Heights Casino Finals Report: Mudge And Gould Hold Off Late Comeback Bid, Capture Johnson Crown
by Rob Dinerman, for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline February 26th, 2012 --- Precisely as they had done two weeks earlier at the Racquet Club Of Philadelphia, top seeds and defending champions Damien Mudge and Ben Gould roared out to a two-games-to-love lead over Manek Mathur and Clive Leach this afternoon in the final round of the $35,000 David Johnson Memorial Invitational, hosted as always (and for the 64th consecutive year) by the Heights Casino Club in Brooklyn Heights, then barely staved off a determined comeback bid and emerged as champions via a tell-tale tally of 15-6 15-8 14-15 15-12.
In Philadelphia, Mudge and Gould led 2-0, 7-1, only to yield eight straight points en route to losing that game 15-13 and the fourth 15-12 before earning a 9-7 advantage in the fifth which they painstakingly nursed to a 15-13 conclusion on a Mudge reverse-three-wall winner that rolled out of the front-left nick on the last point. In this (eerily similar) rematch, Mudge and Gould again dominated the opening pair of single-figure games and stood at 13-11 in the third, whereupon Leach nailed a forehand winner down the middle, Mathur conjured up a daring forehand reverse-corner winner (the more noteworthy for coming off a Gould blast right at him, which everyone expected would elicit a defensive response if indeed there was any response at all) to tie the game at 13-all. Suddenly what had for several games been a coronation had now become a truly even competition, and the 10-time reigning Johnson champion Mudge (2002-07 with Gary Waite, 2008-10 with Viktor Berg and 2011 with Gould), with the all-time record of 11 just an elusive few points from being in his sole possession (Waite has won this event 10 times as well), was becoming a tad tentative, influenced both by Leach’s increasingly effective skid-boasts and three-walls and, perhaps, by history’s looming shadow.
Indeed, it was Mudge’s momentary indecisiveness at 13-all that cost his team that point, when he let a Leach lob go past him and called for Gould to play the ball too late for the latter to react. Mudge did nail a forehand cross-court past Mathur to make the score 14-all (championship-point for Mudge and Gould) but after three lengthy and savage exchanges ended in lets, Mathur lashed a backhand drive that rolled insolently out of the front-left nick to give his team both the game and a degree of momentum that they would ride all the way to 6-2, and then 7-4, in the fourth. Mudge and Gould, now grimly aware of what an intense challenge was now confronting them, were able to reach deep inside themselves and come up with a five-point run to the same 9-7 lead they had held 13 days earlier, which again they never would completely relinquish, though they sure were pressed right to the limit and right to the end.
At 7-9, Mathur cracked a backhand drive past Mudge for 8-9, but Gould deftly guided a forehand cross-drop into the front-left nick (10-8) after which Leach nicked a forehand reverse-three-wall volley which was counter-balanced when Mudge powered a forehand past Mathur to restore his team’s slender cushion at 11-9. The score became 12-9 when Leach tinned a backhand reverse-three-wall (a rare error in judgment by the wily veteran, whose shot selection throughout the match was otherwise superb), but Mathur crushed a forehand cross-court past Gould (punctuating this salvo by bellowing “Come on!” at his partner Leach) and then brought the score to 12-13 on a perfect drop shot. By this time the slender young Indian had become the most dangerous player on the court, his lethal racquet capabilities a major and growing threat to even his pair of Aussie superstar opponents, whose body language and facial frowns made it clear that they wanted no part of a fifth game. After all, it had been Mathur who, along with then-partner Yvain Badan had handed The Champs the only defeat of their two-year partnership when in a Briggs Cup semifinal exactly 11 weeks ago they had swatted away a third-game match-ball-against (just as he and Leach had done in this match) and gone on to win the next two games as well as the final against Leach and Matt Jenson.
The 12-13 point was decided by an excruciatingly close referee’s decision when Mathur was denied a let request on a shallow backhand reverse-corner by Mudge. The ball had been struck with praiseworthy precision and at a nasty angle, but Mathur was in full flight towards where it was heading and he had made so many breathtaking retrievals of seemingly clear winners throughout the match, that it seemed unfortunate that his opponents would be presented with a match-ball (which they promptly converted on a Gould overhead smash that careened into the front-left nick, the exact same part of the court where the winner that ended the Philadelphia match had landed) on so difficult a judgment call. One thing that is beyond question is how formidable a contender Leach and Mathur (still creating their team chemistry in this, only their fifth tournament as partners) have already become, and what a threat they now pose to the supremacy that Mudge and Gould have enjoyed in their two seasons of partnership.
Finals Recap, ISDA $35,000 David Johnson Memorial, Brooklyn NY:
Damien Mudge/Ben Gould d. Manek Mathur/Clive Leach, 15-6 15-8 14-15 15-12
Main Draw
Qualifying Draw
Back To Main
