Seanna Keating And Steph Hewitt Capture Canadian National Doubles Women's Crown by Rob Dinerman Dateline April 11th ---
Frustrated finalists each of the past three years, second seeds and
2011 World Doubles champions Seanna Keating and Steph Hewitt routed
their tormentors Dana Betts and Jess DiMauro 15-12, 10 and 2 this
afternoon at the host Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club in the
final round of this year's Canadian National Doubles. Keating and
Hewitt ran off a five-point skein from 6-8 to 11-8 in the first game,
finished off the second on an 8-2 burst and ran off and hid in the
close-out third, dashing off the first 13 points and joyously crossing
the finish line from there.
Hewitt was virtually error-free throughout,
defending beautifully and scoring from different parts of the court ---
but this match really belonged to Keating, who received most of the
brunt of the Betts/DiMauro assault and responded with ferocious
counter-attacks of her own. She and her left-handed left-wall
counterpart Betts were lashing the ball along the left wall, while
DiMauro was lobbing her into the back corners, but, regardless of where
the salvos against her were coming from, Keating consistently rose
superior to every specific challenge, alternating lobs with pace and
throwing in just enough short shots to dominate the action. She was
nicking her three-walls in front of DiMauro and lacing tight
reverse-corners as well.
Three years ago, Betts and DiMauro won the final in
straight sets, two years ago they won on simultaneous-match-ball and
last year they trailed 2-1, 11-6 before mounting a winning rally. Wary
of this history, especially the 2014 result, Hewitt and Keating made
sure to leave nothing to chance or caprice this time around, pouring it
on in the third game, by the end of which Betts and DiMauro were too
far behind to catch up and too demoralized to try to do so. It will be
interesting to see whether Hewitt and Keating can carry the momentum of
today's scintillating performance into the biennial World Doubles in
Chicago early next month. Though they lost in the final of the 2013
Worlds to Natalie Grainger and Amanda Sobhy, they will be a formidable
threat to regain this prestigious title, even against the likes of
Grainger and Sobhy, if they can play at the level that they showed this
afternoon before a packed and highly appreciative gallery that saluted
them with a prolonged ovation after they had registered the final point.
