USA Team Trials: Oliner And Quick Reach Finals By Rob Dinerman
Dateline July 18th, 2009--
The Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, Preston Quick and Ben Oliner respectively, both
won their semifinal matches at the Harvard Club of New York Friday
evening (albeit in dramatically different fashion) and will face each
other Saturday at 1:00 (a time change from the original 4:00 schedule)
in a final that will determine which player will join Julian
Illingworth, Gilly Lane and Chris Gordon on the USA squad that will
participate in September in the biennial World Team Championships in
Odense, Denmark.
Quick displayed too much firepower for fourth seed Richard Chin in an
11-8, 4 and 6 match that was well-played but had a pre-ordained feel to
it by early in the second game, while by contrast the outcome of the
4-11 11-5 6-11 11-9 11-8 tally of the Oliner-Bassett clash was in
severe doubt throughout its pulsating 80-minute duration, which made it
that much more of a shame that it was fated to end on the last and (by
far) worst of a number of poor referee’s decisions that marred
what was otherwise a splendidly entertaining and undulating battle
between two superb and motivated athletes.
The first four games of Oliner-Bassett were all decided on extended
early- and/or mid-game runs: Bassett, determined to avenge his loss to
Oliner in the Gold Racquets this past December, raced out to a 7-1 lead
in dominating the first game, then surrendered a 6-0 Oliner run from
3-4 to 9-4 that effectively finished off the second. A 7-0 Bassett
charge from 1-2 to 8-2 gave him a lock on the third game, but Oliner
then broke a 5-all fourth-game deadlock with a 5-0 surge to 10-5.
Bassett managed to climb all the way to 9-10, only to be victimized
when a mis-hit by a diving Oliner just trickled above the tin for a
gift-winner, forcing a fifth game that proved to be error-filled (the
first six evenly divided points all ended with tins) and even a bit
crude, but very intense and riveting. Since both players are at this
point in their careers much better at covering court than they are at
ending points, the exchanges were lengthy and grueling.
Oliner went from 3-4 to 9-5, benefiting from seven Bassett errors, but
the latter staged an eleventh-hour last-stand 3-1 rally (helped in
major measure when at 7-10 he scraped back a wall-clinging Oliner
left-wall drive that just crept above the tin to make it 8-10), leading
to an all-court foray at the end of which Oliner, drawn to the
front-right part of the court, hit a forehand drop that was easily
within the reach of Bassett, who tripped over a back-pedaling
Oliner’s left foot on his way past him, thus throwing Bassett off
balance and causing him to call for a let without attempting to swing
at the ball. This was by all rights a no-brainer, and when referee Brad
Burke instead declared “No Let,” the entire gallery reacted
as one with a groan of disapproval and anger so prolonged and
vociferous that Oliner, clearly aware that a let should have been
granted and conflicted about the propriety of having the match end on
such a sour and controversial note, initially offered to play a let,
citing as he opened the back-wall door to discuss the situation his
desire for the standing-room crowd clustered around the exhibition
court “not to all have a bad taste in their mouth.” Burke
urged him to re-consider this offer and instead abide by the
referee’s call and, after several moments’ hesitation, a
visibly still-reluctant and ambivalent Oliner eventually decided to do
so.
Bassett’s fifth-game tin count was too high for him to have
deserved to win that game, but he had also played too hard and too well
throughout the match, which itself had been too engaging and riveting,
for there to have been any justice in its having ended the highly
dissatisfying and inappropriate way that it did. Bassett and Chin will
play a third-place playoff at noon on Saturday prior to the 1:00
Quick-Oliner final.
Semis Recap:
Preston Quick d Richard Chin, 11-8, 4 and 6; Ben Oliner d Graham Bassett, 4-11 11-5 6-11 11-9 11-8.