Silver Racquet Update: Top Seeds McGuinness/Morris Rally From Love-Two Down
by Rob Dinerman Of Dailysquashreport.com
Dateline November 10th --- Trailing two games to love in the quarterfinals of the 20th annual Silver Racquet Invitational, top seeds and two-time (in 2008 and 2009) U. S. National Doubles champions Trevor McGuinness and Whitten Morris surged through the final three games Saturday afternoon en route to a 13-15 10-15 15-8 15-9 15-5 victory over Morris Clothier and Peter Cipriano. McGuinness and Morris will now face Peter Kelly and Noah Wimmer, four-game quarters winners over recent Cornell teammates Will Hartigan and Dillon Aldrich, in one semifinal, while the bottom-half semi will match Addison West/Baset Chaudhry against another pair of just-graduated collegians in the persons of Alex Domenick and Chris Callis.
The weekend’s action so far has to a surprising degree been unkind to seeded teams, as the host Racquet & Tennis Club in midtown Manhattan (which in addition to this squash doubles tournament is also running a total of five other competitive events in the sports of court tennis and racquets) has seen a series of upsets, near-upsets and five-game marathons, beginning right from the Friday-afternoon kick-off. In the first match of the tournament, former North American Open Doubles champion Anders Wahlstedt and his cousin Rick saw a two-games-to-one advantage give way to a determined comeback effort on the part of Tim Wyant and Terence Li, following which, just a few hours later, fourth seeds Dylan Patterson and Ryan O’Connell, each a former winner of this tourney (Patterson in 2010 with Steve Scharff and O’Connell in 2004 with James Ardrey), were toppled by Aldrich and Hartigan.
Then this afternoon began with Domenick and Callis, who themselves had barely survived (15-13 in the fifth, on a frame-winner at match-ball) a murderous early-morning round-of-16 thriller against mid-2000’s Yale teammates Francis Johnson and Todd Ruth, pulling off a four-game upset victory over second seeds and 2012 New York Athletic Club Invitational winners Josh Schwartz and Hamed Anvari. And it ended with Clothier, who has won this tournament a record six times, and Cipriano coming within a game of ousting Morris and McGuinness, The two other quarterfinal matches saw West --- who partnered Morris to this tourney’s winner’s circle in 2011 in a four-game final over Kelly and Dave Barry --- and Chaudhry win in straight sets over Wyant and Li, who may have still been feeling the effects of their 100-minute opening-round match with the Wahlstedts, while Wimmer and Kelly used a 15-14 third-game tally as the key to their eventual win over Aldrich and Hartigan.
The semifinals will be played Sunday morning, with the final set for 2:30 in the afternoon.
Quarterfinal Recap:
Trevor McGuinness/Whitten Morris d. Peter Cipriano/Morris Clothier, 13-15 10-15 15-8 15-9 15-5
Peter Kelly/Noah Wimmer d. Will Hartigan/Dillon Aldrich, 14-15 15-11 15-14 15-11
Addison West/Baset Chaudhry d. Tim Wyant/Terence Li, 15-12, 4 and 6
Alex Domenick/Chris Callis d. Josh Schwartz/Hamed Anvari, 13-15 15-12 15-13 15-10
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