Sixteen-year-old Dixon Hill remembers the first time she picked up a squash racquet.
Hill was tagging along to her parents' tennis match, stumbled into a nearby, glass-enclosed squash court and began hitting a ball on the wall.
Now, the nationally ranked Shaker Heights teen is the only high school student to play in the Squash in the Land tournament this week after securing a wild card to participate.
"It's a great learning experience because these professional players are very, very good," Hill said."They devote their life to squash."
Hill said it’s all very full circle: her match on Tuesday evening will take place at the Cleveland Racquet Club in Pepper Pike, where she grew up playing.
"I, ironically, taught Dixon tennis back in 2016," said tournament Director Alex Guthrie. "Now she's in high school, and she's one of the top squash players in the country for her age, so to put her in the spotlight and professional spotlight, but also to do it in Cleveland is a great opportunity for her. And I think she's going to make a lot of people proud.
And one day, Hill hopes to be back on the court as a professional athlete.
"I'll definitely go to college first and play some squash there, and then we'll see where it takes me," she said.
As for the professionals, Guthrie said he expects the 48 players from 17 countries to garner a large crowd over the five-day-long tournament. Matches kick off on Tuesday in Cleveland Racquet Club and Cleveland Skating Club in Shaker Heights before coming to the Outcalt Theatre in Playhouse Square.
This is the first time a sporting event has ever taken place at Playhouse Square in its 100-plus-year history, Guthrie said.
"It's really cool to be in this space and connect with not only the typical squash fan, but also just a general sports fan looking for a pro sporting event in Cleveland or just a theater person that wants to see the theater utilized in a different way," Guthrie said. "We're trying to connect with all these different audiences here."
Topnotch Management, a Cleveland-based sporting agency, is bringing Squash in the Land to the city on the heels of other popular events like Tennis in the Land and last year's inaugural Pickle in the Land, a pickleball tournament.
"[Pickle in the Land] took off; we had 700 amateur players playing at the Huntington Convention Center," Gutherie said. "The popularity of pickleball is held across all different racket sports for sure... So there are more pickleball players now that may have never watched squash before... It's cool."
Guthrie said he expects to sell out the Outcalt Theatre, which has 275 seats arranged in a horseshoe around the court for the tournament.
Topnotch plans to make Squash in the Land an annual event, especially ahead of squash's introduction as a new Olympic sport in 2028, Guthrie said.
"We do want it to be ... kind of a celebration of the squash community here in Cleveland," he said. "Leading up to those Olympic Games in 2028, we want this to be the newest, annual event on the Cleveland sporting calendar."
The tournament runs through Sunday.
