Dateline March 1st --- The top-seeded sister team of Narelle Krizek and Tarsh McElhinny repulsed a strong challenge from Fernanda Rocha and Karen Jerome today in the inaugural $10,000 St. Louis Open at the Missouri Athletic Club, where an enthusiastic crowd watched them evenly divide the first two airtight games before asserting themselves thereafter en route to a 13-15 15-13 15-7 15-8 victory. Rocha and Jerome had earlier won a five-game quarterfinal battle against the Philadelphia pairing of Amy Milanek and Dawn Gray, 15-12 in the fifth. In the bottom half of the six-team draw, Steph Hewitt and Meredeth Quick, united for the first time since winning the U. S. Open in December 2012 (with Quick first giving birth and then sustaining a shoulder injury during the interim), posted consecutive convincing straight-set wins over the Larissa Stephenson/Joyce Davenport duo in the quarters and second seeds Heidi Mather and Vic Simmonds in the semis.