Defending Champs Prevail in Toronto Finals
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2006; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Mar 14 , 2006     

Stoneburgh/Bentley And Keating/Dimauro Successfully Defend Canadian National Doubles Crowns

It is fitting that the final exchange of a thrilling Ridley Windows 2006 Canadian National Doubles Championship weekend occurred at 17-all, simultaneous game-point, as the entire 13-flight, 137-team (the most in the 2000's) competition was filled with upsets, near-upsets and down-to-the-wire matches contested in front of wildly enthusiastic crowds that jammed the galleries of Toronto's eight hosting clubs in a raucous and uplifting celebration of the sport the likes of which the U. S. National Doubles in St. Louis at month's-end will be hard pressed to equal.

When it was over the men's and women's 2005 Open champions, Jamie Bentley and Scott Stoneburgh, along with Jessica Dimauro and Seanna Keating, all from Toronto, had successfully defended their titles against second-seeded final-round opponents (Scott Dulmage/Richard Thomson and Karen Jerome/Caro Paskulin respectively) both of whom had been forced to rally from two games to one down in Saturday afternoon's semifinals.

After Keating and Dimauro had triumphed 15-7 14-12 15-10 15-12 over Jerome and Paskulin (who had trailed Steph Hewitt and Marnie Baizley one round earlier), Bentley and Stoneburgh completed, albeit barely, their crisp-and-clean three-matches, nine-games march through the men's draw with a 15-1l (from 4-9) 15-7 18-17 victory over Dulmage and Thomson, whose two-hour 15-12 in the fifth semi the day before over 1992 and 1993 Canadian Doubles champs Paul Deratnay and Taylor Fawcett may have left them just drained enough to succumb to the sharpness Stoneburgh displayed all weekend with his immaculate short game, complemented by the power game emanating from now six-time Canadian Doubles champion Bentley's racquet, which on the final swing of the day cracked a forehand rail past Thomson after seemingly shaping for a crosscourt.

Three of Bentley's sextet of titles in this tourney (whose inaugural edition was in 1934) have been with Stoneburgh ('94, '05 and '06), their forebears being in '86 with Deratnay and in '88 and '89 with Alan Grant.

The top seeds similarly prevailed in the Men's 40, 45 and 50 divisions, with (in ascending age order) Pat Richardson/Grant winning handily over Mike Costigan/Steve Belman, Fred Reid and Alan Hunt doing the same to Doug Rice/Greg Lloyd and Jay Gillespie/Graeme Duff eking out the airtight first and third games of their 17-16 15-6 15-12 (from 10-12 down after they had led 10-6) win over Charlie Khan and Bill Simpson. The one-point first game and end-game comeback after squandering a big lead in the third were both reenactments of the extreme path of the Gillespie/Lloyd semifinal survival of a murderous fifth game against Minnesota torch-bearers Bob Massey and Rob Hensel, who had rallied from 7-14 to force a best-of-five tiebreaker and then move to triple-match-point before losing the final three points, the last of which ended when a mis-hit Duff drive just made it above the tin before collapsing as Massey and Hensel watched in helpless dismay.

The only other Men's No. 1 seed to make it through were 65's winners Mike Wilson and David Bogert, and even they had to rally from 2-1 down to overtake John Amos and Don Mills. The remaining No. 1's were not nearly as fortunate: the top two seeds in the 55's, Victor Harding/Sean McDonough and Mike Downer, wound up playing each other for third place while No. 3 seeds John Boynton and Tim Griffin won the final 3-1 over No. 4 Brian Murray and Steve McInyre, who had ousted unseeded (!) 2005 winners Sandy Martin and Charlie Fenwick in the quarters. In the 60's, No. 1 seeds Tom Poor and Len Bernheimer were eliminated by No. 3 Peter Hatcher and Mike Manley, who then fell in the final to No. 2 Tony Swift and Molson Robertson, while in the 70's, unseeded Peter Jones and Ron Bertram defeated Robin Logie and Howie Rober in a straight-set final. The first-ever 75's champions are David Brown and Scott Fraser by virtue of their 3-0 final-round win over Mike McBean and Paul Fisher.

There were also three women's age-group divisions, namely the 40's, in which Leslie Freeman, an Open winner 11 years ago, and Lindsay Hermer-Bell fulfilled their top seeding by winning a 3-0 final against second seeds Susan Dale and Michele Ramsey; a 45's flight, in which Jennifer Smith, Freeman's partner in that '95 title run, and Jane Mitchell lost their three-game final vs. third seeds Susan Underwood and Carol LeBlanc; and the 50's, which saw Lolly Gillen, the enormously popular Tournament Co-Chair (with the equally popular ISDA star Willie Hosey, head pro at the tournament headquarters Mayfair Parkway Racquet & Fitness Club in the Toronto suburb of Markham) and her partner (and 1999-2001 Canadian 40's co-champion) Barb Cooper fight off a third-game match-point against them before finally bowing in four to the successfully defending 2005 50's winners Sibylle Witt and Jennifer Brown.

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