2009/2010 WDSA Tour Schedule
November 13-15 2009 St Paul Indian Summer Open - www.commodoresquashclub.com
December 11-14 2009 Turner Cup - New York City, NY
February 26-28 2010 Hashim Khan Open - Denver, CO
April 16-18 2010 Players Championship - Long Island, NY
August 20-22 2010 Minturn Mixed Invitational - Vail, CO
Tippett Sisters Triumph In Denver By Rob Dinerman
Dateline March 3rd --- In a praiseworthy display of court coverage and shot-making, the Tippett sisters, Narelle Krizek and Natarsha McElhinny, surged to victory in the Hashim Khan Open, a WDSA pro women’s tournament sponsored by the RBC Wealth Management Elmore-DeRose Group. They went through the four-team draw in Denver without losing a game, beginning with a straight-set win over Philadelphians Dawn Gray and Amy Milanek that got them to the final, where they prevailed in surprisingly convincing 15-12, 12 and 6 fashion over top seeds Meredeth Quick and Steph Hewitt. It marked the second straight WDSA tourney – preceded by the Turner Cup in New York in December --- that Krizek and her partner (Suzie Pierrepont on that prior occasion) had defeated Quick and Hewitt in a straight-set final, and marked Krizek’s third WDSA tour title (also the ’08 Briggs Cup with Demer Holleran as her partner) and McElhinny’s first.
Throughout the weekend, and especially during the final, the latter played by a wide margin the best doubles of her career, her well-placed cross-court lobs over Quick’s head frequently forcing returns that McElhinny herself or her left-wall partner and younger sibling could punish, and scoring many winners on shallow forehand rails that died before a boxed-out Hewitt could retrieve them. The eventual champs had given an early sign of the success that awaited them in their peremptory dismissal of Gray (winner of the Women’s Pro-Am with Cath Coucoules) and Milanek in a rematch of a St. Paul quarterfinal this past fall that had been much more competitive than this second meeting became.
With all that, the final-round outcome might have been different, or at least might have taken longer to complete, but for the 12-all point in the second game, when after Quick and Hewitt (first-round 3-0 winners over Lissen Tutrone and Joyce Davenport) had fought from behind to even the score, Quick had an open forehand drop-shot to the front right that (with McElhinny stuck deep in the back) would have been a clear winner had it not ticked the top of the tin. Reprieved by this fortuitous turn, Krizek and McElhinny never looked back, finishing off the final two points of that game and sprinting away from their deflated and tiring opponents throughout the close-out third. They played up-tempo, athletic squash, with Krizek controlling and orchestrating the action and McElhinny’s fleetness afoot preemptively constraining Hewitt’s reverse-corner, normally one of her best weapons.
Neither Quick (who did team with her father, Taylor, a former USSRA President, to win the Mixed Pro-Am final over Gray and Chuck Schosser) nor Hewitt was able to effectively attack McElhinny, as they would have had to do to have succeeded, nor did they go high to her enough to force her deep; indeed, it was McElhinny, by a wide margin the least doubles-experienced of the foursome, who came up with many of her team’s winners, not only with the shallow rails but also with three-walls, some of them from “desperation” vantage points, that nicked out or were otherwise unreturned. The sisters were able be match’s end to establish a solid rhythm, putting Quick/Hewitt in a bind from which they were never able to extricate themselves.
John Lesko, the longtime head pro of the host Denver Athletic Club, and his wife, Anne, did an extraordinary job of running this 31st edition of this event, whose nonagenarian honoree made an enthusiastically received appearance on Friday night to watch one of his many grandsons, Seth Khan (Sam’s son), compete, as well as on Sunday afternoon to participate in the trophy presentations. The 10 divisions of amateur doubles drew 71 teams, while 83 players vied for the nine amateur-singles titles that were up for contention. A small men’s pro tournament had been planned but the predominantly New York-based contingent were unable to fly to Colorado on Friday, when a huge snowstorm shut down JFK Airport, which, as Lesko noted, was the opposite of what usually happens, as often it is Denver (which experienced mild temperatures all weekend) that has to deal with blizzards at this time of year. The names of the winners and finalists of the amateur divisions are listed below.
Amateur Doubles:
A: David Ramsden-Wood/Andrew Lumpkin Eric Watson/ Doug Parent
B: Trevor Davis/Bill Sather Keith Hartigan/Thor Boressen
C: Waseem Khan/Mark Kolenbrander Glenn Berglund/Lee Zink
D: Mark Davis/Borden Smith Sara Sather/Jeff Lane
MXD: Sara Luther/Mike Tramutt Jesse Anderson/Tim Zimmerman
40 : Mike Martin/Russ Welty Charlie Groves/Tony Pett
50 : Jamie Brown/Tim Zimmerman Sara Luther/David Posner
60 : Frank Schmidt/Jim Gibbons Bill Palmer/Dick Rice
70 : John Amos/Graham Sharman Jim Allen/Dick Silbar
Women’s: rr Kate Rapisarda/Chris DeRose
Amateur Singles:
Open: rr w/ 5 players Scot Mortimer Andrew Schmidt
5.0: John Griffin Dominic Daprile
4.5: Mark Uremovich Doug Wells
4.0: Felipe Cuancho Jake Braderubach
3.5: Jeremy Davis Brick Swirbul
3.0: Tyler Otto Jerry Davis
2.5: Zach Jobe Sebastian Turner
40 : Mark Uremovich Jeff Farmer
50 : rr Bill Luftig
60 : Curt Castleman Jurgen Denk