pro Karim Yehia prevailed 15-14 in the fifth after giving up a 2-0 lead over England’s Alex Stait. Yehia will have the home court advantage again when he meets Scotland’s Martin Heath in first round play at the New York Athletic Club.

Ireland’s Liam Kenny and John Rooney also made it through to the main draw as did Gavin Jones of Wales, Viktor Berg of Canada and Jean-Michel Arcucci of France.

Beth Rasin