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Silver Racquets Update: Top Three Seeds Reach Semis
By Rob Dinerman, Nov 5, 2007    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2007 SquashTalk LLC

Silver Racquets Update: Top Three Seeds Reach Semis

The 15th annual Silver Racquet Squash Doubles Invitational, hosted as always by the Racquet & Tennis Club in midtown Manhattan, saw the top three seeds each advance to the semifinal round today in fairly convincing fashion. Top seeds Michael Ferreira and Whitten Morris, who won this tournament two years ago and have won the U. S. National A Doubles in each of the past two years, received a bye to this afternoon’s quarterfinals, where after splitting the opening pair of games against Nick Barquin and Michael Sabatine, they asserted themselves decisively thereafter.

Waiting for them tomorrow morning will be Hamed Anvari and Dylan Patterson, who stepped in at the last minute to pinch-hit for Anvari’s original partner Andrew Merrill, who called in sick Friday afternoon. This hastily formed duo proceeded to out-play first Scott Butcher, head pro of the host club (who more than made up for this setback a few hours later and a few blocks northwest when he and Willie Hosey combined to upset fourth seeds and reigning U. S. National champions Preston Quick and John Russell at the New York Athletic Club in the quarters of the Big Apple Open, an important tour stop on the ISDA pro circuit) and Soli Mehta, and then Matt Jensen and Kip Gould, who rallied from way behind to 13-14 in the close-out fourth game, which however ended when Jensen tinned a serve-return.

In the bottom half of this 15-team field, second seeds Morris Clothier (who won this event with Ferreira last year while Morris was rehabbing after left-knee arthroscopic surgery) and his fellow Franklin & Marshall alumnus Dave Rosen took a two games to love lead in their quarterfinal against Yasser Kamel and Will Broadbent (who switched walls after badly losing the first game, then switched back after badly losing the second, in which they fell behind 6-0), slumped through a sub-par third game but regained control in the fourth, exactly the pattern they had followed in their qualifying-round win a few days earlier over Will Osnato and Rob Dinerman in the Big Apple Open, whose main draw Clothier and Rosen thereby attained before they lost Friday night to Michael Pirnak and Mark Chaloner.

Clothier, a record six-time winner of this tourney with four different partners, and Rosen should face a stiff challenge in their upcoming semi, in which they will face the Philadelphia Racquet Club pairing of Rob Whitehouse and Greg Park, the only team in the draw composed entirely of non-New Yorkers and one of only three teams none of whose members are either Racquet & Tennis members, pros or ‘07 summer guest-members; 18 of the 30 combined players fit into one of these three categories, and six teams have both members in one of these groupings.

Park and Whitehouse, both of whom narrowly dropped first-round matches in the concomitant court-tennis singles event, pounded out consecutive straight-set squash-doubles decisions over first Dinerman and Osnato (who failed to convert an 11-5 third-game lead) and then Coly Smith and Addison West, who in the only five-game match of the day had eked out an exciting 15-13 fifth-game opening-round win over ’03 Silver Racquets winners John Conway and Noah Wimmer.

The semis are scheduled during the mid-morning hours on Sunday, with the final set for 2:00 in the afternoon.

Tournament Recap
Rd of 16:
Michael Ferreira/Whitten Morris, bye
Michael Sabatine/Nick Barquin d Duncan Pearson/Rich Repetto, 3-0
Dylan Patterson/Hamed Anvari d Soli Mehta/Scott Butcher, 3-1
Matt Jensen/Kip Gould d Beau Buford/David Ganek, 3-0
Rob Whitehouse/Greg Park d Will Osnato/Rob Dinerman, 3-0
Addison West/Coly Smith d John Conway/Noah Wimmer, 3-2
Yasser Kamel/Will Broadbent d Matt Sharnoff/Jeff Mulligan, 3-1
Dave Rosen/Morris Clothier d Ben Edmonds/Shawn Atkinson, 3-0

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