Catalan/Trubowitz Capture US Mixed.
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2004; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Apr 23, 2004     

Portland, Oregon Event Has Thin Field

Tony Catalan and Phoebe Trubowitz won the 2005 U. S. Mixed Doubles event
last weekend by virtue of their four-game final-round win over Nicola and Tim
Martin.

The tournament, which nearly always is held on the east coast, was moved to Portland (where Catalan and Trubowitz reside) this year, with predictable results. The Open draw consisted of only five teams, two of which were recruited from the 40's draw, and none of last year's talented quartet of Boston semifinalists (winners James and Steph Hewitt, finalists Rob and Narelle Krizek, record eight-time champs Keen Butcher and Demer Holleran and 2003 titlists Viktor Berg and Jessie Chai) participated.

Brian and Cathy Covernton and Sara Luther and Fred Duboc, who would later
meet in the 40's final (which '03 40's winners Luther and Duboc would rebound
from a two-game deficit to win) both lost their Open first-round matches to
Kate LeGrand/Kevin Jernigan and the Martins respectively. Luther and Duboc
pushed the Martins to five games, while Trubowitz and Catalan, five-game semifinal losers to Butcher and Holleran in an '02 National Mixed semifinal in their last previous appearance in this event, won in three over Jernigan and LeGrand.

There were two five-game matches in the eight-team 40's draw prior to the
final. The Philadelphia-based husband/wife team of Bill and Margaret Rux, the
only east-based pair to travel out to Oregon, won 3-2 over Habib Rahman and
Cecilia Usher before losing in three to top seeds Luther and Duboc. And in the
bottom-half semifinal, tournament chairman Gary Johnson and Sue Kaffka were
able to force a fifth game with the Coverntons, who won that stanza and, as
noted, took the first two games from Denverites Luther and Duboc before
faltering in the end.

Luther and Duboc, finalists in this event in '02 and '04 (losing on those occasions to Rich Sheppard/Sandy Worthington and Julie Harris/Tom Harrity respectively) have therefore reached the finals of the last four editions on this age-group championship.

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