ISDA Doubles 2001 I



SquashTalk>Doubles>Doubles Tour March-April 2001 [last update was 11-apr-01 ]
		Viktor Berg rocks the Pro Doubles Tour
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		By E. Stacey Miles April 11, 2001 © 2001 Squashtalk



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		Twenty-Three Year-Old Rocks Pro Doubles Tour By E. Stacey Miles, SquashTalk doubles correspondent He's young and hungry and plays with the kinetic enthusiasm of a eight year-old at recess. And he has won more pro doubles tournaments than anyone else this century. He's Viktor Berg. Born and raised in Vancouver, Berg is based at Mike Way's Toronto Racquet Club. Twenty-three, he is ranked, as of 1 April 2001, 54 on the PSA singles tour and four on the doubles tour. He wears the same all-blue Adidas sneakers Mark Chaloner adores and the same shirts as Andre Agassi. He is goofy, jumpy and super-duper excited on court, the sort of player who sprints to the front wall to pick up a ball after a point. He stands far up in the court, practically kissing the front wall, volleying everything he can. He doesn't have unbelievable shotmaking skills, beyond a nifty backhand straight drop, but he hits the right shots and moves like a five-year veteran. Berg is hands-down the International Squash Doubles Association's Rookie of the Year. He started playing the tour in early January in Wilmington. After one tournament with ISDA executive committee member Mark Eugeni, Berg latched onto southpaw Mike Pirnak. They lost quickly to Scotty Dulmage and Dean Brown in their bow in Boston, fought for nearly two hours in Greenwich before losing to Willie Hosey & Jamie Bentley and again went down in a bitter five-gamer to Hosey & Bentley at the Elite in Philly. At the classic $30,000 Johnson Open at the Height's Casino in Brooklyn, they again faced Hosey & Bentley. Up two-love and steady at ten-all in the third, it looked like Hosey & Bentley would escape for a third time in a row. But the kids pulled out a game and grabbed the fourth and ran away with it from seven-all in the fifth. Upsets continued. In the semis Pirnak & Berg put the hurt on Dulmage & Brown, 15-5, 5 and 6 and hammered two-time champions Gary Waite & Mark Talbott in the finals 15-9, 12 and 6. Both matches weren't as close as the scores suggest. They were absolute wet washes. The finals again belied the myth that Waite can win with anyone who has a pulse. In the last three months he has lost with Mudge, Anthony Hill and Talbott as partners. Those aren't bad rightwallers, are they? Waite, knowing a good thing when he sees one, grabbed Berg for the next four tournaments, until Damien Mudge recovered from his broken wrist. They took all four with the loss of just six games. It wasn't as if they were unbeatable. Scott Butcher & Brett Martin, the two Aussie softballers learning doubles, took them to five in at the Baltimore Invitational Doubles. But they had a tough blend of withering heat, quickness and finesse. Pirnak, momentarily spurned, played with fellow Canadians Brown, then with Dulmage-he took the right wall and so for one match the gallery at the City Athletic Club was treated to the unprecedented sight of a double backhand partnership-and then in a controversial move with Mudge himself in the $40,500 Canadian Open. Just hours before the entry deadline Mudge declared himself fit and Waite had already sent in his application to play with Berg. Pirnak, with sweet revenge in his mouth, dropped partner Tyler Millard with a voicemail message and signed up with Mudge. With the wrong partners, Pirnak, Mudge, Waite and Berg played each other in the semis of the Canadian Open, with Waite & Berg prevailing 15-11, 15-17, 15-14, 15-14. In the finals at all four events Waite & Berg faced Hosey & Bentley. While there is ample discussion about who might be the greatest leftwaller in history, no one really debates the issue for rightwallers. Bentley is far and away the best ever on that side. Turning thirty-eight in May, he has been playing the tour for sixteen straight seasons and has won every major tournament. He holds seven Johnsons (a record), four Cambridge Clubs (tied for the record), seven Elites (a record) with six different partners and three World Doubles titles (a record) with three different partners. But it has been slightly saddening to watch him be eclipsed. He has won only four tournaments in the past two winters and hasn't exhibited the necessary flexibility to change with the times. Discouraged by the arrival of new rightwallers like Mudge, Berg and Martin who are as formidable as he is, Bentley has not responded in kind. He sometimes resorts to an old-school, non-shooting bashing style and at the $20,000 Mel Sokolow at the CAC he put on a Barrada-like tank. He is the master, but even the master has to change or give way at some point. Berg, meanwhile, is there waiting.