SDA Tavern Club Invitational Update: Fourth Seeds Imran Khan/Greg Park Fall To Robin Clark And Scott Arnold       
by Rob Dinerman


Dateline April 17th --- Still riding the momentum of the Canadian National Doubles crown they won five days ago, SDA rookies Scott Arnold and Robin Clarke powered their way into the semifinal round of the 10th annual Tavern Club Invitational in Cleveland this afternoon with a highly competitive but convincing 15-8, 11 and 13 victory this afternoon over fourth seeds Imran Khan and Greg Park. Clark and Arnold, who won their round-of-16 match on Thursday against qualifiers Drewe Williams and John Rooney, will next face whichever team wins the match later this evening between four-time reigning champions Damien Mudge and Ben Gould and their Canadian opponents, Will Mariani and Thomas Brinkman, first-round winners over Max Laverty and Joe Russell.

   In the bottom-half pair of quarterfinals tonight, second seeds Manek Mathur and Yvain Badan will go up against Carl Baglio and Antonio Diaz in a match in which all four players were members of the Trinity College dynasty, while third seeds Clive Leach and Raj Nanda will oppose Graham Bassett and Andres Vargas, winners in four Thursday over Willie Hosey and Fred Jr. in the closest-contested of the four round-of-16 matches. Baglio and Diaz had rallied from 3-9 in the third and final game of their opener against Tournament Chairman Ian Sly, the manager of the host club, and Rob Dinerman. Sly and Dinerman had won their qualifying match earlier in the day in three close games against Russell and Laverty, who subsequently were "lucky-losered" into the main draw when the Alex Stait/Ed Garno entry had to withdraw due to a quadriceps injury that Garno had incurred at the Canadian National Doubles tourney. The semis are set for mid-day on Saturday with the final to follow at 7 PM that evening.

   In their win over their favored Philadelphia-based opponents this afternoon, Clark and Arnold demonstrated the admirable teamwork, athleticism, constant pressure (defensive as well as offensive) and error-free approach that has become their trademark during the year-plus that has passed since they made their debut in the 2014 Canadian National Doubles (which they won). After jumping way ahead in the opening game, they ground their way through a closer second and had to rally from 7-11 in the third. The pace was high throughout, with Khan snapping his crisp drives and corners and Park pounding away. They played extremely well during the last two games, only to fall victim in the end-game portion of each to a few forced errors and some exceptional shots by the Clarke/Arnold duo. At 13-all in the third, with the match's outcome still very much in play, Arnold came up with the shot of the match, a laser forehand reverse-three-wall that barely cleared the tin before dead-rolling out of the front-right nick, following which Clarke got position in front of Khan in their left-wall exchange and buried a shallow drive that Khan didn't get quite enough of his racquet on to allow it to reach the front wall.


FULL DRAW