WDSA Tour Begins With A Bang As Hewitt And Quick Defeat Top Seeds Pierrepont And Krizek In Philadelphia Open Final
by Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline October 18th --- In a memorable display of error-free excellence and clutch shot-making, second seeds Meredeth Quick and Steph Hewitt defeated their long-time nemesis, No.1 seeds Narelle Krizek and Suzie Pierrepont, 18-17 15-7 15-13 Sunday afternoon in the final round of the season-opening WDSA Philadelphia Open at the Philadelphia Country Club. Zero for four against Pierrepont/Krizek coming into the final, with three of those losses occurring in final rounds during the 2009-10 season prior to a two games to one lead that got away in a Players Championship semifinal this past spring, Quick and Hewitt committed only a handful of tins throughout the match while successfully attacking Pierrepont and coming up with the winners they needed at the end of both the first and close-out third games.
Buoyed by their Friday survival of a five-game challenge from the young, athletic British-born Tina Rix/Carrie Hastings duo, which they followed with a subsequent straight-set Saturday semifinal over Emily Lungstrum and Tarsh McElhinny (while Krizek and Pierrepont were doing the same to Philadelphians Amy Milanek and Dawn Gray in the top-half semi), Hewitt and Quick received another morale boost when Quick lashed a shallow backhand rail that died in front of a lunging Pierrepont at simultaneous-game-ball in the first game of the final, an emphatic way of terminating a tiebreaker that had tensely seesawed to that stage with neither pairing having a lead of more than a single point. Quick’s match-long ability to score in the front-left quadrant of the court was perhaps the most unforeseen and outcome-determinative aspect of the entire day’s play, though Hewitt complemented her partner’s output with a number of forehand reverse-corners and aggressive volleying.
This combination came to the fore as well during an important mid-game stretch in the second that saw the eventual champs break away from 5-all to 10-6, and when they finished off that game and earned advantages of 4-0, 8-4 and 14-11 in the third (aided by a Krizek top-of-the-tin on what otherwise would have been a reverse-corner winner at 10-11, a big swing point that made the score 12-10 instead of 11-all), they seemed home free. But Krizek and Pierrepont had rallied to victory from 0-2, 12-14 against Quick/Hewitt 17 months ago in the Canadian Pro final, and when they swatted away two match-balls against them and pulled to 13-14, another eleventh-hour comeback seemed possible --- until on the ensuing exchange, Krizek over-hit a lob that bounded off the back wall in the center of the court, providing an opening for Quick, who seized the moment by placing a delicate forehand cross-drop shot directly into the front-left nick for a clear winner that sealed the unexpected outcome and got the WDSA’s fifth competitive tour season off to a rousing start.
Finals Recap:
Meredeth Quick/Steph Hewitt d. Suzie Pierrepont/Narelle Krizek, 18-17 15-7 15-13
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