Two Comeback Winners Face Off in Finals
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2006; all rights of reproduction reserved.
May 15, 2006     

After saving a combined five match-games between them, top seeds Gary Waite and Viktor Berg and first-time teammates Clive Leach and Chris Walker have earned the right to participate in this evening's final climactic round of the third annual San Francisco Classic Pro-Am Doubles tournament at the University Club of San Francisco on the remarkably steeply-inclined streets of the famous Nob Hill section of town.

This 12th and final ranking tourney on the 2005-2006 ISDA schedule, ably chaired by former USSRA President Kevin Jernigan, benefits Giving On The T, an after-school sports enrichment program offering academic tutoring, squash instruction, college preparation, community service and mentoring for inner city youth in the Bay Area. The program is modeled after the pioneering Squashbusters in Boston and is directed by Dave Levy, a former (1992) U. S. 30-and-over softball champion.

By virtue of the rallies they and their partners were able to engineer yesterday afternoon, Leach and Waite will be opposing each other for the third consecutive time in the three editions of this event. Two years ago Waite and his usual partner Damien Mudge (who decided to celebrate his 30th birthday this past Friday with a weeklong vacation in Maui) defeated Leach and Willie Hosey, while last year The Champs nearly had their undefeated wire-to-wire 2004-2005 record sabotaged at the last possible juncture by Leach and Michael Pirnak before barely eking out a 15-12 fifth-game triumph.

This time Pirnak (who amazingly had to fight his way through the qualifying rounds for the first time in more than five years), along with first-time partner Martin Heath seemed poised yet again to cut Waite off at the pass when they recovered from a tin-filled loss of the first game and surged through the second and third. Berg was tinning heavily and the Pirnak/Heath combo, fueled by three prior victories' worth of momentum, was carrying the play. The only previous time this season that Waite and Berg had teamed up, in mid-January in Boston, they had been derailed at this same semifinal stage by Leach and Pirnak, who had pulled off a spectacular reverse-corner winner in front of a flat-footed Waite at match-ball in the close fifth game.

But a repeat of this outcome was not to be, as early in the fourth game Waite elevated the pace and precision of the cross-courts he was blasting at Heath, altering the dynamics of the exchanges and restoring control of the play to Waite and Berg. By the time the fifth game began, Berg had found his touch and he and Waite swept through to a convincing 15-6 tally and their spot in the final.

Their British-born final-round opponents were able to rebound from a two-games-to-love deficit in their two-hour-plus bottom-half slugfest against the Aussie contingent of Gould and Price, who were making their debut foray in a partnership that they plan to carry into next season. Gould generates amazing power on his forehand cross-court, which he executes in a style akin to cracking a whip, and he was definitely pushing Walker back when he wasn't outright passing him. Leach was his usual imperturbable self, but the high pace was preventing him from scoring with the finesse shots at which he so excels.

However, starting with the third game, Walker had acclimatized to Gould's heat sufficiently to respond more effectively while also out-positioning his former PSA top-five counterpart Price and creating openings for himself and Leach to exploit. All of the three remaining games were intensely contested and tight, but Walker and Leach persevered each time and seem fully capable of winning what should be a highly entertaining and competitive tournament and season finale this evening.

Tournament Recap

Qualifying:
Jason Jewell/Rob Dinerman d Erik Wohlgemuth/Alex Dean, 3-1;
Michael Pirnak/Martin Heath d John Lau/Ross Revenaugh, 3-1;
Doug Lifford/Pat Malloy d Bayard Fleitas/Kevin Jernigan 3-0;
Jonathon Power/Tyler Millard d Stefan Castelyn/Ronan Goldberg, 3-0

Final Round:
Pirnak/Heath d Jewell/Dinerman, 3-0;
Power/Millard d Lifford/Malloy, 3-0.

Quarters:
Gary Waite/Viktor Berg d Joe Pentland/Ayman Karim, 3-0;
Pirnak/Heath d Preston Quick/John Russell, 3-2;
Chris Walker/Clive Leach d Power/Millard, 3-0;
Paul Price/Ben Gould d Willie Hosey/Jamie Bentley, 3-1.

Semis:
Waite/Berg d Pirnak/Heath, 3-2;
Walker/Leach d Price/Gould, 3-2.

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