WDSA Tour Gears Up For Biennial World Doubles In Chicago By Rob Dinerman Dateline May 4th ---
Eleven teams, four of them Canadian, will vie for the 2015 Women’s
World Squash Doubles Championship at the Onwentsia Club in suburban
Chicago later this week as a culmination of the 2014-15 WDSA campaign.
Americans Amanda Sobhy and Natalie Grainger, who won this biennial
event the last time it was held, in New York in 2013, are entered, as
are the 2013 finalists (and 2011 champions) Seanna Keating and Steph
Hewitt of Canada; five countries (the Netherlands, Colombia and
England, in addition to the U. S. and Canada) are represented overall.
The top two seeded teams are both British, namely No. 1 Suzie
Pierrepont and Carrie Hastings and No. 2 Gina Stoker and Victoria
Simmonds. The latter pairing teamed up for the first time at the John’s
Island Open in Vero Beach a few weeks ago, reaching the semis before
losing to the eventual champs Dana Betts and Tarsh McElhinny. Their
quarterfinal match-up on Friday will be with whichever team wins what
should be a highly competitive round-of-16 encounter Thursday afternoon
between Canadians Tara Mullins and Marcy Sier, who strongly challenged
eventual champs Keating and Hewitt in the semis of the Canadian
National Doubles last month, and the Colombian pairing of Catalina
Palaez and Isabel Restrepo, each of whom played on a Trinity College
team that won a Howe Cup emblematic of the women’s national collegiate
team championship. Also positioned in the bottom half of the draw are
Sobhy and Grainger, who will face Betts and Sarah West in an
all-American quarterfinal.
In the top half,
Pierrepont and Hastings will oppose the winner of an all-Canadian
opening-round match between Nikole Todd/Jackie Moss and Karen
Jerome/Michele Ramsey, while Keating and Hewitt will await the winner
of the match pitting Americans Amy Milanek and Dawn Gray against Dutch
stars Karen Kronemayer and Annelize Naude. This tournament will
constitute a farewell appearance for Hastings, who with husband Michael
Bull is planning to return to their native England later this month.
The semis will take place Saturday afternoon, with the final set for
Sunday at 4 PM. A substantial number of the entrants in this draw will
also be playing in the 15-team Mixed Doubles competition, in which
Pierrepont is again the top seed, this time with John Russell.
Australians Paul Price and Narelle Krizek, who won the World Mixed
Doubles in 2013, will not be attempting to defend this title, since
Price, who had been based in Toronto for more than a decade, moved back
to Australia this past summer, and Krizek, who severely injured a
tendon in her left foot during the final of the Hashim Khan Open in
Denver in March, is still recovering and won’t be cleared to play
squash for several more weeks.
