US Doubles Thursday Night Report
April 1, 2005, Rob Dinerman in New York
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

Opening-round action Thursday in the men's A and 40-and-over draws yesterday (with almost all the remaining flights set to kick off today) saw few upsets and only one five-gamer out of 18 total matches, just four of which exceeded the three-game minimum.

But that could change quickly, as early as in the next few hours, especially in the A division, where there are a number of toss-up matches throughout the day and evening, and in the 40's, where each of the top two seeded teams faces a formidable opponent later this morning.

No. 1 40's seed Rich Sheppard (winner of this flight with Greg Finn in '01 and '02) and Joe Fabiani will face Rick Wahlstedt and Soli Mehta, who late yesterday afternoon survived an exciting back-and-forth 12-15 15-12 12-15 15-13 15-11 struggle against former Merion Cricket Club pros Jamie Hickox and Ben Desombre in the most exciting match of the day. The latter pairing had won the '03 Philadelphia city championship, defeating several much younger and higher seeded teams in the process, and they entered this event as a dark horse to possibly win the entire championship. Wahlstedt, who returned to the courts just a few days ago after missing nearly two months with a broken hand, and the wily sharp-shooter Mehta, semifinalists in the '01 Silver Racquet Invitational on the same Racquet & Tennis Club court where they won yesterday, appear fully capable of giving former National A Champions Sheppard (with Scott Ryan in '87 and '88 and with Bill Ramsay in '91) and Fabiani (with Tom Harrity in '92) all they want in today's quarter-final match at 11 a.m. at the New York Athletic Club.

They will be immediately preceded by second seeds Ed Chilton and Andrew Slater, who showed their capacity a few months ago in an ISDA professional tournament in Wilmington, where the former is the head pro, and where they pushed the solid partnership of James Hewitt and Tyler Millard deep into a fifth game in the qualifying rounds before finally falling just short. Chilton and Slater will have their work cut out for them as well when they meet up with Scott Brehman, a William White 40's champion last season with the injured Dominic Hughes, and Todd Anderson.

Other Friday matches of note appear to be the 45's round of 16 between Dave Barrett/John Gross and Eben Hardie/Mike McGorry; a women's quarter-final pitting the Philadelphia team of Dawn Gray and Amy Milanek (who faced each other just two weeks ago in the finals of the women's 40's softball in Boston, with Milanek prevailing) against Alicia McConnell, who won this tourney with Demer Holleran from 1994-2004, and her new partner this year, Pochi Holdefer; and a slew of matches in the men's A and Open flights, the latter of which is headlined by a number of top ISDA pros, the most prominent of whom, Gary Waite, will pair up with Morris Clothier tonight in their first-round match at the Union Club against Blair Horler and Shawn Atkinson.

Squashtalk will be providing daily updates throughout what figures to be a long and exciting weekend of doubles squash.

Early Thursday results, US National Doubles: [Draw/results]
Men's A First Round:
Karlen & Polsky def Grudzien & Krantz 15-11 17-18 16-15 15-11
Barquin & Sabatine def Dinerman & Sobhy 15-11 15-10 15-11
T Wyant & J Wyant def Hornblower & Sharnoff 15-8 15-10 15-9
Villari & Burke def McEvoy & Collins 15-6 15-9 15-9
Mens 40+ First Round:
Sheppard & Fabiani def Hofmann & Devorsetz 3-0
Mehta & Wahlstedt def Hickox & Desombre 3-2
Conway & Bobman def O'Brien & Allen 3-0

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