WDSA Women’s Pro Doubles Recap: Suzie Pierrepont and Narelle Krizek Capture Inaugural Cincinnati Open   
by Rob Dinerman


Dateline November 11th --- Played to a virtual standstill through the first two evenly divided games, top seeds Suzie Pierrepont and Narelle Krizek asserted themselves from that point onward and defeated second seeds Steph Hewitt and Natarsha McElhinny 15-13 11-15 15-7 15-9 yesterday afternoon in the final round of the inaugural $8,000 edition of the Cincinnati Open, held at the Cincinnati Country Club and benefiting Emanuel Squash, a youth-enrichment organization set to launch this spring. By winning this opening tournament of the 2013-14 WDSA women’s pro doubles season, Pierrepont and Krizek notched the milestone 10th WDSA title of their four-year partnership and have now won the last six tournaments in which they have partnered up since they last loss in May 2012  to Hewitt and Meredeth Quick in the finals of that year’s Turner Cup.

   Pierrepont and Krizek were strongly challenged in their semifinal match with Heidi Mather and Kelsey Engman (qualifying-round winners over Dawn Gray and Amy Milanek), who held a six-point lead in the second game and took the third to simultaneous-game-ball before a forehand reverse-corner winner off Krizek’s racquet clinched the 15-8, 13 and 14 outcome. The bottom-half semi saw McElhinny and Hewitt prevail over Dana Betts and Carrie Hastings 15-14 10-15 15-12 15-9, largely on the basis of a slew of volleyed backhand front-court winners from McElhinny, especially in the close-out fourth game.

  Her racquet-work remained highly effective throughout the ensuing final as well, largely accounting (along with a Krizek mid-game tinning patch) for her team’s success in the second game. In the third and fourth, Pierrepont was able to re-establish her positioning in front of McElhinny, partly blunting the latter’s effectiveness, and she and her partner Krizek were better able to keep Hewitt deeper in the court as well. They carried the play during the last two games, reducing their tin count and inexorably creating openings with their offensive power – but McElhinny and Hewitt, with this tourney now under their belt, will be tough to beat this coming weekend in Los Angeles, where Pierrepont will be paired with Betts and where several other potentially contending pairings will be filling the six-team draw as well.