SHARON — On a warm Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Marty Clark, an orthopedic surgeon living in Sharon, moves thoughtfully and carefully as he hits a calculated forehand to win a rally.
Clark was playing a friendly yet competitive squash match against his friend and training partner, Sandeep Ramachandran, a professional squash player from India, when he caught up with The Lakeville Journal. Clark is preparing for his biggest squash match in almost 30 years: World Masters Championships in Amsterdam, where he hopes to place first in his age group (50 and up).
Clark has played squash since the age of nine. His mother was a squash player, and he fell in love with the sport early.
“I was the top junior player in the United States,” he said. “And when I went to Harvard I was always one of the top inter collegiate squash players.”
He got second place in the Intercollegiate Championships his senior year, and then, upon graduation, he decided to go pro.
Clark’s first pro season started off slowly; playing on the professional tour had a learning curve. By his second season he had won the National Championship. Realizing his potential to really climb the ranks as a pro squash player, Clark chose to defer from medical school for a year to continue the tour.
During medical school at Columbia, Clark continued to compete in many big tournaments like the Pan-American games and the USA National Championships — which he won three out of the four years he was in medical school.
At age 28, Clark decided to hang up his racket and focus on being a doctor, a job that he sees as service. “I stopped playing squash when I was still very good at squash,” he said. “I have always said to myself I can get top 20 in the world or top 30 but I wanted to be a doctor and serve people in my community.”
More than 20 years later Clark has a thriving practice at Sharon Hospital and four daughters, two of whom are very invested in squash. It was those girls, 14-year-old Pippa and 11-year-old Astrid, who inspired him to start training again.
Clark said, “I train a lot with them and something just told me that I had some unfinished business left on the court.”
Starting off his new squash career at the U.S. National Championships in Philadelphia this April, Clark realized that he was “tons slower,” so he has had to learn to “be much more strategic, tactical, and hit the ball into the front court in order to win rallies faster.” Nevertheless, he was able to place second after losing a tight final to an old colleague and competitor.
To help him with his training, Clark is being coached by many people whose experience he values. Alexia Clonda, a squash coach at Vassar and once a World Junior Squash Champion herself has helped Clark with the mental side of the sport along with some strategy. Bobby Burns and Sandeep Ramachandran from The Hotchkiss School’s squash program have both helped train him. Along with this extremely qualified group, his two daughters Astrid and Pippa have “flipped the script” and helped give their father coaching advice just as he gives them.
One of the driving forces behind his desire to compete in the world championship is Clark’s work as an orthopedic surgeon. Clark said that he often tells patients to try and be active, and he feels “more authentic now that I am doing more,” he said. He might tell patients, “I’m 52 and you are only 42, so I know you can do this. I know you can fight to be in shape and be a more healthy version of yourself.”
In the months following the national championship, Clark geared up for Amsterdam by competing in two big tournaments: one in New York City and one in Columbia, Maryland. He realized that exhaustion has played a big role in the results of those tournaments.
“It’s hard balancing four kids and operating on people, especially when I’m operating the night before a tournament.”
The Masters World Championships are held in Amsterdam every two years, and the age groups are divided at five year intervals. Clark will be competing from Aug. 15 to 22 in the 50-and-up age group and he will be seeded somewhere between 17th and 32nd.
For this tournament, his daughter Pippa will be taking on the coaching role. Clark is aiming to take home the trophy. “My goal is to win the tournament,” said Clark. “I wouldn’t have wanted to train without thinking that that was a possibility.”
