Suzie Pierrepont Ruptures Achilles, Will Undergo Surgery Today by Rob Dinerman photo WSDA
Dateline May 6th
--- In the wake of the left Achilles tendon rupture that she sustained
this past Sunday during the fifth game of the final round of the
MetroSquash Chicago Open at the Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, IL,
Suzie Pierrepont will undergo surgery to reattach the tendon today in
the hope of making a full return to the WSDA women’s pro doubles tour
this autumn. Pierrepont and her first-time partner Fernanda Rocha were
at 5-6 in the fifth game against another pair of debuting teammates in
Dana Betts and Gina Stoker when Pierrepont hurt herself while
maneuvering around Betts as she pursued the ball in tight quarters
along the left wall. The injury occurred a year virtually to the day
from when Pierrepont and Carrie Hastings captured the biennial World
Doubles title on the same suburban-Chicago court, and just three weeks
after Pierrepont and James Stout had won the U. S. National Mixed
Doubles title in Philadelphia. Pierrepont, a former world top-30 on the
pro singles circuit who with Narelle Krizek has formed the No. 1 pro
doubles team several times during the past half-dozen years, has had
heel problems in the past --- she tore the plantar fascia in her right
foot during the 2006 World Open in Belfast and has played through bouts
with tendinitis in recent years --- but her mishap this past weekend
occurred out of the blue and she later reported that she “didn’t see
this coming!”
The MetroSquash event, one of the
most popular on the schedule for how well it is run by Co-Chairs Danny
Dolan and Peter Dunne along with the host club’s head pro Aidan
Harrison, is the last on the 2015-16 WSDA schedule, and
Pierrepont/Rocha had advanced to the final with a win over Amy Milanek
and Tina Rix. In the top half of the four-team draw, No. 1 seeds Betts
and Stoker had trailed Latasha Khan and Tehani Guruge two games to one
before rallying to a five-game victory. They similarly were faced with
a two-games-to-one deficit in the final but stormed through the fourth
game 15-8, leading to a fifth game that was evenly contested before
Pierrepont’s fateful misstep left her writhing on the floor and ended
the game, and the WSDA season, in abrupt and most regrettable fashion.
