Mudge And Gould Eke Out Final-Round Thriller To Capture Tompkins Invitational
by Rob Dinerman, for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline February 13th, 2012 --- Leading 2-0, 7-1 but then trailing 7-5 in the fifth game, top seeds Damien Mudge and Ben Gould ultimately survived a pulsating 130-minute match Monday evening to (albeit barely) defeat Manek Mathur and Clive Leach 15-11 15-10 13-15 12-15 15-13 in the final round of the $20,000 Tompkins Invitational before a roaring and packed gallery at the Racquet Club Of Philadelphia. Leach, returning to the site of his first career ISDA final-round appearance a decade ago (when he and Blair Horler scored several upset wins before losing to a Mudge/Gary Waite duo that was en route to an undefeated 2001-02 season), played brilliantly all evening (as did his young Indian partner), rolling out a three-wall nick at 14-13 in the third game and lobbing Mudge into the back corner as a key element of their winning of the fourth game, but a swift Mudge/Gould fifth-game run from 5-7 to 9-7 gave The Champs a lead they would never relinquish, though Mathur hit a reverse-corner winner at 11-13 and blazed a ball past Gould at 12-14 to in each case draw his team to within a single point before Mudge, as he has done so many times over the years to close out airtight fifth games of finals, surprised everyone with a backhand reverse-three-wall that semi-nicked in front of Mathur for a clean winner and a calling-card conclusion to an absolutely fabulous ending to a captivating tournament.
It was the second time in barely two months that Mathur and partner had rebounded from a two-game deficit against Mudge and Gould, who had a third-game match-ball in a mid-December Briggs Cup semifinal against Mathur and Yvain Badan, before being overtaken in five games (the only loss that the Mudge/Gould tandem has suffered in their season and a half as partners) to the eventual tournament winners. Certainly Mathur and Leach have emerged as a leading challenger to Mudge and Gould in the wake of tonight's scintillating performance, which should form a provocative backdrop to the looming tour stop in Brooklyn just 10 days hence.
Finals Recap: Damien Mudge/Ben Gould d Manek Mathur/Clive Leach, 15-11 15-10 13-15 12-15 15-13.
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