Amanda Sobhy And Latasha Khan Surge Into John's Island Final, Will Face Dana Betts And Tarsh McElhinny  
by Rob Dinerman

Amanda Sobhy, Latasha Khan, Jenny Duncalf, Rachael Grinham


 Gina Stoker, Victoria Simmonds, Dana Betts, Tarsh Mcelhinny

Dateline April 18th --- The unseeded but ascendant pairing of Amanda Sobhy and Latasha Khan charged into the final round of the third annual John’s Island Open this afternoon with a competitive but convincing straight-set win over likewise unseeded WSA singles standouts Rachael Grinham and Jenny Duncalf, while in the draw’s bottom half, top seeds Dana Betts and Tarsh McElhinny (who were originally seeded second until a significant foot injury to Narelle Krizek forced her and partner Suzie Pierrepont to withdraw) similarly won in three over third seeds Vic Simmonds and Gina Stoker. After a Friday filled with upsets and down-to-the-wire battles followed by a Saturday that went more according to form, anything can happen in Sunday’s final, which is scheduled at 11 AM.

  As noted, the quarterfinals in the draw’s top half were not kind to the seeded teams. Khan and Sobhy overwhelmed Meredeth Quick (whose exceptional movement belied the fact that she is five months’ pregnant) and Karen Jerome with their power and athleticism, and Grinham and Duncalf, 15-13 in the fourth winners over Sarah West and Dawn Gray in the tourney’s only qualifying match Thursday night), split their first two games against just-crowned Canadian National Doubles champs Steph Hewitt and Seanna Keating and then asserted themselves with single-digit tallies in the third and fourth to advance to the semis. There they fell just short in dropping the first two games by 15-13 scores, following which Khan and Sobhy sprinted through the third and final game 15-6.

    Simmonds and Stoker maintained control throughout their straight-game opening-round win over Tina Rix and Carrie Hastings, but the last quarterfinal match, between Betts/McElhinny and 2012 U. S. Open finalists Amy Gross and Alex Clark was by far the most competitive and memorable. McElhinny and Betts eked out a close first game and then dominated the 15-5 second. The match then took a full U-turn, with Gross and Clark becoming much more aggressive in compiling a 15-5 win of their own in the third game and fighting their way through the 15-13 fourth. The fifth was close all the way, and REALLY all the way, with all four players coming up with some of their best squash as the game seesawed along. Betts and McElhinny led 14-13, but Gross then conjured up a daring roll-corner winner from deep in the back-left part of the court, forcing a simultaneous-match-ball which was decided when Clark’s attempted reverse-corner winner hit the front wall first instead of the left wall, causing the ball to bound directly back to her, leading to a stroke call against her, an unfortunate way to end such a riveting match but undoubtedly the correct call. As noted, Betts and McElhinny responded to having dodged this bullet with a solid match-long performance this afternoon, and both final-round teams should be at full strength when they meet tomorrow morning in the final.

Recap:

Quarters:

Amanda Sobhy/Latasha Khan d. Karen Jerome/Meredeth Quick, 3-0; Jenny Duncalf/Rachael Grinham d. Seanna Keating/Steph Hewitt, 3-1; Gina Stoker/Vic Simmonds d. Tina Rix/Carrie Hastings, 3-0; Dana Betts/Tarsh McElhinny d. Amy Gross/Alex Clark, 3-2.

Semis:

Sobhy/Khan d Duncalf/Grinham, 3-0; Betts/McElhinny d. Stoker/Simmonds, 3-0.