Chris
Walker/Tom Harrity (Open), Natalie Grainger/Bill Ullman (Mixed), Ahmed
Hamza/Mauricio Bocanegra (A’s) and Berkeley Belknap/Mary Belknap McKee
(Women’s) Headline 2023 US Century Doubles Champions by Rob Dinerman Dateline January 15, 2023
--- Trailing two games to one against Clive Leach and Alfredo Nieto in
the semis, top seeds Chris Walker and Tom Harrity survived a close
(15-13) fourth game, ran off and hid in the 15-4 fifth and rode that
momentum to a 15-10, 12 and 11 victory over second seeds Dave
Rosen and Steve Scharff Sunday afternoon in the final round of the Open
division of the 2023 U. S. Century Championships, headquartered as
always at the University Club of New York. Walker and Harrity, who had
previously won this tournament in both 2019 (in a four-game final over
Jeff Stanley and Bill Ullman) and 2020 (in five games over Rosen and
Jeff Mulligan), hit their stride late in their semifinal match and
nursed small but important advantages throughout all three games of the
final.
By contrast, Scharff (himself a two-time winner of this tournament with
Sandy Tierney in 2014 and 2015) and Rosen, 15-13 fifth-game semis
victors over Scott Stoneburgh and David Harris, played most of the
match from behind and had brief but damaging mid- and late-game slumps
that accounted for the difference. After they had closed an early
deficit to 10-11 in the first game, a trio of tins, two of them at the
end of long, all-court points, cost them that game and, leading 6-3 in
the second, Rosen and Scharff surrendered seven consecutive points to
trail 10-6. They then rallied to 9-10, but Walker responded by hitting
a series of diverse winners --- a well-disguised forehand roll-corner,
an overhead slam into the front-right nick, a tight backhand
roll-corner and a game-ending lob down the left wall that wrong-footed
a charging Rosen --- to close out that game.
The third was hard-fought and high-quality, but the constant and nearly
mistake-free Walker/Harrity pressure eventually took its toll in the
end-game portion. Rosen and Scharff made a valiant last stand, drawing
to 11-13, but Scharff, who to that point had committed fewer errors
than any of the four players, hit tins to end the last two points.
Walker, who is still an elite player on the SDA pro doubles tour, is so
creative and dangerous --- and so unpredictable --- that he works
opponents over as much with the shots that he is a threat to hit as he
does with the ones that he actually does hit. Harrity’s game is more
straightforward, but he stayed solid throughout the final and conjured
up several winners down the stretch as his team neared the finish line.
There were six additional draws as well, including the Mixed Doubles,
which Ullman and former World Open and British Open finalist Natalie
Granger dominated, holding their final-round opponents Kevin Jernigan
and Shirin Kaufman to single figures in each of the three games; the A
Doubles, in which Ahmed Hamza and Mauricio Bocanegra toughed out a very
competitive four-game final over Todd Anderson and Kumar Desani, with
the 15-13 (from 12-13) third game being pivotal; the Women’s Doubles,
in which the Belknap twins Berkeley and Mary, winners of several U. S.
National age-group titles, rose superior in four games to their
Canadian opponents Seanna Keating and Catherine Van Wanderham; and
60’s, 70’s and 80’s draws that were won by Steve Mandel/Randy Lim, Zeke
Scherl/James Marver and Georges Brzozowski-Ryan/Paul Yaphe
respectively. Mandel and Lim rallied from two games to one down to
overtake Andrew Slater and David Adams with a pair of 15-12 tallies,
and Scherl and Marver prevailed in four games over Tim Griffin and
Michael Laidlaw. The 80’s final between Andrew Muran and Tyler Thomas
and Brzozowski-Ryan and Yaphe was just a few points into its fifth game
when an injury to Muran forced his team to default.
As entertaining and competitive as the matches were throughout the
tournament’s three-day duration, for many attendees the highlight of
the weekend actually occurred off the court, at the Saturday-evening
dinner at the Racquet & Tennis Club, where Kit Tatum --- who
conceived the entire concept of a Century Doubles tournament (in which
the two team members’ ages must add up to at least 100) back in 2007
and has served as the event’s official Tournament Chairman and, more
importantly, as its unofficial ambassador and cheerleader throughout
the more than decade-and-a-half since --- had his name added to the A.
Carter Fergusson Grand Master Honor Roll, along with that of Tatum’s
longtime friend George Kellner. The Award is “presented in honor of a
lifetime of contributions and accomplishments in the game of squash”
and “recognizes unbounded enthusiasm, competitive spirit, sportsmanship
and skill on court, as well as embodiment of the ideal qualities of
leadership and a high standard for a life and lifetime in squash.” No
one in squash has embraced the Chairmanship of a tournament with as
high a degree of dedication and enthusiasm as as Tatum has done with
the Century, and the announcement of his selection for this honor ---
as well as the actual presentation by U. S. Squash Hall of Famer Ned
Edwards --- was received with a prolonged standing ovation in
appreciation for how much Tatum has given to doubles squash over many
years.
