ISDA Squash Tour 2012

Tournament Results:

Mathur And Badan Triumph In Buffalo By Rob Dinerman

Nov 22 --- Continuing what has been a season-long trend in which the top-seeded team has made it to the winner’s circle for what is now the sixth time in as many tournaments, former mid-2000’s Trinity College teammates Manek Mathur and Yvain Badan engineered a rallying and airtight 12-15 15-13 16-14 15-12 victory over the second-seeded Canadians James Hewitt and Chris Deratnay Saturday evening in the final round of the Challenger tournament at the Buffalo Tennis & Squash Club. This two-day competition, marking the return of the ISDA tour to this fabled venue for the first time since winter 2002, also constituted the third compelling performance by the winning tandem in as many attempts (preceded by their advances to the final in St. Louis and through a murderous qualifying draw in the Big Apple Open) after they had missed the first few events due to a freak hand injury incurred by Mathur when his left (playing) hand was badly cut by glass, necessitating numerous stitches and several weeks of enforced inactivity while the damaged area healed. Now fully restored to his pre-injury capabilities, Mathur evinced the penetrating weaponry, especially in the front court, that made the difference at the end of the final’s last three close games.

The four semifinalists all advanced in peremptory fashion, with none of them yielding more than 10 points in the quarterfinal round’s 12 combined games. At this juncture, Dan Roberts and Greg McArthur took the second game from Hewitt and Deratnay, who were a little careless in that frame after easily winning the opener before shaping up and earning the third and fourth games by identical 15-11 scores. Mathur and Badan also won their semi in four, over Toronto teammates Iain Crozier (recovered from a severe back injury incurred in a diving accident in September) and Alex Carter.

As has rarely happened to this point of the season --- given the degree to which Ben Gould and Damien Mudge have been dominating the full-ranking tourneys, winning all four of their finals in straight sets --- the final was the match of the tournament, featuring, as noted, close scores throughout and also protracted, all-court exchanges, many of which, like the match as a whole, could have gone either way, with one extra error and one extra winner (often just a millimeter above the tin) accounting for the difference between these two highly skillful and evenly matched teams.

Hewitt’s sharpness throughout the tournament was noteworthy (especially his backhand cross-drop/lob combinations against his right-wall opponent Badan), as was the degree to which his varied shot selection, especially from mid-court, largely dictated the play, simultaneously keeping his foes off balance and opening up the court for Deratnay to shoot. The latter, who has been a very infrequent presence in ISDA play over the past few years after having several good mid-2000’s seasons partnering the now-retired Alex Pavulans, demonstrated his trademark power and mobility, but seemed a little hesitant to shoot, perhaps in deference to the speed that both Mathur and Badan possess, and their ability to counter-punch when drawn up front.

After some late errors that cost them the first game, Badan and Mathur cleaned up their play, with the former responding to Hewitt’s lobs with lobs of his own that forced the Canadians to the back wall and freed Mathur to execute his nick-finding forehand overheads (several of which rolled out at Deratnay) and tight reverse-corners. Even at this early stage (i.e. three tournaments’ worth) of their partnership, Mathur and Badan are very much on the same page strategically and in the way they cover for each other and “pass the ball” when either knows that the other will have a better swing. Throughout most of those last three games, they held small but definite advantages, and Deratnay (who won the 50^th edition of the host club’s popular annual Invitational with Michael Pirnak over Morris Clothier and Scott Stoneburgh in 2004) and Hewitt were therefore always having to expend extra energy catching up.

After dropping the third-set best-of-five tiebreaker to go down two games to one and falling behind 7-4 in the fourth, they managed to even the score at 9-all, only to then lose two quick points and never quite make up that deficit. The 15-12 close-out marked the second Challenger tournament win for Badan (preceded by Pittsburgh ’08 with Eric Vlcek), who came within a simultaneous-match-ball of winning the Wilmington Challenger final with Jonny Smith last season, only to be edged out by Chris Walker and Mark Chaloner. Hewitt, who teamed with Willie Hosey to win the Philadelphia Racquet Club Challenger event in February ’09, has also been in three other Challenger finals, with Chaloner in Pittsburgh two years ago and in Germantown with Mark Price last winter prior to this past weekend in Buffalo.

All four players received a prolonged and resounding standing ovation at the conclusion of their 85-minute match, a tribute to the quality of their play and hopefully a harbinger as well that this tournament, admirably administered by head pro Bart Chambers and his Committee, will remain and grow as an established stop on the ISDA tour going forward.