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Chris Walker's Busy Day
By Rob Dinerman, Mar 26, 2007    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2007 SquashTalk LLC

Chris Walker spent a productive Sunday combining first with fellow former British Open singles runner-up Natalie Grainger (Chris ’01, Natalie ’05) to win the Mixed Doubles final and then with ISDA partner Viktor Berg to reach the Monday-night final round of the Men’s draw in the 2007 Hashim Khan Invitational, sponsored by RBC Dain Rauscher and hosted by the Denver Athletic Club.

Walker and Berg, who attained their first ISDA final this season with their thrilling 15-12 fifth-game semifinal victory over Damien Mudge and Gary Waite, will now face Preston Quick and John Russell (17-16 fourth-game semis winners over Matt Jensen and Jeff Mulligan), in the first final of the 2006-07 ISDA tour to take place without either of the top two seeded teams, namely Paul Price/Ben Gould (who defaulted in the fourth game of their Jensen/Mulligan quarter when Price injured his back) and Waite/Mudge, whose riveting loss to Walker/Berg (when the latter hit a cross-court nick to clinch the final game) was their first of the season to any team other than Price/Gould.

The hectic afternoon began with the Women’s final, in which Fiona Geaves (making her competitive debut in Open-level doubles after a solid career on the WISPA pro women’s singles international tour) and Meredeth Quick accentuated their Saturday semifinal upset win over second seeds Alicia McConnell and Jessica Dimauro by defeating top seeds and recently crowned Canadian Nationals champs Narelle Krizek and Steph Hewitt in an exciting four-game final.

These clearly are the three best women’s teams in the game and all three are entered in the U. S. Nationals in Philadelphia this coming weekend. Their matches this month first in Toronto and now in Denver have been so close – Krizek and Hewitt badly lost the first two games of their McConnell/Dimauro final in Canada before rallying to a fifth-set tiebreaker win; Quick/Geaves trailed McConnell/Dimauro two games to one in the semis this past weekend before eventually winning in five; and there were two one-point games in yesterday’s final, with Krizek clinching the second game with a three-wall nick and Quick doing the same in the third with a drop shot on simultaneous game-point – that anything can happen in the impending clash at the Merion Cricket Club several days hence.

The Mixed final went on shortly after the lengthy and draining Women’s final had ended, too shortly for the double-shifting Meredeth Quick, who understandably ran out of gas after she and her brother Preston won the opening game of their four-game final vs. Walker and Grainger. As was true of Women’s champs Geaves and Quick, Walker and Grainger were making their competitive debut as partners in this event, but their athleticism and power were too much for any of the 11 talented teams in the field to handle.

Walker and Preston Quick then went on to their respective victorious Men’s semis and will now face each other in tonight’s Men’s final. Quick and Russell have reached all three of their ISDA finals this season (in Baltimore, Vancouver and Boston) via semifinal wins over Walker/Berg in the only matches that have taken place between these two teams. Walker and Berg attained five 2005-06 finals in their first season together, winning the Cleveland tourney and losing to Waite and Mudge in Greenwich, Long Island and at the Kellner Cup and to Gould and Quick in Wilmington.

Sunday Afternoon Recap
Women’s Final: Meredeth Quick/Fiona Geaves d Narelle Krizek/Steph Hewitt, 3-1.

Mixed Final: Chris Walker/Natalie Grainger d Preston Quick/Meredeth Quick, 3-1.

Men’s Semis:
John Russell/Preston Quick d Matt Jensen/Jeff Mulligan, 3-1;
Chris Walker/Viktor Berg d Gary Waite/Damien Mudge, 3-2.

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