McConnell Earns Tenth Open Crown
April 4, 2005, Rob Dinerman in New York
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Women's Wrapup - Davenport & Harris get Vets   [complete draws & results]

April 3 10:00PM - The University Club court was occupied throughout this afternoon by the three women's finals, two of which were decided by three or fewer points in the fifth game and all of which featured excellent play and an enormous turnaround from the sad situation in Chicago just one year ago, when the women's Open involved only two teams and hence a one-match tournament. This time there were eight strong teams in the Open flight to go along with six in the A draw and five in the 40's.

In the closest match of the day, Alicia McConnell and her first-time Nationals partner Pochi Holdefer let most of a substantial fifth-game lead and the first three of their four match-balls over the Belknap twins, Berkeley and Mary, get away before finally eking out an exhausting but exciting 11-15 15-10
15-12 12-15 15-13 victory when Berkeley tinned a drive on the final exchange.

McConnell, who had won the past nine versions of this event with Demer Holleran, thus made it 10 straight for herself, but much credit for this win goes to Holdefer, whose ability to both (however barely) out-play Mary Belknap in the innumerable crosscourt exchanges that dominated the action and handle the pressure of pinch-hitting for Holleran as McConnell's partner were really the story of the match.

This was the second very close win for the Holleran/Holdefer pairing in as many days, as they won their semi-final yesterday over the top-seeded team of Canadians Jessica Dimauro and Karen Jerome 18-14 in the fifth. Berkeley Belknap's sharp-shooting was major reason why she and her sister won the first game, but this quality betrayed her in the very end. Mary's cross courts eventually were angled too high on the left wall, enabling Holdefer to let the ball go and McConnell to play it off the back wall to telling effect with backhand drives and drops shots.

This conversation-piece was followed by the 40's flight, in which Joyce Davenport and her fellow Philadelphia denizen Julie Harris won in three games
(15-9 15-9 17-16) over Sara Luther and Jen Edson. Luther's shot-making created a 7-4 lead in the opening game, but when Harris stepped up the pace on her cross courts to Edson and Davenport found the range with her lobs and drives, they were able to put their opponents into retreat during an extended 11-2 game-ending run that carried through the never-in-doubt second.

Edson and Luther kept the third game closer, and rallied from 12-14 (double-match-point against) to 14-all on a shallow Luther crosscourt and a tinned Davenport cross court drop shot. But Davenport (whose perfect forehand Philadelphia boast earlier on was undoubtedly the shot of the match) found a nick with a nervy volley drop to save the first of the pair of game-balls Luther/Edson held in the ensuing tiebreaker, and Harris made their third match-ball opportunity count when her sweeping forehand three-wall stayed too low for a diving Edson to steer it back into play. A disconsolate Edson noted afterwards that ultimately it was their bad first-game slump and a tendency to hit too many tins on crucial points that caused her team's chances for victory to founder.

Finally, in the women's A draw, Elizabeth Del Duca and Wendy French Nolan compiled a two games to love lead against their much younger opponents Kellen Heckscher and Peggy Brehman that they ultimately fell just short of converting in a 10-15 12-15 15-12 15-11 15-12 tally. In the first game Heckscher and Brehman were tinning shamelessly, especially Brehman, who simply could not get the feel for her reverse-corner. They shaped up considerably during the second, but more errors, as well as some tight Del Duca corner shots and well-placed lobs from Nolan, accounted for the second game.

Del Duca, now fully recovered from the shoulder separation that had sidelined her through most of this season, then confoundingly abandoned the shot-making tactics that had worked so well to that point, and Heckscher and Brehman concentrated more and more of their attention on Nolan, whom they pushed sufficiently far back to open up the court and leave a crossing-over Del Duca in no man's land. The youngsters were at various times encouraging, berating and cajoling themselves and each other, and the quality of their production correspondingly undulated between the extremes, while Del Duca and Nolan played on a more even keel.

By the fifth game, it was clear that they no longer really had the capacity to hurt the more athletic Heckscher and Brehman, who however kept their opponents in the hunt by adding just enough errors to the mix to keep the score close. From 10-13, Nolan nursed a forehand straight drop just over the tin and Brehman tinned a rash three-wall to make it 12-13. But at this tense moment, Heckscher pulled off a remarkable forehand reverse-corner from out of the blue and a well-placed Brehman reverse corner at match-point just eluded Del Duca;s desperate grasp to finish off an exciting afternoon of women's action.

Results, US National Doubles: [Draw/results]

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