[ Complete draw & results ]

ISDA Wilmington Update: Top Four Seeds All In Semis   by Rob Dinerman

What is most noteworthy about the U. S. Pro Championships, a $ 40,000 pro doubles tournament held as always at the Wilmington Country Club, is not that the top four seeds are all in the semis --- only once so far this fall in five ranking ISDA events have any of the Paul Price/Ben Gould, Damien Mudge/Viktor Berg, Chris Walker/Clive Leach or John Russell/Preston Quick pairings lost prior to the semis, and that was when Russell/Quick fell to Scott Butcher and Willie Hosey in a Big Apple Open quarterfinal. Rather it is that for the first time all season, two of these four seeds were forced into a pre-semis fifth game and three of those seeds had to endure testing challenges en route to the final four. Fully half of the 12 matches that were played in the first two rounds went more than three games in what has been the most competitive event of the season to this point.

Only Price and Gould have not dropped at least one game, and even they had to play a tiebreaker in the third-game of their round of 16 match against qualifiers and ’06 William White champions Alan Grant and Bill Doyle. Gould, who won this Wilmington tourney with Quick two years ago, and Price then prevailed in three over Jeff Mulligan and Matt Jensen, with the last game having a 15-13 tally. The winners are due to face Russell and Quick, who had to squeeze out of an 8-all fifth-game confrontation with qualifiers and recent Silver Racquets champions Michael Ferreira and Whitten Morris, who swept through the middle games of the match before finally bowing 15-12 in a thrilling fifth game featuring great retrieving and wonderful all-court exchanges.

In the bottom half, Leach and Walker, winners of the season-opening tournaments in St. Louis and Baltimore this past October, have made a habit of winning their early-tournament matches handily, thereby conserving their energy for the later rounds. This time, however, they won a close four (two overtimes) in their round of 15 against Joe Pentland and Mark Price, then were pressed to a fifth game by Hosey and Ayman Kerim, who dominated Walker/Leach in the 15-8 fourth game before being similarly overwhelmed in the 15-6 fifth.

Waiting for Leach and Walker in the semis are Mudge and Berg, who were given all they could handle in their quarterfinal with Michael Pirnak and Mark Chaloner, as witness the 15-6 16-15 11-15 15-12 stat line. The Wilmington courts are a little cooler than most of the ISDA stops, rewarding shot-making and mitigating the power advantage that the top four seeds enjoy over their opponents, which may be why several upsets have occurred in this arena, most notably when qualifiers Scott Stoneburgh and Anders Wahlstedt not only handed Mudge and Gary Waite their first-ever career setback in the opening round but then proceeded to win the entire tournament six years ago in ’01

Tournament Recap [Complete results]

Rd of 16:
Paul Price/Ben Gould d Alan Grant/Bill Doyle, 3-0; Matt Jensen/Jeff Mulligan d Andrew Merrill/Hamed Anvari, 3-1; James Hewitt/Tyler Millard d Tim Porter/Andrew Cordova, 3-0; John Russell/Preston Quick d Michael Ferreira/Whitten Morris, 3-2; Chris Walker/Clive Leach d Joe Pentland/Mark Price, 3-1; Willie Hosey/Ayman Kerim d Peter Briggs/Steve Scharff, 3-1; Michael Pirnak/Mark Chaloner d Alex Langerhorst/Ben Howell, 3-0; Damien Mudge/Viktor Berg d Ed Chilton/Greg Park, 3-0.

Qtrs:
Price/Gould d Jensen/Mulligan, 3-0; Russell/Quick d Hewitt/Millard, 3-0; Walker/Leach d Hosey/Kerim, 3-2; Mudge/Berg d Pirnak/Chaloner, 3-1.