McDonald & Berg Bow Out Early ...
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2004; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Apr 23, 2004     

Fourth-set tiebreaker tins prove costly

Second seeded and finalists in each of the last two highest-purse ISDA pro doubles tournaments in the past 12 months---the $80,000 2004 Kellner Cup and the $ 100,000 2005 Briggs Cup---Josh McDonald and Viktor Berg looked to be in command last night when they held a fourth-game doubles-match-point over Steve Scharff and John Russell in the first round of the sixth annual Kellner Cup.

They led two points to one in the best-of-five tiebreaker and had a favorable quarter-final draw ahead of them Saturday afternoon.

But consecutive forehand tins by Berg cost them their opportunity to close
out the match and necessitated a fifth game, during which they fragmented
under a host of impatient and panicky racquet errors, creating an opening which
their opponents eagerly seized, falling much too far behind to have a realistic
chance of catching up and eventually being eliminated from the talent-laden
16-team main draw by an 11-15 15-12 17-18 16-15 15-7 tally that represented the
best career win in the two-year partnership of Russell and Scharff. The
latter duo will now face James Hewitt and Tyler Millard, who had earlier won in
three over qualifiers (and recently crowned U. S. 40-and-over champions) Andrew
Slater and Ed Chilton in the same University Club setting in which Slater and
Chilton had won their national age-group title over Rich Sheppard and Joe
Fabiani three weeks ago.

As should be apparent from the foregoing, the New York metropolitan area
has been a hotbed of doubles squash this spring, with the Nationals and Kellner
Cup sandwiching the Creek Challenge Cup in Long Island last weekend. Berg and
McDonald had lost in the first round both in Long Island (to Blair Horler and
Willie Hosey) and one week earlier at the Canadian Pro (to Scott Butcher and
Paul Price), and last night's fifth-game meltdown may have had its roots in
those recent prior disappointments, though it must be said that both Russell
and Scharff forced the issue as well by defending beautifully (especially a
miraculous Scharff "get" on the first of the fourth-game match-balls off a Berg
near-winner immediately preceding, and possibly causing, Berg's tin) and
shooting for winners when openings arose.

Berg and McDonald were accompanied as first-round favorites who lost last
night by Big Apple Open and St. Louis semifinalists Alex Pavulans and Chris
Deratnay, who fell prey to the comeback efforts of Price and Dean Brown. This
Toronto based pair had defeated Rob Dinerman and Marty Clark yesterday morning
in a qualifier, but lost both the first two games to Deratnay/Pavulans in
tiebreakers. Undaunted by these narrow reversals, and encouraged by some mid-
game Deratnay tins in both the third and fourth games, Price and Brown forced a
fifth, which seesawed to 11-10 in favor of Price/Brown.

At this stage, Brown was denied a stroke-request and channeled his
obvious anger in the best possible manner, i.e. by wrapping two perfect
forehand reverse-corner winners and an untouchable shallow match-point rail around a perfect Price drop shot in a 4-0 match-finishing burst that landed this pair in the quarter-finals, where they will meet up with defending and four-time Kellner Cup champions Gary Waite and Damien Mudge at noon today in the first of the four University Club quarter-finals.

The semis will be at the Union Club
tomorrow, with the final set for Racquet & Tennis Monday evening.

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