Doubles Recap: McGuinness/Ruth (Barely) Win PSRA A Title; Betts/Hewitt Capture Hashim Khan Invitational
by Rob Dinerman, for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline March 25th, 2012 --- Trailing two games to one against Tom Harrity and Imran Khan Wednesday evening in the semifinals of the Philadelphia A tournament, many-times U. S. National Junior Doubles champions Trevor McGuinness and Todd Ruth won the final two games, then engaged the following night in a down-to-the-wire final with Shane Coleman and John White (who themselves had rallied from a two games to love deficit to defeat Duncan Pearson and Steve Gregg in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the balancing semi) that went to 17-all in the fifth game before being resolved when McGuinness smashed a ball into White’s body that the latter was unable to fend off.
In the remaining finals at the Germantown Cricket Club, Rob Adams and Dan Dagit completed a sweep through the round-robin B flight, Ken Pollack and Mark Pagon won 3-0 over Geoff Stewart and Ken Jaffe in the Super B final and the C event was won by Connor O’Laughlin and Tim Lisle, who won in straight sets against Tom Gowan and Wally Hyde.
Last week’s doubles action also saw first-time partners Dana Betts and Steph Hewitt win the Hashim Khan Invitational, a WDSA pro women’s doubles event at the Denver Athletic Club. Byed to the semis of this six-team tourney, Betts and Hewitt proceeded to a pair of wins over first Karen Jerome and Fernanda Rocha and then top seeds and 2011 U. S. National Doubles champions Narelle Krizek and her sister Natarsha McElhinny (semis winners in three over Shirin Kaufman and Victoria Simmonds, who themselves had pulled off a mild upset when they out-played Amy Milanek and Dawn Gray in their first match), with the mid-match pair of tiebreaker games proving the key in the 11-15 18-16 18-17 15-7 Betts/Hewitt victory.
This was Hewitt’s second title in as many WDSA events this season, preceded by her late-October exploits with her regular partner Meredeth Quick at the Philadelphia Country Club, where the duo upset Krizek and Suzie Pierrepont. The Denver matches should be an interesting precursor to the U. S. National Doubles in Rye this coming weekend, where the Krizek/McElhinny, Betts/Emily Lungstrum and Quick/Hewitt tandems are considered the top three contending teams.
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