Top Two Seeds Advance To WDSA Philadelphia Open Final
By Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline October 16th --- Top seeds Narelle Krizek and Suzie Pierrepont and second seeds Meredeth Quick and Steph Hewitt both advanced in solid three-games-to-love fashion Saturday evening at the Philadelphia Country Club in the inaugural WDSA Philadelphia Open, the opening event in this, the fifth season of the Women’s Doubles Squash Association. Byed to the semis of this seven-team field, the Krizek/Pierrepont duo, winners of five of the six tournaments in which they have partnered up during the past season and a half, out-played their pardonably weary opponents, the veteran Philadelphians Amy Milanek and Dawn Gray, 17-15 fifth-game quarterfinal winners over Lynn Leong and Marci Sier, while Hewitt and Quick also prevailed in straight sets at the expense of Emily Lungstrum and Tarsh McElhinny.
In contrast to the convincing semifinal outcomes, all three quarterfinal matches Friday evening were highly competitive. Milanek and Gray survived by a 6-15 15-13 15-13 7-15 17-15 tally that fully conveys how closely that match was contested; Lungstrum and McElhinny were forced to a tiebreaker session in all three of their games against Joyce Davenport and Kat Grant; and Hewitt and Quick barely came out on top over Carrie Hastings and Tiny Rix in another back-and-forth battle that had to be resolved by a fifth game.
The Pierrepont/Krizek duo has gone 4-0 against Hewitt and Quick, but that statistic is deceptive: Hewitt and Quick were at 1-1, 11-7 in the 2010 Players Championship final before Pierrepont and Krizek exploded on a 23-8 match-closing burst; Hewitt and Quick had a match-ball opportunity in the 2010 Canadian Pro final before bowing to an eleventh-hour rally; and Hewitt and Quick were ahead, two games to one in the 2011 Players Championship semis last spring and almost came away with the 15-12 fourth game before eventually losing in five games.
The final is scheduled for 1:00 Sunday afternoon.
Tournament Recap:
Quarters:
Suzie Pierrepont/Narelle Krizek, bye;
Dawn Gray/Amy Milanek d. Lynn Leong/Marci Sier, 3-2;
Tarsh McElhinny/Emily Lungstrum d. Kat Grant/Joyce Davenport, 3-0;
Meredeth Quick/Steph Hewitt d Carrie Hastings/Tina Rix, 3-2.
Semis:
Pierrepont/Krizek d. Gray/Milanek, 3-0;
Quick/Hewitt d. McElhinny/Lungstrum, 3-0.
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