Morris & Ferreira Win the Silver Raquet for 2005
By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk © 2005; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Nov 12, 2005     

Second seeds Whitten Morris and Michael Ferreira motored through a very strong Silver Racquet draw at the Racquet & Tennis Club in mid-town Manhattan this past weekend, racing through their quartet of matches without dropping a single game. For Morris, this tourney represented an excellent companion-piece to the U. S. National Doubles A title that he and Ryan O'Connell earned just a few blocks northwest at the University Club last spring, while the former Trinity singles star Ferreira has now won two doubles events in as many weekends, having combined with Ron Bobman to triumph in the University Club member/guest event late last month.

Top seeds O'Connell and Beau Buford, who along with Geoff Kennedy was National A's runner-up this past March, had little trouble in their round of 16 match against J. P. Sletteland and Rupert DeVinc but in the quarters they were waylaid by Chris Deratnay, a Toronto-based ISDA standout who was in town to compete in the $ 25,000 Big Apple Open at the nearby New York Athletic Club, and Kip Gould. Deratnay and Gould then lost 15-9 in the fifth game of their Sunday morning semi against the surprise team of the tournament, namely Soli Mehta and Rick Wahlstedt, the survivors of the draw's upset-filled second quadrant.

The team seeded to win that bracket, Addison West and Josh McDonald, were swiftly subdued 3-0 by Mehta and Wahlstedt, as were 2003 Silver Racquet champions John Conway and Noah Wimmer by Ted Roosevelt and Michael Sabatine. The veteran pairing of Mehta and Wahlstedt then followed a straight-game quarterfinal win over Roosevelt and Sabatine by taking the first two games of their Deratnay/Gould semi and held on, as noted, to win in five.

It was to be the last time they saw daylight this weekend, as Ferreira and Morris had too much youth, speed, power and momentum to be denied, or, for that matter, to be forced into playing an extra game. Buoyed by their successive pre-final 3-0 wins over first Will Osnato and Hamed Anvari, then Scott Butcher and Dave Ganek and then Peter Briggs and Pete Karlen in the semis, Ferreira and Morris jumped out in front right way and never looked back.

Briggs and Karlen had handled the Racquet Club of Philadelphia pairing of Duncan Pearson and Greg Park in their quarterfinal after Pearson and Park had won 15-12 in the fifth over Ted Bruenner and Baird McIlvain in by far the closest match of a tournament characterized mostly by 3-0 scores. But neither the highly decorated recent USSRA Hall Of Fame inductee Briggs nor anyone else could figure out a way of stopping Ferreira and Morris, who were clearly the best team in a deep and competitive tournament and who dispatched all their opponents with a swiftness that belied the fact that the New York City marathon was being held just a few blocks away in Central Park while the final was being contested on Park Avenue.

Tournament Recap
Round of 16:
Beau Buford/Ryan O'Connell d J. P. Sletteland/Rupert DeVinc, 3-0;
Chris Deratnay/Kip Gould d Yasser Kamel/Mac McAndrew, 3-1;
Ted Roosevelt/Michael Sabatine d John Conway/Noah Wimmer, 3-0;
Soli Mehta/Rick Wahlstedt d Addison West/Josh McDonald, 3-0;
Peter Briggs/Pete Karlen d Chris Pollack/Jeff Mulligan, 3-0;
Duncan Pearson/Greg Park d Ted Bruenner/Baird McIlvain, 3-2;
Scott Butcher/Dave Ganek d Ben Edmonds/Shawn Atkinson, 3-0;
Michael Ferreira/Whitten Morris d
Will Osnato/Hamed Anvari, 3-0.

Quarters:
Deratnay/Gould d Buford/O'Connell, 3-1;
Mehta/Wahlstedt d West/McDonald, 3-0;
Briggs/Karlen d Pearson/Park, 3-0;
Ferreira/Morris d Butcher/Ganek, 3-0.

Semis:
Mehta/Wahlstedt d Deratnay/Gould, 3-2;
Ferreira/Morris d Briggs/Karlen, 3-0.

Final:
Ferreira/Morris d Mehta/Wahlstedt, 3-0.

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