ISDA Squash Tour 2012

Tournament Results:

Mudge And Berg Prevail In The Big Apple Open By Rob Dinerman

Nov. 3^rd --- Trailing 2-1, 10-4 in the semifinal round against opponents (namely John Russell and Preston Quick) who had beaten them in the past, top seeds Damien Mudge and Viktor Berg embarked upon a determined 8-0 run that carried them through that crisis and never looked back, winning that 15-12 game and the 15-11 fifth, then out-playing three-time defending champs Paul Price and Ben Gould 15-12, 8 and 9 in a well-played final that however had a preordained feel to it by early in the third and final game. Price and Gould had rallied from a 1-0, 6-2 deficit in their own four-game semi against Matt Jenson and Clive Leach, their conquerors at the same stage of the Briggs Cup two weeks earlier, and they did tie that final-round opening game at 12-all after trailing 10-5. But when Price tinned a drop-shot volley and then surrendered a pair of early-point Mudge winners (with all three points occurring within one swift 100-second span), Mudge and Berg had the edge they needed to assert full control the rest of the way.

The only subsequent time that the outcome was ever imperiled was when at 9-5 in the second Mudge was accidentally but crushingly hit in the nape of the neck by a Gould backhand blast on an “around” play and dropped to the floor as though he’d been shot. The concern about his well-being was partly connected to the two prior concussions he has received (in each case also in New York-area finals, one of which resulted in his having to default and visit the emergency room of a nearby hospital), as well as by a brief bout of dizziness that beset him shortly after the resumption of play following a 15-minute hiatus while Mudge got his bearings. Sensing the urgency of the moment, Berg promptly conjured up a three-point burst to put that game out of reach and continued his brilliant shot-making display throughout the never-in-doubt final game, which he ended on the fourth of his team’s eight match-balls (leading 14-6) on the last of the many front-right drop-shot winners that he had hit during the match. By that time, Price’s short game, so important a factor in their straight-set quarterfinal win over qualifiers Tim Porter and Greg Park and semifinal victory over Jenson/Leach, had blown up on him and he and Gould were too far behind to have a realistic chance of catching up.

Notwithstanding the convincing outcome of the final, the Big Apple Open was characterized by harshly contested matches in the earlier rounds as well as in both semis. Tim Porter and Greg Park, for the second event in a row, barely made it through the last round of their qualifying bracket in five games (this time they trailed Dylan Patterson and Graham Bassett 6-0 and later 10-9 in the fifth game of their 15-11 tally), then won a five-game round-of-16 match (vs. Willie Hosey/Mark Chaloner in Rye and Eric Vlcek/Yvain Badan in Manhattan). First-time partners Jonny Smith and Joe Pentland defeated Briggs Cup quarterfinalists Raj Nanda and Mark Price and took a third-set overtime against Mudge and Berg before losing in four.

The remaining pair of quarters both went five exciting games – Steve Scharff and James Hewitt pushed Russell and Quick to 15-12 in the fifth, and Chris Walker and Chaloner, another pair of debuting teammates, led Leach and Jenson two games to love and were one point from forcing the third game into a tiebreaker (Walker barely tinned a backhand drop shot at 13-14 with Leach out of position) before their opponents, runners-up in the Briggs Cup last month, were able to assert themselves in the last two single-figure games. The tour has gotten more competitive than ever, and the enhanced depth makes every round an adventure throughout the draw.