The pandemic forced the hand of local squash pro Charles de la Riva Jr – at least to some extent.

Now, the loosening of pandemic restrictions is doing the same – albeit perhaps in the opposite direction.

Currently 21 years of age, de la Riva had ventured outside of Sudbury, outside of Ontario, outside of Canada while still junior aged, playing events on the PSA (Professional Squash Association) Tour as the opportunity presented itself.

He had, after all, seen fellow Sudburian Mike McCue forge himself a place in the top 100 of the world, putting life on hold in pursuit of maximizing his potential on the court.

The balance between squash and life can be a very difficult one, with the noted exception of the truly special elite players who can earn enough money on the tour to play and train full-time, or maybe even those who can forge enough of a clientele to find work as a squash instructor, allowing them to supplement this revenue stream with their PSA earnings.

At the moment, Charles de la Riva Jr is in neither of those brackets.

“When the pandemic hit and the tournaments got cancelled, the gyms and the racquet clubs were also closed,” noted the first year Business student at Collège Boréal, who recently competed at the Canadian Squash Championships, along with the afore-mentioned McCue.

“I had a decision to make and I decided to play the safe route, to go to school and wait and see when things would get better.”

“Before the pandemic, I was living in Toronto, training full time,” added de la Riva. “I had put school aside to see how the squash would go.”

To be sure, he was making in-roads, working his way into the 350 to 360 range on a global setting. Unfortunately, this would also mean that he would forego many of the Ontario events where the overall level of competition might not be the same, where PSA Tour points were not up for grabs.

The flip-side of that approach was that the graduate of ESC Sacré-Coeur, who spent his first three years of high-school studies at Collège Notre-Dame, was doing little to establish himself within the internal national pecking order. This approach might have bit him squarely in the butt – but it didn’t, thankfully.

“I skim through the list of tournaments every few weeks and saw this one (officially dubbed the 2021 Oxford Properties Canadian Senior Squash Championship),” said de la Riva. “I put my name in thinking that they would use my Canadian rankings and not the professional ranking.”

“My professional ranking is quite high, compared to my Canadian ranking.”

The pandemic had muddied the waters, just enough. Charles de la Riva was in.

He would justify the faith of event organizers, sweeping aside Mahmoud Abo Iail of Egypt in three sets: 11-9, 11-1, 11-3.

“At the start of the first set, the rallies weren’t very long, weren’t very structured – it was kind of scrappy,” de la Riva conceded. “He was up 9-5 in the first game and I knew that I needed to slow things down and be more patient. The next two sets were quite easy once I started to get him into longer rallies, getting him fatigued.”

A nice win, to be sure – for which the downside was a second round matchup with McCue, seeded third at the event which took place at the Yorkdale Mall, in ready-to-be assembled glass courts, no less.

“I’ve played Mike a few times, but I knew playing him on a glass court was not going to be easy, just because of all of the experience he has playing on a glass court, compared to me.”

The result was foreseeable, as de la Riva fell to the northern talent who is five years his elder, losing a 2-11, 1-11, 2-11 matchup to McCue. “I knew that it was going to be fast, that he was going to play at a very fast pace,” said de la Riva. “I wanted to slow things down, play longer rallies, but Mike wasn’t letting me do that.”

Call this one a learning experience, one that has clearly affected the outlook on squash for the young man who is targetting a chance to someday crack the top 100 in the world.

“It goes back to not having that same level of competition to train with every single day in Sudbury,” said de la Riva. “I need to really buckle down and get more training in. I need to take advantage of all of these great players who are not in Sudbury, but throughout the province.”

“I’m excited and anxious to work on the things that I need to work on.”

Tournament play is not yet where it was in 2019. Travel requires far more hoops to be successfully jumped. Still, the 2021-2022 squash season is looking far more like the 2019-2020 campaign than the non-season that was squeezed in between the two.

“Things are starting to get better, so I’m back into squash.”

Decision made.