Two Morrises are Winners
April 5, 2005, Rob Dinerman in New York
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Men's Wrapup - Clothier & Waite Win Mens Open   [complete draws & results]

April 5 8:00AM - Trailing badly late in the fourth game and facing the prospect of a do-or-die fifth against opponents who had already notched a pair of 3-2 pre-final wins, Gary Waite and Morris Clothier staged a major comeback that carried them to a thrilling 13-15 15-6 15-8 17-15 victory in the final round of the Open championship of the 2005 C B Richard Ellis National Doubles tournament in New York. For the nonpareil superstar Waite, who has gone undefeated (12 for 12) on the ISDA pro tour with his partner Damien Mudge, this outcome was yet another (albeit significant) step towards what is increasingly shaping up as another spotless season.

But for Clothier, now 40, who won this tournament for a right-wall record ninth time (one up on the eight that the Hall Of Famer Hunter Lott garnered from 1938-53) on his home Racquet & Tennis court with his three-year-old son Jack on court during an emotional trophy presentation, it was clearly a career-defining moment that banished the disappointment of the narrow defeats he suffered in the 2003 and 2004 finals and that for sheer fulfillment had to have exceeded any of the eight prior titles he won from 1993-95 with Jon Foster, from 1998-2001 with Eric Vlcek and in 2002 with Waite.

After losing each of the last two finals to Vlcek and Preston Quick (who beat won in four games over Clothier and Scott Butcher two years ago in Denver and in a fifth-game overtime over Clothier and Mudge in Chicago last year), it seemed fitting that this year he and Waite defeated Vlcek and Alex Pavulans in the semis and Quick with Steve Scharff in the final, and that both matches swung on tiebreaker sessions that this time landed in Clothier's column.

In the semis, a 16-15 second-game tally and the two games to love lead it conferred took a big step towards ensuring an eventual four-game win and the final round ended in a riveting fourth-game tiebreaker. In fact, Quick and Scharff had held double-game point at 14-12 in that frame. They almost let a 14-7 first-game margin get away on a furious six-point Waite/Clothier run that fell just short when at 14-13 Quick was able to nail a cross court nick winner in front of Clothier. But the momentum that Waite and Clothier had by then established continued through the middle two single-digit games before the match turned sharply yet again in the fourth, with Quick and Scharff building up a 10-4 advantage.

A fifth game seemed almost inevitable, but at that stage, with little to lose, Clothier, who spent most of the match in front of Scharff, went for broke on two tin-defying winners (a shallow drive and a tightly angled reverse corner), which was followed by a pair of Waite winners (a power cross court and nick-finding three-wall) that tightened the game to 10-8. Eventually it went to 12-all, whereupon a Quick rail blast and a let-point called against Clothier put Quick and Scharff, who had rallied from 2-8 and later double-match-point down in a 16-15 fifth-game semis win over Butcher and Josh McDonald one round earlier, at double-game-ball to force a fifth game they seemed fully capable of winning.

The final half-dozen points, all but the third-to-last of which went to the eventual champs, were, in Clothier's post-match description, "all Gary." In a classic case of a superstar in all his glory, Waite practically conjured up five untouchable winners exactly when it mattered most, the last two of which were a dead-roll three-wall and a scorching cross court that nicked out near mid-court, in each case so decisively struck that neither Quick nor Scharff, who was slightly un-sighted behind Clothier, even moved for them.

O'Connell And Morris Take The A's
With Clothier's win at R & T and his former college teammates Beau Buford and Geoff Kennedy playing the A final at the University Club just a few blocks northwest at approximately the same time, the potential fully existed for a champions roster largely composed of Franklin & Marshall alumni 18 years after that squad (on which Clothier played No. 1 and on which Scott Brehman, Nat Otis and Sam Crews also played major roles) came within a few games of winning the 1987 Potter Cup national-team championship final against Harvard. But it was not to be, as Buford and Kennedy, who had straight-gamed both the Wyant brothers (Tim and Jack) and Philadelphians Ted Bruenner and Baird McIlvain prior to the final, went down 15-13 (from 12-8 up) 15-9 15-13 to top seeds Whitten Morris and Ryan O'Connell Sunday evening.

Morris, whose series of risky shallow forehand winners contributed greatly to the late 6-0 run that wrested that opening game away, and O'Connell had had their hands full that morning with Tom Harrity and Imran Khan before finally pulling away in the fifth game. Wary of how well Kennedy had played that morning in a straight-game dousing of Bruenner and McIlvain, they concentrated much of their attack on Buford, who was constrained by the low ceiling from the high responses he often employs to get out of trouble. The second game was mostly a continuation of the end portion of the first, but in the third Kennedy and Buford, a veteran team that had pulled out of big holes in the past, were able to lift their games enough to force a tie at 13-all.

Morris and O'Connell called "no-set" and took the vital first point when O'Connell turned the tables on a Buford reverse with a clever and winning reverse corner of his own. His reverse corner on the next point was not as well angled, but Buford was expecting something deeper and never picked up the path of the ball until it was too late. O'Connell was thus able to add this title to the Silver Racquet he and James Ardrey had won in November and the Morris (there's that name again!) Invitational that he won with Rick Bradt in December, while his partner, a finalist with Mac McAndrew at the Gold Racquets and a near-finalist (he and Rich Sheppard led eventual champs Harrity and Vlcek 12-11 in the fifth game of a William White semi) in January, has suddenly emerged as arguably the hottest amateur player in the country.

The weekend had other heroes as well, none more so than tournament chairman Jeff Stanley, who worked amazingly hard and amazingly well coordinating the record 145 team turnout among six hosting clubs. Sunday's action included a men's 45's semi in which no fewer than FIVE North American Open titles were represented on the left wall when Todd Binns (1987-89 with Tom Page) and Peter Briggs (1984 with Ralph Howe and 1995 with Stanley) vied for position before Binns and his partner Tom Boldt eventually won the tournament and a 40's final in which Ed Chilton and Andrew Slater badly lost the first game and were down
10-4 in the second and 12-6 in the third yet rallied to overtake Rich Sheppard and Joe Fabiani in both games and close out the final fourth as well.

Results, US National Doubles: [Draw/results]

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