Broadbent, Castilla in Rematch
by Rob Dinerman © 2003; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Dec 28, 2003      

New York City --- For the second consecutive year the Cummings Cup, an
annual college invitational hosted during the holiday break by the University
Club Of New York in midtown Manhattan, will feature a final-round match-up
between Harvard sophomore Will Broadbent and Denison senior Javier Castilla, whose
No. 1 seed belies the competitive but straight-set loss he suffered at
Broadbent's hands in 2002. Last year's women's finalist, Brown senior Lilien
Rosenthal, will not get a chance to avenge the 2002 final she lost to Williams star
Adrian Ellman, who graduated last spring.

Instead, Rosenthal will face Yale sophomore Lauren McCrery, who defeated
her Eli teammate Sarah Coleman in her quarter-final yesterday afternoon and
then received a walkover from Harvard freshman Lydia Williams, who finally
surrendered to the draining effects of the flu virus which she has been battling
for several weeks, though by late afternoon she had recovered enough to
participate in, and win (over Nikki Clement of Bowdoin) the third-place play-off.
Today's quarter- and semi-final round action was remarkably devoid of
suspense, as only one of the 12 combined men's and women's matches went longer
than three games. The exception was a high-quality semi between Castilla and
Trinity co-captain Pat Malloy, who in each game of his 3-0 quarter over Yale
freshman Nick Chirls several hours earlier had jumped out to big leads (4-0, 5-0
and 4-0 respectively), then held off late Chirls rallies to emerge with a 9-5,
6 and 5 win.

Chirls missed several months this past autumn while recovering from a
double stress fracture in his right lower leg brought on by overdoing Yale's
weight-training program, and it is only in the past two weeks that he has been
able to resume full-court work-outs. His leg is fine now, but his conditioning
and racquet sharpness are both understandably a little bit off, and these
shortcomings were factors in the unforced tins he hit at the end of the first and
third games, and in his inability to react to a surprise Malloy serve right at
him at 8-6 in the second, which hit Chirls in the back to finish off the
second game.

In his later match with Castilla, Malloy again started out each game in
fine fashion (4-0 in the first, 5-1 in the second, 5-0 in the third and 3-1 in
the final fourth) but in all but the third game Castilla was able to reel him
in with a combination of touch, creativity and panache that formed a
fascinating and highly entertaining contrast with the praiseworthy fundamentals,
solid execution and physical toughness that characterizes Malloy's game. The result
was a riveting series of all-court points that included look-away shots,
wrist flicks, forceful changes of direction and decisive close-outs by Castilla
after the two had battled to a virtual standstill until late in the game.
Castilla advanced to just two hands from 0-4 to 6-4 in just two hands before
eventually taking that game 9-5. The second was the key, as Malloy's surged
strongly to 7-3, dropped a three-point spurt to a sequence of Castilla touch
shots, then committed two consecutive backhand tins on cross-court nick attempts
to go down 8-7.

But the Trinity senior then saved three game balls and actually had one of his own that was thwarted on a Castilla rail that clung too tightly to the left wall to be returned. After all that effort, Malloy's bid to rescue that game ended quickly and cruelly on two consecutive wayward serve returns, the first of which clanged off the tin to give Castilla yet another game ball at 9-all and the second of which floated so weakly towards the tee that Castilla opportunistically punched away an untouchably drop shot winner to go up two games to love.

The Colombian native then fell way behind in the third and never appeared
interested in seeing if he could summon up the energy to make a game of it.
Sensing a chance to perhaps permanently seize the momentum, Malloy closed out
that game 9-1 and fought fiercely in the fourth, which was by a wide margin the
most intense of the match, or, for that matter, of any match played all day.
By this time, Castilla was alarmingly aware of the perilous nature of his situation, scolding and exhorting himself and noticeably lifting his attack. But, try as he might, he was unable to shake his determined foe, who scrambled to the court's nether regions, lobbed his way out of trouble and refused to let Castilla's superior racquet talent assert itself.

But after perhaps a dozen furious and lengthy exchanges, Castilla had amassed a 7-3 lead, and Malloy had had enough. He had squeezed a doubles match in between his quarter with Chirls and this semi with Castilla, and, importantly, he still had another doubles match (which he and partner Coly Smith would win) still ahead of him that afternoon, for a total of four matches in just five hours! Castilla had put him through several pain barriers by that stage, and he was spent. The last few points went quickly and quietly to Castilla, whose 9-5 9-6 1-9 9-3 tally should give him a lift going into tomorrow's noon final against Broadbent.

The lanky Harvard star, who seems fully recovered from a knee injury that sidelined him throughout November, had his way today first with Penn freshman and No. 1 Gilly Lane and then with T. J. McRery of Yale. He also, for better or worse, enters tomorrow's fray unencumbered with any concern about the 1 o'clock intercollegiate doubles final, since he and partner Asher Hochberg were surprisingly ousted in four games by the Penn pairing of Will Simonton and Ben Ende, who were still riding the momentum they generated earlier in the day by defeating top seeds Will Osnato and Nate Beck.

Osnato had expected to play with his fellow Princeton co-captain Dent Wilkens, with
whom he had won last year's title in a three-game final over Broadbent and the
now-graduated Dylan Patterson. But a family emergency forced Wilkens to
withdraw, and Simonton and Ende took advantage and moved into the final, where
they will face Trinity's Malloy (the 2000 champion with Duncan Pearson) and
Coly Smith. Tomorrow's men's singles and doubles finals will be preceded by the
Rosenthal-McRery women's final, which is set for 11 a.m.

RECAP OF QTRS AND SEMIS

Men: Qtrs:
Javier Castilla d Ben Ende, 3-0; Pat Malloy d Nick Chirls, 3-0; TJ McRery d George Edwards, 3-0; Will Broadbent d Gilly Lane, 3-0.

Semis:
Castilla d Malloy, 3-1; Broadbent d McRery, 3-0.

Women:
Qtrs: Lilian Rosenthal d Devon Dalzell, 3-0; Nikki Clement d Kate
Rapisarda, 3-0; Lydia Williams d Ann Warner, 3-0; Lauren McRery d Sarah Coleman,
3-0; Semis: Rosenthal d Clement, 3-0; McRery d Williams, walkover.

Men's Doubles:
Will Simonton/Ben Ende d Will Osnato/Nate Beck; Asher Hochberg/Will Broadbent d Alex Ende/Ryan Brynes; Coly Smith/Pat Malloy d Gilly Lane/Jacob Himmelrich; Brad Corona/Breck Bailey d Jessie Nisselson/Chris O'Connell.

Semis:
Simonton/Ende d Hochberg/Broadbent, 3-1; Smith/Malloy f Corona/Bailey,
3-0.

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