World
Doubles Semis Recap: Russell/Leach And Mudge/Gould Reach
Finals By Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com Dateline May 8th–
Pushed to the very brink by a pair of British compatriots hungry to
notch a second upset win in as many days, second seeds John Russell and
Clive Leach managed to hold off Jonny Smith and Mark Chaloner by a 7-15
15-12 15-12 7-15 15-12 score to advance to the final round of the
biennial World Doubles Championships Saturday night at the Badminton
& Racquet Club in Toronto. Russell and Leach, runners-up in
their
only prior foray as partners in the ’09 edition of this event
at
the University Club of San Francisco, thereby qualified for the right
to face the top-seeded Australian pair of Damien Mudge and Ben Gould in
the final, which will be held Monday night (with Sunday an "off" day in
deference to Mother's Day) at the Toronto Cricket Club. Mudge and Gould
raised their season-long record to 37-0 by defeating Americans Preston
Quick and Greg Park in the top-half semifinal. First-time partners
Smith and Chaloner were coming off a four-game quarterfinal win over
fourth seeds Matt Jenson and Paul Price of Australia.
The women’s semifinals were both tight
seesaw
battles all the way, and REALLY all the way in the bottom half, where
Canadians Steph Hewitt and Seanna Keating rallied from a 12-14
fifth-game predicament to a hair-raising 15-14 victory over Dawn Gray
and Amy Milanek. An out-of-court Milanek lob followed by a shallow rail
winner by Keating set up the simultaneous-match-point, on the first
attempt at which Gray hit a ball that appeared to go over the
front-wall boundary line, but when the referee stated that she thought
the ball had stayed “in” and the two judges refused
to rule
on a pending appeal, a decision was made to re-play the point, which
ended when a Milanek forehand reverse-corner caught the top of the tin.
Hewitt and Keating will now have an opportunity to
avenge
their U. S. National Doubles final-round fourth-set-overtime loss to
Australian sisters Narelle Krizek and Tarsh McElhinny, who had to
surmount plenty of still opposition themselves in a 15-14 fourth-game
semifinal win over Americans Emily Lungstrum and Dana Betts, with
Krizek coming up with a shallow rail winner on the fourth
game’s
concluding and deciding point.
Semis
Recap:
Men:
Damien Mudge/Ben Gould (Aus) d. Preston Quick/Greg Park (USA), 3-1
John Russell/Clive Leach (Eng) d. Jonny Smith/Mark Chaloner (Eng), 3-2
Women:
Narelle Krizek/Tarsh McElhinny (Aus) d. Dana Betts/Emily
Lungstrum (USA), 3-1
Seanna Keating/Steph Hewitt (Can) d. Dawn Gray/Amy Milanek (USA), 3-2