Remember this event? It started back in January. The Doubles 100 Tournament is not supposed to take 100 days to complete. The ‘100’ stands for the combined ages of each team. But, as we all know, trying to get 4 members to agree to a pre-set date is like an urban legend: we think it may have happened once, but no one can prove it.
The good news for the tournament was the record amount of entries – 18 teams. The B draw attracted the most (as usual) with 12 of them. Going in as the number one seeds were last year’s winners Mike Petix and John Chouinard. They reached the final again but not without a scare in the semi against Bob Garvey and Shail Arora. They were 2-0 down before they somehow managed to dig themselves successfully out of the hole and win the match in 5 games. Looking a taking revenge on their 2011 final, 18-17 in the 5th defeat, Joe Moran and Ken Katz were not able to give themselves the opportunity to do so. Steamrolling through the bottom half of the draw, Craig Hupp and the hard hitting Greg Rivard pancaked all that dared to step on court with them. It was a 3-0 win for Hupp / Rivard over Moran / Katz and suddenly they emerged as the favorite for the final. And they didn’t let up either. The Petix / Chouinard team was denied back-to-back titles in convincing fashion as they went down 3-0 as well. There was no shame in that – Craig and Greg were simply too strong.
There were 6 teams in the A draw, 5 total matches, and 4 of them went the distance. Once again, the number one seeds were the defending 2011 Champions Patrick Petz and Peter Logan. Their first match was against Mike Skaff and Sandy MacDonald (who escaped their first match 3-2 over Scott Langenburg and Manny Tancer.) Maybe it was overconfidence, maybe they weren’t prepared, but whatever it was, the Petz / Logan team had a devil of a time during the 5 games it took them to win. Anyone who plays regularly with or against Sandy knows his forehand reverse can be deadly – even when you know it’s coming and on this day there was nothing Petz or Logan could do about it except watch winner after winner roll off his racquet. In the end, the 3-2 win came with a huge sigh of relief for Petz / Logan.
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| Stu and Mike at their favorite getaway place - the keg! |
Meeting them in the final was the ‘married’ couple of Mike Counsman and Stu Boynton. Unrequited love between the two, sometimes bickering, always trash-talking, often laughing, but somehow they are able to display rather effective teamwork and proficiency on the doubles court. They got to the final by taking out the number two seeds – John Dunwoody and Eric Green - in 5 games coming back from a 2-1 deficit. Stu then decided 6 weeks in Florida for secret doubles training would be perfect preparation for the final. It worked. They repeated the feat against Patrick and Peter. Once again, they found themselves 2-1 down and battling out a tie-breaker in the 4th. Somehow, someway, Mr. and Mrs. Counsman-Boynton grabbed the 4th 18-15 and took the momentum all the way for a 15-10 in the 5th victory! They celebrated as all couples should – with a few beers! It was a great finish to the most competitive draw we’ve had.
