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US National Doubles Rocked by Stunning Upset
By Rob Dinerman, Mar 31, 2007    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2007 SquashTalk LLC

Waite And Mudge Fall In Opening Match

The ISDA pro doubles tour came to the venerable Merion Cricket Club in suburban Philadelphia for the first time ever last night, and squash’s most magnificent cathedral became the scene of perhaps the most unexpected outcome in the history of the tour, now in the eighth year of its existence, when top seeds Gary Waite and Damien Mudge, whose 75 ISDA ranking tournament titles is more than 10 times the total of any other tendem, were ambushed by Michael Pirnak and Tyler Millard 15-8, 14 and 13. It was only the second time in their eight years of record-shattering collaboration that the universally regarded greatest doubles team of all time was an opening-match casualty, and the six losses they have now sustained this season (four to the Paul Price/Ben Gould duo and last week’s final-round five-game setback at the hands of Chris Walker and Viktor Berg in Denver) is only one shy of their number of defeats in their seven prior seasons COMBINED.

GOULD AND HOSEY CONNECT
In the wake of Price’s early-week withdrawal due to the back injury that caused his mid-match Denver default, Gould joined with Willie Hosey (whose own intended partner, Jamie Bentley, is now sidelined with an arm problem) for the first time, and they won in three over Jeff Mulligan and Matt Jensen, who themselves had had to face down a third-game match-ball against them a few hours earlier in their match against Andrew Cordova and Tim Porter. With Waite and Mudge now gone from the draw, Walker and Berg skipping this event, Hosey pinch-hitting for Price and the other two semifinalists, fourth seeds Scott Butcher and Clive Leach (who will play Hosey and Gould later this afternoon) and third seeds John Russell and Preston Quick, each winning in straight games in their respective quarterfinals (over James Hewitt/Ayman Kerim and Hansi Wiens/Mark Chaloner respectively), it is now the case that whichever team winds up winning this prestigious championship will be celebrating their first-ever pro ranking title as a unit; never before in ISDA history has that scenario existed as early as the semifinal stage of a tournament.

These four 3-0 quarterfinals were preceded by four mid-afternoon round of 16 matches, with only the Jensen/Mulligan comeback-from-the-brink rescue of their match with Porter/Cordova exceeding the three-game minimum: Hewitt and Kerim prevailed over Gavin Jones (making his ISDA debut after being ranked as high as No. 37 on the PSA tour) and Rob Dinerman; Wiens, also making his ISDA debut after a top-20 PSA career, and Chaloner out-played Joe Pentland and Steve Scharff; and Pirnak and Millard gave what in retrospect should have been regarded as early notice of the heroics they had in store when they rose superior to Morris Clothier and Hamed Anvari. Clothier, winner of nine U. S. National Doubles titles before it became a pro event for the first time last year, a record for right-wallers, played the left wall on this occasion, which provided sweet revenge for Millard, who with partner Eric Vlcek had lost the early-January William White final on the same court to Clothier and Quick.

BELKNAP TWINS DISPLAY FORCE
The seven-team women’s pro draw had only one showdown match, in which the Belknap twins, Berkeley Revenaugh and Mary McKee, won in four over recent William White finalists Emily Lungstrum and Dana Betts. They will now oppose top seeds Steph Hewitt and Narelle Krizek, ’06 Worlds and ’07 Canadian Nationals champs, while down below Fiona Geaves and Meredeth Quick, who won the Denver tourney a week ago, will face off against second seeds Jess Dimauro and Alicia McConnell.

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