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Knee Injury Sidelines Bentley for Season Opener
By Rob Dinerman, Oct 3, 2006    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2006 SquashTalk LLC

On the eve of Opening Day of the 2006-07 International Squash Doubles Association (ISDA) pro doubles tour (which kicks off with the Maryland Club Open later this week), a rash of injuries have befallen several prominent players. Blair Horler, the power-hitting Kiwi who along with Clive Leach terrorized the tour for several months in the winter/spring of 2003 before he incurred a right-knee injury the following season, underwent a successful left-knee operation last month and is rehabilitating with a view to making a January 1st return.

Tom Harrity, who teamed with Imran Khan to attain the quarterfinal round of the U. S. Pro Championship in Wilmington and the final of the William White last January, ruptured his left Achilles tendon in a tennis doubles tournament late last month and is out until at least early this spring.

And late last week longtime ISDA tour veteran Jamie Bentley, who for the past two decades has established a legacy that distinguishes him as one of the all-time greats in the annals of professional doubles squash on this continent, suffered a significant injury to the medial collateral ligament in his right knee and (along with partner Willie Hosey) has withdrawn from the Maryland Open. Bentley and Hosey, who were ranked No. 2 for several years (behind perennial No. 1 rankees Damien Mudge and Gary Waite) in the early 2000's, reunited at the end of last season and were (and still are) planning a joint return to the top tier of the ISDA team rankings after several years during which each flourished with different partners.

This past March, Bentley and Scott Stoneburgh successfully defended the Canadian National Doubles crown they had captured in 2005, and the total of TWELVE different partners (Kenton Jernigan, Hosey, Waite, Todd Binns, Greg Zaff, Scott Dulmage, Alan Grant, Michael Pirnak, Stoneburgh, Michael Pierce, Ned Edwards and Josh McDonald) with whom Bentley has won professional doubles tournaments far exceeds that of anybody else. Now in his early 40's, he has experienced foot and lower-leg injuries during the past several seasons even before, in his succinct summation, "body went one way, foot didn't go along with it"

during an exhibition match he was playing in at the Toronto Racquet Club to commemorate the first night of Paul Price's tenure there as the new head pro.
Pending a late-week visit to an orthopedic physician, Bentley is expecting to recover in time for the early-November Big Apple Open, the second event of the current campaign.

In the wake of the Bentley/Hosey withdrawal from the Maryland Club Open, top-seeded qualifiers Pirnak and Tyler Millard have moved into that vacated main-draw slot and will face second seeds Chris Walker and Viktor Berg this Friday evening in the quarterfinals. Whichever team wins that match will face the winner of the quarter between Clive Leach/Scott Butcher and John Russell/Preston Quick in a Saturday evening semi.

Up top, Mudge and Waite, who have won all three prior editions of this tournament, have drawn a qualifier, as have Price and his Australian compatriot Ben Gould. The final is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

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