Eighteen-year-old Riya Navani will make her debut in the U.S. Women’s Championship semifinals against world No. 6 Olivia Weaver, while 2023 S.L. Green U.S. Men’s Championship finalist Spencer Lovejoy defeated three-time champion Todd Harrity for the second year in a row Wednesday, June 12, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center.
View all results on the U.S. Championships tournament page. All matches are free to attend at the Specter Center. Watch live streaming of the semifinals at 5:30pm on Thursday, June on ussquash.org/live.
Navani, the four seed and incoming Stanford freshman, defeated Yale’s graduating No. 1 Elisabeth Ross in the closest women’s quarterfinal 11-5, 8-11, 12-10, 11-4.
“I grew up watching Elisabeth in under nineteens when she was a top junior, and she’s had a successful college career so it’s definitely good to know I can challenge that level. I have a lot of respect for her, she played really well. I dug really deep, it was not easy. Most of those games were decided in a tie break and were neck and neck so I’m glad to get through.”
Navani, who has risen to world No. 79 professionally, will face world No. 6 Olivia Weaver in the semifinals Thursday.
“It’s really fun to play PSA events, I’m usually been the underdog in most matches I go into so it’s fun to play with no pressure and challenge the next level as a junior,” Navani said. “I think it’s set me up really well for the British Junior Open, World Juniors and other events that I’ve played, and it’s good to know that I can get some scalps and challenge those girls.”
The second women’s semifinal will feature a rematch of the 2023 quarterfinals between three seed Marina Stefanoni and two seed Sabrina Sobhy. Last year, Stefanoni upset the world No. 15 to reach what was then her first U.S. Championship semifinal.
The 2024 men’s semifinals mirror 2023 with top seed Timmy Brownell, two seed Shahjahan Khan and three seed Andrew Douglas all fulfilling their seedings. Lovejoy, world No. 64, replicated his 2023 upset over three-time champion and world No. 54 Todd Harrity in a five-game encounter 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-5.
“I knew it was going to be a tough match with Todd, he’s had some really good results this year,” Lovejoy said. “Especially after beating him last year I knew he was going to come back hungry this year. I was just trying to focus on getting the basics right and trying to get in front of him and assert my game plan as well as possible.”
Lovejoy will now face training partner and world No. 29 Timmy Brownell in a rematch of their 2023 semifinal that saw Lovejoy dethrone the 2022 national champion.
“I’m really looking forward to the match tomorrow, it’s always a fun match with Timmy,” Lovejoy said. “We train a lot together so it always makes for some fun and interesting rallies. This tournament means a lot to me, I’ve always tried to bring my best to it. I’m just really happy I played a good match today and seeing the hard work pay off from all of the training we do here. We train really hard day in and day out at the Specter Center with Beng Hee and Brigit–they’ve helped us immensely. It’s just cool to see all of the hard work pay off.”
