James Stout And Scott Arnold Capture Big Apple Open By Rob Dinerman
NYAC Squash Chairman Alex Salton, 2023 Big Apple Open Champions Scott Arnold and James Stout, NYAC Head Pro Clinton Leeuw
Dateline October 21, 2023
--- Pushed to a fifth game for the third time in as many days, top
seeds James Stout and Scott Arnold responded with a devastating
performance, winning the game’s first six points and relentlessly
sprinting to the finish line to cap off a 15-8, 11-15, 15-12,
13-15, 15-2 victory over second seeds Zac Alexander and James Bamber
Monday evening in the final round of the milestone 20th edition of the
SDA pro doubles Big Apple Open, hosted as always by the New York
Athletic Club in midtown Manhattan. Although severely pressed in
every match they played from the quarterfinal round onward, Stout and
Arnold successfully responded to every one of the multiple challenges
that confronted them, including losing the fourth game 15-14 before
winning the fifth in their quarter with Ryan Cuskelly and Cameron
Pilley, then fending off a fourth-game double-match-ball predicament in
their semi against John Russell and Chris Callis, and finally
responding to the disappointing ending to their fourth game vs.
Alexander/Bamber by putting a stranglehold on the fifth. In each of the
trio of Stout/Arnold fifth-game wins they held their opponents under 10
points, a tribute to their staying power and ability to powerfully
close out matches once they were in position to do so.
This year’s final nearly ended very prematurely when Alexander badly
sprained his right ankle just eight points into the opening game. This
tournament has had some rough history with final-round injuries a few
times in the past, most notably five years ago when Manek Mathur
ruptured his left Achilles tendon in the second game of the 2018 final,
forcing him and his partner Chris Callis to have to default to Yvain
Badan and Bernardo Samper. That injury occurred in virtually the same
area in the court (near the red line on the left wall) where Alexander
had his mishap, and there was a long enough play stoppage to cause some
real concern about whether this match would resume or not. Even when
Alexander returned to the court wearing an ankle brace, his mobility
was noticeably impeded during the anticlimactic remainder of that game.
But early in the second, as Alexander’s confidence in his movement grew
his retrieving improved commensurately, and by that time he and Bamber
had hit upon a remarkably efficient Plan B in which Bamber covered the
front-left when necessary and Alexander ranged behind him well enough
to create a level of court balance far beyond what most teams can
attain when one of its members incurs a leg injury. Alexander’s ability
to respond to Arnold’s forehand cross-court power with high backhand
overheads (and occasionally with point-winning cross-court drop shots)
was truly impressive, as was Bamber’s turbo-charged quickness and
energy. Bamber and Stout are the SDA tour’s best retrievers, but their
movement is different --- Bamber explodes to the ball road-runner-like,
while Stout flows with seemingly effortless grace. Both of them made a
number of incredible gets on seemingly untouchable winners, while
Arnold moved beautifully as well. That Alexander was able to get as
many balls back as he did in his compromised state --- and that he and
Bamber battled Stout and Arnold on even terms throughout the close and
intensely-fought second, third and fourth games, two of which they won
--- is a tribute to both of them. When Arnold hit a rare unforced tin
on the final point of the fourth game, anything seemed possible in the
fifth game that awaited.
However, often when both final-round teams have been pushed to the
limit both in their pre-final matches --- Alexander/Bamber had a
combined five match balls against them in the fourth and fifth games in
their semi with Adam Bews and Matthew Henderson --- and through the
first four games of the final, if one team can get off to an early lead
in the fifth, the other team is too depleted to respond. That is what
happened in this instance, when Stout and Arnold shot off to a 6-0 lead
and mercilessly piled up the points from there. Alexander and Bamber
gamely battled throughout, but as the margin grew it became
increasingly apparent that there would be no comeback this time. At
14-1, Arnold tinned a drop shot, but on the ensuing exchange he hit a
forehand three-wall that dead-rolled out of the front-left nick as the
emphatic final step in his team’s hard-earned march to the
winner’s circle.
