Buffalo Doubles Event Turns 50
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2005; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Dec 16 , 2005     

Chris Deratnay and Michael Pirnak Win Buffalo T&S Event

Trailing 2-1 in games and behind midway through both the fourth and fifth stanzas, No. 1 seeds Chris Deratnay and Michael Pirnak managed to win exciting end-games in each case and thereby complete a 15-12 15-16 11-15 15-12 15-12 comeback victory over second seeds Morris Clothier and Scott Stoneburgh in the golden-anniversary edition of the Buffalo Tennis & Squash Club Invitational.

A total of 82 teams flocked to this venerable squash locale to compete in various competitive categories and to celebrate the 50th holding of this traditional and highly popular championship, and all of the participants were also treated to the weekend-long presence of five "alumni" of the inaugural tournament held in 1956.

1956 EVENT ALUMNI
This distinguished group included former USSRA President Warren Smith, popular local favorite Monte Pooley and legendary Canadian standout Don Leggat, plus the home-club pairing of Nelson Graves Jr. and local star and fixture Bill Dann, who have won a number of U. S. National age-group tournaments over the years and who, remarkably, actually competed in THIS year's tourney, reaching in fact the final round of the 70-and-over flight!

In the eight-team Open draw, Deratnay and Pirnak, each of whom is highly ranked in the current ISDA pro doubles circuit (top 10 in Pirnak's case), handily out-played Scott Dulmage and recent Canadian National Women's and Mixed Open champion Jessica Dimauro in one semi, while Clothier and Stoneburgh had considerably more difficulty in their 18-16 8-15 16-14 15-8 balancing match against Jamie Bentley and Alan Grant in a duel that hinged on the two overtime sessions. Grant, a three-time (1989-91, in each case with Ned Edwards) North American Open champion, has not played at the professional level in a number of years and has severely limited his tournament appearances in recent times, but he still showed flashes of his vintage form, especially in the second game.

Bentley ('93, with Kenton Jernigan) and Stoneburgh ('96, with Anders Wahlstedt) have also won North American Opens, and Clothier recorded his record ninth right-wall U. S. National Doubles title (spaced out among three partners, the last two with Gary Waite) just last spring, so the court was populated with legendary figures throughout this highly entertaining match. The difference probably lay in the Stoneburgh's foot speed, superior by a good margin to that of any of the other three, which enabled him to run down apparent winners at crucial stages and elicit some important errors in both tiebreakers.

In spite of the fact that he and Clothier had never partnered up prior to this tournament, they were able to mesh seamlessly virtually from the outset and this trait especially came to the fore during a late rally that rescued the second game of their Deratnay/Pirnak final, a game that Stoneburgh and Clothier had to have after losing the opener and one in which they were behind 13-9 in regulation and 2-1, set-three in the subsequent tiebreaker. Those first two games had been characterized by frenetic shot-making and it was therefore fitting that the first game-ball against Stoneburgh/Clothier was repulsed by a perfect Stoneburgh reverse-corner and the ensuing simultaneous game-point ended on a backhand Clothier volley that just cleared the tin and fell for a shallow winner before Pirnak (who was playing the right wall even though he is left-handed) could react.

STYLISTIC CHANGE
Buoyed by this turn in their favor, Stoneburgh and Clothier responded with an excellent third game that gave them a 2-1 advantage at the break. It was during this stage, and continuing through the end of the match, that the pattern of the play began to change, with the points becoming longer and the match devolving into a positional battle. Stoneburgh and Clothier, particularly the latter, were increasingly concentrating on Deratnay, moving him up and back with drop shots and lobs and drawing fatigue and errors while freezing the dangerous Pirnak out of the action. Clothier was standing well forward in the court, using his renowned racquet skills to inflict damage and letting high cross courts go for Stoneburgh to handle behind him. The latter would often hit a high three-wall that would either force Deratnay to attempt a difficult volley or make Pirnak retrieve from well in the back of the court.

This strategy brought the second seeds to 9-6 leads in both the fourth and fifth games, as noted, and it is a testimony to the skills and resolve exhibited by Deratnay and Pirnak that they were able each time to extricate themselves and ultimately prevail. A noteworthy display of sharp-shooting by Pirnak (especially the several treacherously angled forehand roll-corners he was able to hit for nervy winners) accounted for much of the fourth-game rally and a number of unusual occurrences aided them in the fifth. The first came at 9-6 on, ironically, a wonderfully placed lob serve from Stoneburgh to Pirnak, who could only try a desperation three-wall that wound up as a double-boast, barely grazing the front wall before sputtering to a halt, making the score 7-9 instead of 10-6, a huge swing and momentum changer, especially since Deratnay/Pirnak had thereby regained the serve.

After a series of tortuously lengthy exchanges had knotted the tally at 10-all, a marginal and split-decision (with the referee saying let-only before being over-ruled by the two judges) stroke call assessed against Clothier preceded a Stoneburgh front-left shot with Deratnay fenced-out that a full-out diving Pirnak (on the last and most spectacular of nearly a half-dozen such maneuvers by him during the match) managed to send floating weakly to Clothier, who wisely decided to softly drop the ball to the front wall in an attempt to have it then carom off the front wall and hit the sprawled-out Pirnak.

But Clothier mis-hit his shot, committing an error that gave his fist-pumping opponents a 12-10 lead and they were able to hold on from there for a 15-12 win that concluded the immensely high-quality two-hour-and 15-minute marathon. There were a host of age-group and women's events in addition to the Men's Open, with Mike Costigan and tournament chair Mike McGrorry defeating Canadians Al Hunt and Fred Reid in straight games in the 40's final, Steve Hisey and Jay Gillespie triumphing over Gordy Anderson and John Boynton in a four-game all-Canadian 50's final, Tom Nederpel and Brian Murray winning the decisive match in the 55's round-robin at the expense of John Harvey and Steve Von Buttlar, and the Peter Hatcher/Mike Manley and Takis Doucas/Mike McBean duos taking the 60's and 70's finals respectively over Jim Bruce/Molson Robertson and, as noted, charter 1956 tournament participants and "favorite sons" Graves and Dann.

WOMEN'S RECAP
The women's Open division was won by Karen Jerome, who has won several Canadian Nationals crowns with various partners, and Carol Paskulin, who defeated Tammie Sangster, Deratnay's wife, and Robbin Morrison, three games to love, in the final. The women's 40+/B flight went to Jennifer Brown and Meg Johnson, who won their final in four games against Susan Bell and Judy Martin.

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