Australians Paul Price And Narelle Krizek Edge Americans Preston Quick And Natalie Grainger in World Mixed Final
by Rob Dinerman
Dateline April 13th ---- In a pulsating and unevenly bisected World Mixed Doubles final that featured first ruthlessly efficient domination, then a game-changing back-from-the-dead rally resulting from a daring mid-course correction, and finally an instant of indecision, fleeting but fatal, top seeds Paul Price and Narelle Krizek edged out Natalie Grainger and Preston Quick 15-7 15-6 10-15 15-13 Saturday evening before a loudly admiring and chock-full gallery at the New York Athletic Club. Price and Krizek thereby duplicated their success six years ago in the 2007 U. S. National Mixed tourney (by one point in the fourth over Quick and his sister Meredeth in that final) and earned the first of the three major World Doubles titles (with the Woman’s final to be played at Heights Casino Sunday afternoon and the Men’s to follow Monday evening at Racquet & Tennis) that are being contested this weekend.
Early on, it was all Price/Krizek, who immediately seized control and held it throughout the first two games to a degree even greater than the single-figure scores. Both Australian stars were deadly in both their execution and shot-selection, keeping the Americans on their heels and in near-constant defensive retreat. The Quick/Grainger strategy of pounding the ball at Krizek wasn’t working at all; indeed, if anything, it appeared to get her in the groove, as she scored with biting reverse-corners and nervy volleyed drops, complemented by Price’s all-court brilliance, which included three well-spaced and perfectly placed backhand-reverse serve-return winners which gouged craters in his opponent’s morale. Grainger was being out-positioned, and when Quick began hedging towards the middle, Price victimized him by nailing passing rails down the left wall. Both games ended on tinned Grainger serve-returns, the first borne of anger, the second of frustration. Even when the Americans decided to switch walls to start the third game, Price and Krizek confidently strode to a 10-4 lead, seemingly completely secure in the saddle.
Certainly no one in the gallery could have foreseen the totality of the turnaround that awaited. It began innocuously when Quick shaded a drop shot into the front right nick, following which Grainger guided a cross-court drop shot into the front right nick. Aware that Krizek had by that point stationed herself a little bit back in the court (fully understandable since to that point the Americans had tried been trying, with no success whatsoever, to overpower her) and that the front-right might be open, both Quick and especially Grainger started directing their salvos towards that sector, and they climbed to 9-10 when a superb Quick lob serve from the left box dropped too close to the back wall for Krizek to return. Grainger, suddenly confident of her short game, then contributed several drop shots just an inch or two above the tin for winners as her team completed an improbable 11-0 sweep to close out a game that just 10 minutes earlier they had appeared doomed to lose by an embarrassing margin.
The skein grew to 13 when Quick and Grainger took the first two points of the fourth game, but a Quick tin finally ended the run and initiated a 10-3 Australian spurt that put the Americans in a hole that they spent the rest of the game trying to climb out of – and nearly did. While there was a clear dollop of magic fueling their third-game rally, in the fourth it was more dogged determination and an unwillingness on the part of Grainger/Quick, even when several crossroad points went against them and their opponents got progressively closer to the finish line, to concede defeat. There were any number of setbacks that could have broken their spirit, namely a Quick top-of-the-tin that made it 7-12, a scrambling point that left the right side open for a scorching Prince forehand rail (8-13) and an on-the-run nick-finding Krizek three-wall that brought the score to 14-10. But even then, a pair of delicate Grainger drop shots from deep in the court sandwiched a blazing Quick forehand cross-court winner that narrowed the count to 13-14, a second consecutive eleventh-hour comeback suddenly a definite possibility.
On the ensuing point, an extended exchange with no one wanting to commit a tin or surrender a loose ball, Prince over-hit a forehand cross-court that hit the right wall, the floor and the back wall, bounding towards the middle. Grainger had been chasing that type of ball down and playing it on her forehand, but as she started her pursuit, Quick also circled back for the ball, and as each saw the other tracking the play, both stopped for the briefest moment, just enough time for the treacherously angling ball to snake out of either’s reach, as Krizek and Price looked on in grateful disbelief. It was really neither Grainger’s fault not Quick’s, but rather one of those tiny but telling episodes unique to doubles and part of the agonizing beauty that characterizes this form of the sport, surfacing as it occasionally does at the most inopportune times, even, as certainly was the case here, when played at the highest level.
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