USA Father Son Doubles: Final Wrapup
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2006; all rights of reproduction reserved.
May 7, 2006     

One point from elimination Saturday afternoon in their semifinal match against Preston and Taylor Quick, Wilmington Country Club spear-carriers Will and Scott Simonton swatted away that pair of match-balls-against them, raced through a single-figure fifth game and made that reversal stick the following afternoon when they again rallied to an 11-15 18-16 15-8 18-15 victory over Noah and Robert Wimmer, last year's inaugural Father and Son Open champions, whose inability to meet the challenge of those two pivotal best-of-nine tiebreakers denied them a successful defense of their 2005 crown.

In the three age-group Father and Son draws (all four of which devolved into finals in which both fathers played the right wall), former WPSA top-10 singles and doubles standout Larry Hilbert and his highly proficient son Patrick completed their impressive no-games-lost three-match march through the 13-and-under flight by defeating Brian Walsh and his son, Michael; Rob and Robbie Berner, who fell just short (18-14 in the fifth) in last year's 17-and-under final against tournament co-chair Simon Aldrich and Dillon, this time completed the task, also without dropping a game, with a dominant final-round performance at the expense of Christian Sr. and Jr. Oberbeck; and the debuting Century event for teams with a combined age of at least 100 went to recent ISDA top-15 Eric Vlcek and his father, John, who out-lasted two-time U. S. National Doubles champion James Zug (in '72 with Larry Terrell and the following year with Victor Niederhoffer) and his son, James Jr., in a close five-game match whose stat line read 13-15 15-10 16-14 11-15 15-11.

In the case of the 13-and under, Century and Open divisions, each final featured a marquee player (Larry Hilbert, whose fitness level and mobility brought back memories of his excellent pro career and belied his 56 years, Eric Vlcek and Noah Wimmer, each just one year removed from their ISDA playing careers, respectively) whose presence and firepower presented their respective opponents with the task of preventing them from dominating the action, as Wimmer had done against the Broadbents, Will and Bill, in last year's final, when he roamed the spacious court at will, firing winners from every sector of the playing arena.

This time, with Robert actually playing better than he had last year, the younger Wimmer often displayed the talent and shot-making skills that have always characterized his game, but he also was guilty of some glaring lapses that cost the Wimmers dearly in the face of the stout resistance they faced in Will Simonton, the No 5 player on Penn's solid varsity and a former ('03) Intercollegiate Doubles finalist, and his father, who played in the top two on Bowdoin's late-1970's teams. Two consecutive unforced tins when Noah Wimmer tried to do too much with open balls early in the vital second-set tiebreaker, gave the Simontons the edge they needed to come away with that frame, following which, as they had one round earlier against the Quicks, they poured it on in the post-tiebreaker game, leading 12-5 and eventually winning 15-8 to go up two games to one.

The Wimmers rallied from 0-3 in the fourth game, which seesawed dangerously along to 13-all. By this time, Will Simonton had learned that by keeping Noah Wimmer honest with his rail down the left wall, he could get enough of an opening to score winners with shallow forehand roll-corners, and Scott Simonton was winning the right-wall rail battle against Robert Wimmer. Another early-tiebreaker lapse on the part of the Wimmers (with both of them swinging at the ball, resulting in a tin, followed by both letting the ball go past them on the next point, with each thinking the other would play it) helped to put the Simontons at championship-point, which they converted when Will Simonton hit a cross-court drive so hard at Robert Wimmer that the latter's response soared too high off the front wall and landed in the second row of the Racquet & Tennis Club gallery, which by that mid-afternoon juncture contained very few spectators, due at least in major part to the brilliant low-humidity sunshine that bathed Manhattan throughout the day.

In the 13-and-under flight Larry Hilbert performed fully up to expectations and Patrick demonstrated the skill and court knowledge (both way beyond his 13 years) of the squash pro's son that he is, and the Berners were much too strong for the Overbecks to handle in the 17-and-under. But the Century final, other than the second game, was close throughout each of the remaining four, and featured many long cross-court exchanges between the elder Vlcek and the younger Zug, whose father frequently evinced the wiles, savvy and sharp-shooting that brought him those two early-1970's titles, especially with the darting forehand drop shot winners with which he concluded both the first and fourth games.

But Eric Vlcek was able to assert himself in the two defining moments of the match, namely the third-set best-of-five tiebreaker and the last 10 points of the match, extending his territory to include more of the right wall (where his father defended well and contributed two important front-court winners in the late going), pressuring the Zugs with his powerful forehand weaponry and abruptly terminating both their eleventh-hour comeback effort and the match when he nailed a shallow forehand drive that nicked way in front of James Zug Jr. on the left wall on the third of their match-ball opportunities after the Zugs had mounted a mini-rally from 9-14.

The weekend kicked off with a dinner at R & T Friday evening in which honorary chair Michael Halpert (at age 73, the oldest participant in the event, which had a 62-year gap between oldest and youngest) and his two sons, Peter and Sam, gave welcoming speeches, as did co-chairs Morris Clothier and Simon Aldrich and former USSRA CEO Palmer Page, under whose tenure the Father and Son tourney concept originated. Page gave a new permanent trophy to the '05 winners, the Wimmers, and shared the advice President Abraham Lincoln gave to his son Todd that "Life is as happy as you make it." There were plenty of happy fathers and sons by the conclusion of the weekend, whose combination of bonding and competition permeated the atmosphere throughout the three-day event.

US Father-Son Doubles Championships Results of the Finals:
Open (18-and-over) Division: Will and Scott Simonton d Noah and Robert Wimmer, 3-1
Century (combined ages over 100): Eric and John Vlcek d James Zug Sr. and Jr., 3-2.
17-and under: Rob and Robbie Berner d Christian Overbeck Sr. and Jr., 3-0.
13-and-under: Larry and Patrick Hilbert d Brian and Michael Walsh, 3-0.

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