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Stunning Upset in New York Doubles Finals
By Rob Dinerman, Oct 7, 2006    
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2006 SquashTalk LLC

Blow-Out Win For Price/Gould Over Waite/Mudge

In a match that was stunning for its brevity and degree of domination, Paul Price and Ben Gould, playing in only the third tournament of their partnership, thoroughly out-played top seeds Gary Waite and Damien Mudge this evening, 15-11,11 and 7, in the final round of the Big Apple Open.

In so doing, Price and Gould consolidated their four-game semifinal victory over The Champs four weeks ago in the semis of the Maryland Club Open (whose final round they won over Preston Quick and John Russell), totally transformed an ISDA competitive landscape that during its brief seven-year history has heretofore been defined by the 71 titles and 76 finals Waite and Mudge had attained in 78 attempts entering the 2006-07 campaign, and emphatically announced themselves, at least for the time being, as the premier team in the world of professional squash doubles.

Tonight's outcome also completed a "double" of sorts for both Gould (who won the 2005 Big Apple Open with Quick in a 15-14 fourth-game final over Waite and Mudge) and Price, who immediately prior to the pro final had combined with Mark Walsh to win the pro-am final, 15-14 in the fifth, over Russell and Brian O'Rourke, who was unable to handle the smoking backhand crosscourt that Price nailed in his direction on simultaneous match-ball. It was the third consecutive year in which the pro member of the winning pro-am Big Apple Open team went on to win the pro final: Mudge accomplished this feat in '04 prior to teaming with Waite in defeating Blair Horler and Michael Pirnak, and Gould did the same last year.

A number of noteworthy "firsts" characterized this evening's swift (45 minutes) thrashing of what is universally acknowledged to be the greatest doubles team in the history of the sport. Never before had Waite and Mudge lost twice in a row to the same team (indeed, they have historically been merciless in avenging their rare prior defeats the next time they face any team that has had the skill and temerity to defeat them) or come up short in consecutive editions of a given tournament, and never before have they been held under 30 points (or 35 points, for that matter) in any match.

Furthermore, never before, not even in the matches they have lost, have Waite and Mudge been so incapable of generating winners as they were tonight: over the course of the three games, their clean-winner count (i.e. balls that neither Gould nor Price were able to at least get a racquet on) numbered no more than a half-dozen, a figure that Price himself more than doubled by a comfortable margin. In fact, the latter's amazing creativity and surgical accuracy, complemented by Gould's fearsome pace and persistency, enabled this pair to do to Waite and Mudge what Waite and Mudge have for years made a habit of doing to their opponents, namely erupt for quick scoring spurts, usually in mid-game, that open up what had been a close score and demoralize their victims.

The most noteworthy such outburst occurred in the second, right at a time when Waite and Mudge, who had been tin-prone and tentative during the first game, seemed to be starting to find their rhythm and provoke enough errors from Price to manufacture a 6-4 lead. At this juncture the ball broke, replaced by a new one that lasted only 10 points, seven of which, however, landed in the Price/Gould column. Gould ripped off a forehand reverse-corner winner on the ensuing Waite serve (a "new ball" winner in the sense that it stayed down and squirted just enough to elude Mudge's grasp), Waite tinned his own backhand reverse-corner serve-return (thereby undoing in a matter of seconds a lead that Waite and Mudge had labored hard to attain) and Price followed up a few exchanges later with a straight drop shot that Waite never saw.

Just like that, and far too easily, Gould and Price were back in the lead and back in control, and their grip never wavered. A Waite shallow rail winner at 9-11, one of the few he was able to muster on a night when Price badly out-performed him on the left wall, and a tally that he and Mudge badly needed at that stage, was nullified when the ball was found to have broken. When play resumed, Waite and Mudge coughed up three unforced errors (two Waite drives sandwiching a Mudge three-wall) in the final half-dozen points en route to a two games to love deficit. Even while committing eight unforced errors in that second game, Price and Gould won it going away, making in the process an intimidating statement of how tough they would be to beat on this particular occasion.

The third game got away quickly, largely due to Price's audacious and consistently nick-finding shot-making, most of which was coming at a beleaguered Waite's expense, though several of his floor-hugging forehand reverse-corners landed in front of Mudge, who was also having his hands full on his side dealing with Gould's powerful blasts. The score speedily ballooned to 8-2, at which point Waite and Mudge gathered themselves for a four-point run that evoked hopes of the kind of rally that they have always been able to muster whenever they have had to.

But this time the moment soon passed by and faded away, truncated by two more nervy Price front-court winners, a bad Mudge tin and the last of several Gould cross-court volleys into the front-left nick. Waite and Mudge submitted meekly during the final few anticlimactic points, with a Waite tinned overhead getting Gould and Price to match-ball, which Price then converted with a drive that a back-pedaling Waite was unable to handle.

This season has only just begun, and much could change during the next six months. No one who has been following the ISDA can doubt the greatness and resourcefulness that Waite (who acknowledged feeling "somewhat numb" in the immediate aftermath of the match) and Mudge have evinced over the years, and only a fool would conclude from these first two events this season that their lengthy reign is over. But it must be said as well that Gould and Price are very much for real, that they present probably the most severe threat of any contender that has ever arisen to challenge Waite and Mudge for the No. 1 team ranking, and that, for the moment, they have become the team to beat when the tour resumes in Vancouver two weeks hence.

Big Apple Open ISDA Finals Result:
Paul Price/Ben Gould d Gary Waite/Damien Mudge, 15-11, 15-11, 15-7.

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