Natalie Grainger And Amanda Sobhy Surge To World Doubles Women’s Title
by Rob Dinerman
Dateline April 14th --- In a compelling display of firepower, teamwork and athleticism, Americans Amanda Sobhy and Natalie Grainger fully lived up to their No. 1 seeding by sweeping to a truly convincing 15-7, 11 and 7 victory over the second-seeded defending champion Canadians Seanna Keating and Steph Hewitt Sunday afternoon in front of an appreciative crowd at Heights Casino. Sobhy and Grainger, opponents the past two years in the finals of the U. S. National singles championships (which Sobhy won 3-0 in 2012 before Grainger took their five-game rematch last month) and teammates in a run to the 2010 Turner Cup crown, turned in a masterful performance against the Keating/Hewitt tandem, who may have been slightly drained by their airtight though straight-set 15-14, 13 and 13 Saturday-afternoon semifinal win over Aussies Narelle Krizek and her sister Natarsha McElhinny, a repeat of the final-round outcome the last time this biennial tournament was held, in 2011 in Toronto.
Grainger herself had been through a strenuous Saturday schedule (FOUR matches, the last of which had been a grueling World Mixed Doubles final in which she and Preston Quick had fallen barely short, 15-13 in the fourth, against Krizek and her compatriot Paul Price), yet she appeared almost invigorated by her previous day’s exertions at the outset of today’s Women’s final, cracking a forehand cross-drop volley into the front-left nick on the opening point, following which the reigning two-time Intercollegiate Individuals champ Sobhy nailed a three-wall nick, Grainger again powered a cross-court winner, Hewitt tinned a forehand drop shot, and just like that, within two or three minutes after play began, the Americans already had a 4-0 lead. This pattern continued of the top seeds storming out of the gate at the start of each game, accumulating margins --- 10-3 in the first game, 12-3 in the second and 13-3 in the third --- too daunting to be overcome. The left-handed Sobhy, who has added a skid-boast and a tight reverse-corner to her power game, is a perfect complement, for both her tangibly impressive athletic skills and her youthful exuberance, to Grainger’s more refined and highly sophisticated all-around game. Even Sobhy’s occasional miscues (as when she double-faulted the first time she served in the match, failing on both service attempts to account for the notorious beam at the host venue, which has picked off so many serves and lobs over the years) caused both she and her partner to burst into laughter rather than distress, and in any event were only a brief interruption to their domination.
It is a tribute to the grit and determination of the Keating/Hewitt duo – which, refusing to be demoralized by their simultaneous-championship-point loss to Dana Betts and Jessica DiMauro one week ago in the Canadian National Doubles final, had surmounted late-game deficits in all three games of their semifinal win over the Australian siblings Krizek and McElhinny --- that they rallied as strongly as they did with their 8-1 run that got them within range in the second game. During that period Hewitt played her best squash of the match, Grainger and Sobhy, their momentum temporarily halted, coughed up a few errors, and Keating nudged a few straight-drop winners, the last of which drew them to 11-13, yet another late-game charge that, had it continued a few points longer, could well have transformed the entire trajectory of the match.
But at this juncture, Grainger decisively stepped to the fore, angling a mid-court backhand reverse-corner winner, then handcuffing Keating on her ensuing serve, a backhand slice that squirted erratically off the left side wall and was not returned into play. Deflated by the way that game ended, the Canadians, as noted, fell too far behind in the third to have any realistic chance of catching up. Grainger, liberated by the substantial and growing scoreboard advantage, showed her entire repertoire, alternating biting three-walls and reverses with parabolic lobs and skid-boasts and even a trio of Philadelphia-boasts which, abetted by their surprise value, sent her opponents scurrying to the back corners in full retreat, while Sobhy nailed severe drives off both flanks and made several remarkable gets to extend the points. At 14-4 they surrendered a few points, but on their fourth match-ball opportunity, Grainger pounded a forehand cross-court that bounded so far towards the right wall that a lunging Keating, unable to control her responding swing, lofted the ball over the front-wall boundary line, ending the match less than an hour after it began and presenting Sobhy and Grainger with a fully deserved victory.
With the Mixed and Women’s tournaments now complete, only the Men’s final remains, and that will be played at Racquet & Tennis Monday evening between top-seeded defending champions Damien Mudge and Ben Gould of Australia, semis winners over reigning two-time U. S. National champs Quick and Greg Park, and the English pairing of Clive Leach and Jonny Smith, who defeated second seeds Price and Matt Jenson in the bottom-half semifinal.
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