SquashTalk>Doubles>Doubles Tour through Feb 2001 [last update was 20-mar-01 ]
Pro Doubles: Broken Wrists and New Winners
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By E. Stacey Miles
February 16, 2001
© 2001 Squashtalk
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A Review of The Squash
Doubles Tour Through mid February 01
By E. Stacey Miles, SquashTalk doubles correspondent
In the inaugural year of the International Squash Doubles Association, everything was at first numbingly consistent and then outrageously unpredictable.
Gary Waite & Damien Mudge, colleagues at the University Club in New York, had played in twelve tournaments in the past three seasons and had won them all, including the first three of this season. They were more than halfway towards breaking the all-time record for consecutive wins---twenty-two straight tournaments, by Waite & Jamie Bentley in the mid-1990s.
Some observers felt that the new tour was a mixed blessing. Sure there was a rise in the number of tournaments and a doubling of the total prize money to almost $400,000. But this money was going directly into Waite & Mudgie's pockets. Maybe they'd finally do something about the U Club's steam room.
But the new year brought a refreshingly unstable tone to the tour. Four events, three different winners, and none Waite & Mudge. The biggest reason is a horribly broken left wrist for Mudgie. One of those hard-nosed banshee bike messengers crashed into the right-waller as he merrily rollerbladed back to the club from Central Park. He's out till April. His last tournament before the accident will give him no dulcet visions during this unwelcomed long winter's nap.
Scott Stoneburgh & Anders Wahlstedt ended Waite & Mudge's unbeaten streak at the century's pipecracker, the $21,000 U.S. Pro Doubles in Wilmington, 5-7 January 2001. The partnership had won just one tournament before, the 1996 North American Open (they failed to defend that title the next year when they lost by one point in the fifth to Waite & Talbott). Stoney and the Big Swede upset a rusty Waite & Mudge 15-8 in the fifth. It was a brilliant match, with money shotmaking and strategy.
The biggest move was after the fourth game when Stoney asked for a new ball. The veteran knew that any one player is allowed to request and be given a new ball after two games of play---even if one game consists of a new ball being introduced at say 14-12. Which it had at the end of the third game. So they had a freshie for the fifth, which greatly helped Stoney's pickpocket dropshots and slowed down the Mudge howizers.
Stoney & Wahlstedt went on to beat perennial finalists Willie Hosey & Bentley in four to take the title. Two weeks later in Boston the University Club hosted its fourth annual tournament, but by then all bets were off because of Mudgie's Fifth Avenue miscue. Stoneburgh had to coach his Cornell men's varsity, so for Boston Waite grabbed Wahlstedt. The team of Waite & Wahlstedt was interesting, in part because they are the answer to one of the great trivia questions: who played in the finals of the last professional hardball tour event (the 1995 Rolex in Greenwich; Waite won 3-0.)
In Boston at the $17,500 University Club Doubles they didn't lose a game, beating current world champions Willie Hosey & Bentley in three in the finals. The seedings went to form: Scott Dulmage & Dean Brown and Josh McDonald & David Kay reached the semis. Waite has now won all four University Club Doubles. This was the second year the University Club Doubles used a fushia singles ball for the pro matches.
"This helped produce more shotmaking," said tournament director Tom Poor. "We want better return on risk and a slightly deader ball. The pros don't mind. They'd play with a hockey puck if we wanted."
The $20,000 Greenwich Open at the Field Club in southern Connecticut came the next weekend. Wahlstedt rejoined Stoneburgh and they surprisingly lost in the qualies. Waite teamed up with Anthony Hill, former number 6 in the softball world, and they went down hard to Dulmage & Brown in the semis. McDonald & Kay survived a five-game thriller over Binns & Jeff Mulligan, the top American pro, before losing to Hosey & Bentley.
In the finals Hosey & Bentley carved up Dulmage & Brown in three decisive games to win their first tournament---after five consecutive trips to the finals---since winning the World Doubles in April 2000.
The 58th edition of the O'Reily Invitational Pro-Am was held next at the University Club. The oldest pro-am in the world, the O'Reily is famous for good doubles and great fun. The Calcutta this year was $40,000 and in a surprise Waite won it with John Beaman.
The $15,000 Elite, held at the venerable Cynwyd Club outside Philadelphia, is one of the classic stops on the pro doubles circuit, eighteen years old and a guaranteed packed gallery on Saturday and Sunday. This year's draw, the week after the O'Reily, had typical fireworks, perhaps because of the $5,500 Calcutta that was riding on the matches. Michael Pirnak & Viktor Berg stormed through the qualies and pogo-hopped past McDonald & Kay before running into the Hosey & Bentley juggernaut. On the other side the great firm of Waite & Talbott hung out its shingle again.
Talbott hadn't played doubles since he and Waite went down in five intense games in the semifinals of the World Doubles in April 2000 on the same Cynwyd courts. Some rust showed but in the semis Stoneburgh & Wahlstedt were simply the better team, and after squandering a match point in the fourth, they were able to win the fifth 15-13. In the finals Stoneburgh & Wahlstedt shot up to a two-game lead over Hosey & Bentley, but a ream of sudden errors allowed the veterans to climb back in. It was seven-all in the fifth and then Hosey's retrieval skills and Bentley's unceasing pressure broke it open and they took their second straight title 15-9.
The granddaddy of all pro doubles tournaments is up next weekend: the Johnson at the Height's Casino in Brooklyn, it's fifth-third year. Rumor has it that Marcos Mendez might be coming up from Mexico. It should be a most interesting tournament.
