Kayley Leonard and Maria Elena Ubina Capture New York City Open Doubles Crown by Rob Dinerman
photos Suzie Pierrepont
Dateline October 24, 2021–
Trailing 2-1, 4-1 against the top seeds and reigning U. S. National
Doubles champs, former Greenwich Academy high-school teammates Kayley
Leonard and Maria Elena Ubina wrested control of the match with a
strong extended charge that carried them to a 15-14, 13-15, 10-15,
15-11, 15-10 victory Sunday afternoon over Elani Landman and her twin
sister Lume in the final round of the New York City Open, hosted by the
University Club of New York. This was the first official ranking
tournament for the Women’s Pro Doubles Tour in 21 months, dating back
to the MFS Boston Pro-Am tournament in January 2020, shortly before the
Coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of play for the remainder
of that season and all of 2020-21. A full eight-event tour is planned
over the next six months, with several others possibly to be added to
that total, with stops scheduled in Philadelphia, Boston, suburban
Chicago, Denver, Florida and possibly California as well.
Leonard and Ubina, both of whom were multiple-times first-team
college All-Americans at Harvard and Princeton respectively, were able
to forge their way through three highly competitive matches on their
way to the winners circle, beginning with a 15-12 in the fourth
quarterfinal against Natalie Grainger and Line Hansen, following which
Leonard /Ubina, rebounding from a tin-prone opening game against Katie
Tutrone and Meredeth Quick (straight-game quarters winners over Lauren
West and Jessica Davis), took the next three games by scores of
15-11, 11 and 13. Tutrone, a teammate of Leonard’s on Harvard’s
national-championship teams during the mid-twenty-teens, and Quick had
fought their way to a 13-12 lead in the fourth game but tinned away the
final three points.
Meanwhile the Landman sisters were sweeping through the draw’s
top half without losing a game and were especially impressive in their
15-13, 12 and 11 semifinal match with Amanda Sobhy, currently ranked in
the top five of the PSA pro singles rankings, and Suzie Pierrepont, the
Tournament Chairperson and head pro at the host club. The Landmans
maintained small leads through the end of all three games, covering
beautifully for each other on “scramble” points, retrieving well enough
to force their redoubtable opponents into some impatient tins at the
end-stages of each game and coming up with the big shots whenever they
were needed.
They appeared to be the favorites in the final as well,
especially after weathering the loss of the first game (on a nervy
Leonard forehand cross-drop volley into the front-right nick on
simultaneous-game-ball) by asserting themselves throughout the second
and third, during which they were able to stay in front of their
opponents, both statistically and territorially, and seemed to be
wearing the recent collegians down with their relentless ground game.
But after falling behind early in the fourth, both Leonard and Ubina
began scoring with a variety of drops, nicks and corners that turned
the tide, resulting in a steady surge that gave them that game and
permanently changed the tenor of the match. The Landmans suddenly found
themselves on the defensive and (for the first time all weekend) out of
position, most notably on game-ball, when both of them wound up being
stuck on the left side of the court, leaving the whole right side open
for Ubina to whistle a winning forehand drive down the vacated
wall.
The latter, a winner of a record six college doubles
titles (four women’s and two mixed), kept the top seeds off balance
with her savvy alternation of lobs, drives and front-court salvos, and
Leonard, who found herself the focus of much of the action during the
fifth game, stood her ground and nailed a number of balls into the
front-right nick. With all that, the game seesawed tensely along until
a quick Leonard/Ubina flurry brought the score to 13-9 and they were
able to close it out from there, with Ubina hitting a tight corner shot
that barely eluded Lume Landman’s frantic retrieval attempt on the
final exchange of the day. Although the Landmans competed
wholeheartedly all the way, they spent the whole fifth game playing
from a few points behind and seemed to be battling a bit of mental
fatigue during that final stretch as well. But they are improving with
every tournament and will definitely be a contender throughout the
2021-22 season.
