2019 DAC Doubles Club
Championships
Ever wonder what the Squash Doubles Universe would be like?
Probably full of eternally frustrated players spending inordinate amounts of
time on their e-mail and I-phones, trying to arrange a time to play a match,
virtually never coming to a consensus, and if they happen to find a convenient
settlement - which would only be
possible through massive sacrifices of everybody’s personal schedule – the
court would either be already booked, or, someone is bound to have to cancel
last minute due to an illness or injury or last minute work trip or family
vacation and the entire process would start over. All the while, the local
squash pro would be cc’d every single correspondence, and then some extra ones
from those exasperated players complaining about the lack of flexibility of
everyone else…
Of course I am exaggerating (although I am positive many of
you can relate). Matches do actually
get played, our doubles court usage is up, and for this year’s Club
Championship, not only did we have record numbers (again!) with 80 players,
every single match was played (no forfeits!) and it was kept relatively on time. My poking and prodding to meet
deadlines was kept to a minimum for which I thank you for making my job easier!
Doubles C
A surprisingly small draw of just 4 teams this year. I was a
somewhat disappointed that more of the C doubles league players didn’t bother
entering. Two of the 4 teams in the draw weren’t
even in the league! The “non-league” teams fared better in the two semifinals,
and put this down to youthful exuberance overcoming the knowledge and wisdom.
I don’t think Spencer
Forester and Tony Sorgi had
terribly much familiarity with the doubles court before this tournament, and
playing against Renée Fershée and Sue Kessler in the first match, they
probably didn’t know much of what was going on either. But, that doesn’t stop
them from running, and conceptually, if you can run the ball down enough, you
are going to win. They did. 3-0. The other side of the draw had the effective
father-son pairing of Rob Biskup and
his son Rob. Or Robbie. Or Junior.
Daddy Rob has some doubles education already and he could rely on Rob Jr. to do
a lot of the running for him. It was a successful operation and they passed
their first test against Jim Palmer
and Bruce Greening, also 3-0.
 |
| Rob Biskup Sr, Robbie Biskup Jr, Spencer Forester, Tony Sorgi |
An interesting final match up. And since I have never seen
either of the 4 play doubles before, my prediction of a winner is based purely
on gut. And my magic 8-ball. I’m picking Biskup / Biskup… just based on the
fact that Rob Sr. has played more often than the other 3 players combined.
Experience helps. For once, I was right! And it wasn’t because I took the
advice of the 8-ball since it told me “better
not tell you now” (it was mocking me, I’m sure). Daddy Rob and Robbie Jr.
proved to be too strong for the Sorgi /
Forester team taking all 3 hard-fought games and earning what I believe to
be the first ever DAC father / son club championship combination.
Doubles B
10 pairs in what was a competitive field, very few easy
passes were handed out, and a couple of upsets would create a very different
final than what we had just 12 months ago. Top seeds Joe Moran and Ken Katz were
chasing their 4th Club Championship title, building on their success
from 2018. But things did not go according to plan. They met their match early
on in the tournament – in their first encounter in fact – against Colin Casey and Jordan Dean who upset the current title holders 3-2. Joe and Ken
were as shocked as anyone but I am sure they will be back in 2020 to make
amends, defy the odds, and once again be a threat.
Colin and Jordan were probably a little stunned if not
bemused as well to be advancing to the semifinals. Meeting them there were David Pontes and Steve Murphy. David and Steve also scraped through their first
match, fortunate to get away with a 3-2 victory over Bob Garvey and Joe Leto.
The lefty-righty combination of the Pontes
/ Murphy team was a valuable asset tackling the somewhat younger Casey / Dean unit. It is tough playing
against a pair that hits everything forehand and although Jordan and Colin put
up a decent resistance, it wasn’t sufficient to win the 3 games required. They
got 1, and should be pretty satisfied how far they reached in this tournament.
On the bottom half of the draw, I seeded last year’s
finalists Justin Winkelman and Tom Bejin third. They were slightly
rusty it appeared and struggled to get past their first round, but a 3-1 win
put them into the semifinal. The second seeds were Ian Edwards and Bruce Shaw,
another right-lefty combo, but also a youngie-oldie (sorry Bruce!) one and that
can be very helpful for extra court coverage. Ian and Bruce won their first
match 3-1 to take on Justin and Tom. As this match was on, I was giving a
lesson a couple of courts away and the acoustics of the court area carry and
echo pretty far. Suffice to say, I didn’t have much problem discerning who was
winning. I didn’t think Justin could be so loud! He wasn’t happy with his form,
it seems the rust hadn’t escaped him. Ian and Bruce won 3-1.
Another final that was difficult to prophesize. But that
hasn’t stopped me in the past… so I going to lean to the Edwards / Shaw team. I think Ian’s speed may make the difference
here. Even though I picked wisely for the Doubles C final, I so often
demonstrate when it comes my witchcraft skills of foretelling the future, I am generally
terrible at it. And once again, in this case, I condemned the chosen, there was
no escaping their fate. Try as they might, mind you.
Ian and Bruce started off well taking the first game 15-7,
but the cookies didn’t crumble their way in the next two and Steve and David
headed into the 4th with a 2-1 lead. Very little separated the teams
from here on out, and in fact the Murphy
/ Pontes team held a match-ball before succumbing 14-15, Ian and Bruce
dragging this into a decider. But, thanks to my pre-match premonitions, this
result was apparently already written in the stars. It was close. Steve and
David claim their first DAC Doubles title with 15-13 in the 5th
victory! Great game fellas - !
Doubles A
The biggest draw of the tournament, we had 15 pairs fighting
it out. When I did the bracket, my money was clearly on Scott Beals and John Mann
taking the honors – considering that I had them seeded one. By the way they
were (trash) talking, they also considered themselves favorites to win which
can be a dangerous approach to have, but no one has ever accused John Mann of not being confident! My
mother always told me to let my racquet do the talking, (amongst many, many
other things that still bounce around my brain to this day!) but it can be
rather humorous to read the e-mails between the teams well before the first
serve is even in play!
Scott and John reached the semifinal comfortably enough but
their dreams of stardom came very close to crashing down around them when they
stepped on court against Brian Ellison
and Patrick Petz. Brian and Patrick
stepped up to the challenge and slapped around the favorites for the first 3
and a half games. The 2-1, 9-4 lead for the Ellison / Petz team must have sent shock waves of panic through Beals / Mann who were shockingly on the
brink of tragedy. But, apparently, this is what it took for Scott and John to
see the light, and heave themselves out of the ditch they were mercilessly
thrown into. A comeback of epic proportions, Beals and Mann turned it around
and to put it rather bluntly, “got their
s**t together” in the nick of time to pinch the 4th and keep
that momentum up for the 5th as well. A fortunate escape, would the
final be a different story?
The story of the bottom half of the draw was the Rogers brothers. John and Jeff are not
overly experienced on the doubles court, and rely an awful lot on retrieving.
And no one can argue the fact they can do that. All. Day. Long. And probably
all night as well if you asked. (They don’t sleep-walk either – they
sleep-run.) Jeff (strangely) takes the left wall where it appears he’s
terrified of hitting a backhand, so he often wallpapers himself back-first into
the side wall to swing forehand… yes, it’s odd, but weirdly effective. Still, I
wasn’t holding my breath that they were going to be a threat for this event,
but to quote the famous Manuel character from the British ‘Faulty Towers’
comedy series... “I know nothing!”
Team Rogers defied the bookies knocking out second seeded Dane Fosse and Ryan MacVoy
3-1 in the first round, then sending the 2016 finalists in Chris Van Tol and Matt DiDio
packing in the second round 3-2, finding themselves in the semifinals and me
chewing some humble pie (again). Could they take it one step further?
No. They couldn’t. But only by the hair of their
chinny-chin-chin. Marc Topacio and John Perkins had cruised to reach this
far, and probably somewhat astonished to see who they were playing. They were
no less astonished I am sure to see that they had a dog-fight on their hands as
well as the match stretched deep into a 5th game. To 14-all.
Sudden-death. Now, I don’t know how the point was decided (Winner? Error?
Stroke?), but Marc and John were the ones who won it. They sat outside court 5
for some time after the match, contemplating what just happened, counting
blessings. Jeff and John ran off.
Picking a finals winner doesn’t get easier here either. My gut
tells me to go with Scott Beals and John Mann. I think their semifinal
scare may straighten them out for the final and they’ll step it up from rally
one. Of course, now that I have said that will it actually be the kiss of
death? Apparently not this time. I was spared the humiliation of looking like I
have no idea what I’m talking about, John and Scott saved my bacon. Mann / Beals certainly bolted out of
the gates as I predicted they would and dominated the first 2 games. But Marc
and John managed to settle down after that and pick up their play taking the
third and shifting some of that pressure back onto the other side of the court.
It was a tight 4th game, John and Scott having to fend off the
impending comeback, they kept the ball tight and waited for their opportunities
to open. A few well timed drop-shots from Scott at the end of the game secured
the 3-1 victory, giving John Mann
and Scott Beals their first Club
Championship title and – no doubt - 12 months of John constantly reminding us
of that fact…!
Doubles Open
The big one. The bracket that eternally immortalizes the
winners into DAC history. Eleven teams vying for the accolades, only one will
be left standing. Top seeds were last year’s winners Jed Elley and Ryan Covell
and it would be difficult to see them not reach the final. Their most demanding
trial would be their semifinal against the never to be underestimated team of Robin Basil and his partner, 4-time DAC
Doubles champion Peter Logan.
Did Jed and Ryan actually commit the sin of taking this
match too easy? One could argue that after the first 2 games because before
they knew what had hit them, they were in a deep 2-0 hole, scratching their
heads wondering what in Hades was going on. A monumental task to fight back,
but Jed and Ryan got to work immediately at the start of that 3rd
game and turned it around. As quick as they had been pummeled in the first 2,
the next 2 games was a mirror image and it was now Peter and Robin’s turn to
try and figure out a solution to the onslaught. And suddenly, at the start of
the 5th game, the momentum changed again. The Logan / Basil team reignited their game 1 and 2 form, and raced off
to a 9-3 lead. It was enough – just – to hold off the last ditch effort of the Elley / Covell unit that were in
desperation mode to hold onto their title. At 7-14 down, they got it back to
13-14 before a tin ended their 2019 campaign. We would have a Doubles Champion
this year – Peter and Robin moved onto the final.
Second seeds this year went to John Rakolta and George
Kordas. Last year’s finalists and based on their DAC Classic performance
this past February, John and George deserve that position but they would be
tested tremendously in the semifinal against Vikram Chopra and Stefan
Houbtchev, the new ‘power couple’ in the doubles world of the DAC, but
still yet to really prove their mettle. As it turned out, it didn’t take long
for Stefan and Vikram to stamp their authority over the 2016 champions. The
first game was a tight 15-14, but then they were overly threatened the rest of
the way home. It was a 3-0 victory and they were looking hard to beat.
 |
| Robin Basil, Vikram Chopra, Stefan Houbtchev, Peter Logan |
For the final, my money was certainly on the Houbtchev / Chopra duo. I think Peter
and Robin will undoubtedly provide the biggest challenge for them, but I don’t
see enough arsenal in their bag of tricks to outlast the court coverage and
hard hitting of Stefan and Vikram. The first game proved that to be true, the Houbtchev / Chopra team kept their
noses in front by 3 to 4 points pretty much the whole way and took it 15-12. If
Peter and Robin were to make and type of waves in this match, they could not
afford to go 2 games to love down. They came out in the second game strongly,
steadier, less unforced errors and suddenly the pressure was on Stefan and
Vikram to shoot. Mistakes started to appear, giving Logan / Basil the jump they were looking for, and they held the advantage
until late into the game. Unfortunately, they couldn’t maintain that tactic and
they faltered, letting Stefan and Vikram to catch up and get to 14-all, where
they needed just one serve to convert. It was a gut punch. The third game was a
facsimile of the first, except that it ended up 15-11. A good quality final and
the 3-0 win gives both Vikram and Stefan their first DAC Club Championship Doubles
title! Well done guys!
