Suzie Pierrepont And Steph Hewitt Capture Third Straight Hashim Khan Open By Rob Dinerman
Dateline March 22nd
--- Strongly challenged throughout the weekend, top seeds Suzie
Pierrepont and Steph Hewitt nevertheless won the Hashim Khan Open for
the third successive time over their third different set of final-round
opponents. The 37th edition of this highly popular tournament, named
after squash’s foremost icon, who passed away six months ago after a
remarkable century-long life, was held as always at the Denver Athletic
Club. RBC Wealth Management DeRose Group and Chroma Commercial Capital
were the primary sponsors and the tournament benefited Mile High
Squash, an urban squash and educational organization serving inner-city
youth in Denver.
Although this pair of savvy tour veterans wound up in the
winner’s circle, the real story of this tournament was the play of a
number of newer pairings whose presence and performance augurs well for
the future of the WDSA tour. Harvard senior Amanda Sobhy, fresh from
having won the U. S. Intercollegiate and U. S. National singles crowns
in recent weeks, teamed with Latasha Khan to win first their qualifying
match against U. S. Squash Hall of Famer Alicia McConnell and Sarah
West, and then their quarterfinal tilt over a four-months-pregnant
Meredeth Quick (who first learned the game as a youngster at the host
club and who reached the 2014 final of this event with Dana Betts) and
Fernanda Rocha, in an exciting five-game battle which was the highlight
of Friday’s night’s action.
Khan and Sobhy then pushed the eventual champs throughout
their semifinal, as witness the 15-14 15-8 13-15 15-13 statistical
tally. Sobhy’s southpaw power and Khan’s error-free play and
front-court winners were constant factors as they came within a few
points of forcing what might have been a riveting fifth game.
Pierrepont, who is currently based in Denver, where she is pursuing an
MBA at the University of Colorado, and Hewitt had opened with a
four-game quarterfinal win over the young British-born,
Philadelphia-based Tina Rix/Carrie Hastings duo, which had advanced to
that stage with a qualifying-round victory over recent Trinity College
teammates Tehani Guruge and Catalina Pelaez.
In the draw’s bottom half, second seeds and 2013 Hashim
Khan Open finalists Narelle Krizek and her sister Tarsh McElhinny won
three-love over Amy Milanek and Dawn Gray, and the young
Philadelphia-based pair of Alex Clark and Gina Stoker prevailed 3-1
over Karen Jerome and Victoria Simmonds, setting up a sensational
semifinal in which Stoker/Clark, after dropping the opening game 15-10,
took each of the next two by a single point, in both cases with unusual
winners at 14-all. The second game ended when Krizek, who began the
match playing the left wall, hit a tight backhand rail that clung so
tight to the wall that Stoker was able to get just a piece of the ball,
enough to nudge it barely above the tin, and at 14-all in the third,
Clark caught a back-wall nick on an over-hit drive.
As they have done with frequent success over the years,
the sisters decided to switch walls after that third game and managed
to claw their way through the 15-13 fourth, even though midway through
the game Krizek, who has been struggling with plantar fasciitis in her
left foot, re-injured her heel while making a get in the front-left
area of the court. She and her partner rallied after falling behind
early in the fifth game, but Stoker and Clark were barely able to hold
them off and punch their 15-12 ticket to the final. There they
recovered from a mistake-filled first game (which they lost 15-5) to
push right to the end-game portion of the second and third. However, a
variety of Pierrepont winners --- a forehand reverse-corner winner from
mid-court, a volleyed straight drop and a delicate cross-drop that
caught the front-right nick --- accounted for the 15-12 second game,
and at 14-13 in the third, on her team’s third match-ball, Hewitt
passed Clark with a drive down the right wall that ended the match and
clinched her second doubles tournament of the month, the prior
one being the Canadian Mixed Doubles title that she and partner Will
Mariani won in Toronto two weeks ago.
The WDSA schedule will resume with the John’s Island Open
in Vero Beach in four weeks’ time, with tour stops in Chicago and
Southampton to follow.
