Addison West And Whitten Morris Capture Silver Racquets Crown by Rob Dinerman
(l to r) Finalists Will Hartigan and Alex Domenick, Tournament
Co-Chair Dylan Patterson, Champions Whitten Morris and Addison West
Dateline November 13th
--- Top seeds Whitten Morris and Addison West emerged victorious over a
talented 14-team field this past weekend to win the 24th edition of the
Silver Racquet Squash Doubles Invitational, hosted as always by the
Racquet & Tennis Club in mid-town Manhattan. It was the seventh
Silver Racquets title for Morris, breaking the record of six that he
had previously co-held with Morris Clothier, and the second time he has
won it with West (also in 2011), his other victorious partners having
been Michael Ferreira in 2005, 2007 and 2008, Trevor McGuinness in 2012
and Baset Chaudhry in 2013.
Byed to the quarterfinals, West and Morris then won in straight
sets over first Clothier and Tim Wyant and then R&T assistant pros
Will Newnham and Eric Bedell. Waiting for them in the final were Alex
Domenick, who won this tournament two years ago with Chris Callis, and
Will Hartigan, who won it last year with West. They had taken their
semi in four games over second seeds Hamed Anvari and Peter Kelly. Just
as they had done all weekend to that point, West and Morris dominated
the first two games, 15-8 and 15-9, with a full-court blitz that had
Domenick and Hartigan on the defensive. But in the third, the tenor of
the match changed as Domenick started hitting reverse-corner winners
and Hartigan scored with several daring backhand straight drop shots
from the back wall to the front left in front of West, who also
committed several tins late in that game, which eventually landed in
the Domenick/Hartigan column by a 15-13 margin.
The fourth seesawed evenly and treacherously along with
several tension-building play stoppages, one when Morris got hit by a
Hartigan follow-through and the second when the ball broke at 9-all.
Domenick, who had returned to tournament play only recently after
missing most of last season rehabbing from surgery to both hips, was
under constant attack, especially from the powerful cross-court blasts
that Morris kept firing at him, but he held up admirably and nailed a
number of winners of his own. The new ball definitely added to the
West/Morris attack during the first few points when play resumed,
enabling them to move to 13-10, then 14-11. Morris, the best player in
the tournament (and a recent winner of an SDA Challenger pro event with
Chaudhry) with his court coverage and dynamism, then made a rare tin,
but on the ensuing point he dashed to the front left and buried a
backhand rail to perfect width and depth past Domenick that ended
matters and sealed a 15-8, 15-9, 13-15, 15-12 victory for himself and
his partner.
