Silver Racquet Final: Trevor McGuinness And Whitten Morris Surge To Championship
by Rob Dinerman of Dailysquashreport.com
Dateline November 11th --- Building upon the momentum they generated in their rallying quarterfinal victory Saturday afternoon, top seeds Trevor McGuinness and Whitten Morris dominated the Racquet & Tennis Club’s regal doubles court today, first solidly out-playing Noah Wimmer and Peter Kelly in a downhill 15-10 12-15 15-7 15-8 semifinal in the morning and then sweeping past first-time partners Addison West and Baset Chaudhry in the final by a revealing score of 15-12, 9 and 8 to capture the 20th edition of the Silver Racquet Invitational. It was the fifth time that Morris has won this high-end Open/A event (preceded by his triumphs in 2005, 2007 and 2008 with Michael Ferreira and a year ago with West) and he and McGuinness now have added this championship to the four William Whites and two U. S. National Doubles titles (2008 and 2009) headlining their tournaments-won ledger. They received a temporary scare in dropping the first two games against Morris Clothier and Peter Cipriano late yesterday, but they then stormed through the final three games in single figures, ended their semifinal match, as noted, with a pair of single-figure games as well, and, after emerging from a tight opening game in the final, were in complete control from that point onward.
In fact, after a Friday/Saturday stretch of upsets, near-upsets and five-game thrillers, Sunday’s play was much more orderly and surprise-free. In the bottom-half semifinal, West and Chaudhry were highly efficient in snuffing out their youthful opponents Alex Domenick and Chris Callis, who had come up with the upset of the tournament in toppling second seeds Josh Schwartz and Hamed Anvari in four games in the quarters but were unable to come close to duplicating that level of energy and execution in their straight-game loss this morning.
Entering the final, an evenly-matched left-wall battle was anticipated between McGuinness and West (who 21 months ago had partnered each other to the 2011 U. S. National Doubles title in Chicago), but McGuinness dictated the pattern right from the opening point on a stinging reverse-corner winner and never looked back. He scored frequent front-court winners (including on the game-ending point in each game) at the expense of West, who had performed so well in last year’s victorious final but who on this occasion seemed frazzled at having to bear the brunt of the McGuinness/Morris attack and endured several costly tinning stretches during the match.
Meanwhile, Morris, who exploded for four consecutive-point winners (on a nick-finding three-wall, a rail that he lashed down the right wall, an out-of-the-blue reverse-corner and a double-boast he conjured up from the depths of the back wall) in staking his team out to an 8-0 second-game lead, was blasting the ball at West, forcing openings, covering the back-left beautifully when McGuinness was stuck out of position and complementing the latter’s incisive corner-work. Chaudhry nailed a number of shallow forehand winners that helped keep himself and West in the game, but was unable to leave a significant enough handprint on the action to prevent McGuinness and Morris (whose spurt from 5-all to 11-6 in the third game effectively sealed the outcome) from their inexorable march to the winner’s circle. The match ended (on yet another McGuinness shallow forehand rail that nicked on the front-left well in front of West) barely a half-hour after it began, with McGuinness and Morris having pocketed in convincing fashion the first important doubles tournament on the U. S. Squash 2012-13 schedule.
Sunday Recap
Semis:
Trevor McGuinness/Whitten Morris d. Peter Kelly/Noah Wimmer, 15-10 12-15 15-7 15-8
Addison West/Baset Chaudhry d. Alex Domenick/Chris Callis, 15-8, 12 and 13
Final:
McGuinness/Morris d. West/Chaudhry, 15-12, 9 and 8
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