Quick/Krizek Out-Last The Hewitts
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2006; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Apr 26, 2006     

Narelle Krizek and her Greenwich Field Club pro shop colleague Preston Quick fought their way to a stirring 7-15 15-12 18-17 17-18 15-11 victory last night over the husband/wife '04 U. S. National Mixed Doubles championship team of James and Stephanie Hewitt at the Toronto Cricket Club in the semifinal round of the World Mixed Doubles Open division. In tonight's final, Krizek and Quick will oppose top seeds and reigning Canadian Mixed Open champions Jessica Dimauro and Scott Dulmage, who won their semi in peremptory straight-games fashion at the expense of Caro Paskulin and Michael Pirnak.

Krizek and Quick held two fourth-game match-balls, dropping the 17-all point when Steph Hewitt ended a long right-wall rail exchange with a reverse-corner winner in front of Krizek, her women's open doubles partner this coming weekend. Losing that point had to have evoked troubling memories for Krizek, who along with her husband Rob had led 14-11 in the fifth game of that U. S. '04 final in Boston only to wind up losing 15-14, also on a Steph Hewitt winner in front of Narelle Krizek at 14-all.

But Krizek was able to shake off both that unhappy memory of the none-too-distant past and the very solid Hewitts' play of the present by lobbing and whirly-birding James Hewitt into the back court and dueling on even terms up her wall with Steph Hewitt, while Quick interjected himself into the action wherever he could. The latter was just two days removed from his own multiple-match-ball disappointment, as he and ISDA partner Ben Gould had taken the first two games of their Kellner Cup semifinal this past Sunday afternoon and led 2-1, set-three in a third-game tiebreaker, only to have Viktor Berg and Chris Walker rescue that game and romp through a pair of 15-7 stanzas into the final (which they lost in four on Monday evening to Gary Waite and Damien Mudge).

The fifth game seesawed evenly to 10-all, at which juncture Quick and Krizek interrupted the prior series of lengthy exchanges by successfully going for three straight early-point winners to get to 13-10, the last of which came when a cross-handed Krizek somehow managed to backhand an oddly caroming ball just above the tin. The match ended a few points later when another unusual ricochet wrong-footed Steph Hewitt, causing the ball to bounce pass her and die in the back court before James Hewitt (a quarterfinalist with Tyler Millard at the Kellner Cup) could react in time to keep it in play.

This outcome averted what would have been a rematch of the '06 Canadian Mixed event this past February, which Dulmage and Dimauro captured in a close four games. Instead D and D will get an opportunity for revenge against Quick, who had partnered his sister Meredeth to a five-game win (from 2-1 down at the break) against them in a U. S. Mixed semifinal six weeks ago in Philadelphia preceding a five-game final-round win for the Quick siblings over Waite and Jessie Chai in the final.

Tournament Recap

Rd of 16:
Marci Sier/Jamie Bentley d Laura Krol/Steve Burnham, 13-18 18-17 13-15 15-9 15-9

Qtrs:
Scott Dulmage/Jessica Dimauro d Tammie Sangster/Scott Stoneburgh, 15-6, 12 and 9
Michael Pirnak/Caro Paskulin d Karen Jerome/Martin Heath, 15-11 15-6 16-13;
James Hewitt/Narelle Hewitt d Seanna Keating/Chris Deratnay, 16-13 15-12 15-8;
Preston Quick/Narelle Krizek d Sier/Bentley, 15-10 11 and 12.

Semis:
Dulmage/Dimauro d Pirnak/Paskulin, 15-2, 8 and 12;
Quick/Krizek d J Hewitt/S Hewitt, 7-15 15-12 18-17 17-18 15-11.

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