SDA St. Louis Recap: Mudge And Gould Dominate St. Louis Open  
by Rob Dinerman


Dateline October 26th ---  In a devastating and dominant display, top seeds Damien Mudge and Ben Gould blew through the draw without dropping a single game to win the St. Louis Open for the fourth consecutive time. After debuting on Friday with a competitive 15-14,13 and 14 quarterfinal over Imran Khan and Mark Chaloner in a rematch of the season-opening Maryland Club Open final two weeks ago, Mudge and Gould were mercilessly efficient in their pair of Saturday matches, posting all single figures first in a 15-5, 4 and 7 midday semi with fourth seeds Matt Jenson and Preston Quick (who had been forced to surmount a two games to one deficit in their quarterfinal with Chris Walker and Hamed Anvari) and then in a 15-9, 6 and 9 evening final with third seeds Manek Mathur and Yvain Badan.

   The latter pair of former mid-2000’s Trinity College teammates had qualified for their third final-round appearance in the last four years in this venue by surviving a murderous route-going quarter over James Stout and Greg McArthur, finalists in the late-September UVA Challenger tourney in Charlottesville, following which Mathur and Badan took on Jonny Smith and Greg Park, quarterfinal upset winners over second seeds Paul Price and Clive Leach. This was a physical four-game battle for Smith in particular, as he had to stop play briefly with a bleeding hand and later had his protective goggles smashed in fluky fashion when Mathur lashed a ball that caromed off Park’s foot and into Smith’s face. Mathur and Badan closed out their tight four-game win with a pair of match-ending 15-13 tallies but the draining effect of this encounter may at least in part have influenced the character of the final, which began only a few hours later. Mudge and Gould have now captured the first two tournaments on the SDA 2013-14 schedule with six three-love wins, yielding double-figure points in only five of the 18 games  they have played so far.