Exactly one year ago, Mac Davidson lost a five game final by two points. Five days later, he had his old hip replaced with a new one and began a year of rehabilitation. Today, he returned to win a five game final and such is the difference a new joint can make. It wasn’t easy. Mac and partner Hamed Anvari (New York) dropped the first two games of the final to Ming Tsai & Yvain Badan (Rye, NY) before squeezing out the third. Crosscourt exchanges between Mac and Ming were the menu of the match with the former making a few less errors in the end. Ming played in his first Pro-Am before family members and further endeared himself to all by hosting a group at his Blue Ginger restaurant on Saturday evening. He reached the final with a relatively small degree of stress, winning over Joel Kozol & John Russell (New York) in three, Marty Stocklan & Viktor Berg (Vancouver) in four and John Hailer & Chris Walker (Greenwich) in four. Mac and Yvain had much the same, wining over Jim Hearty & Raj Nanda (Rye) in four, Court Chilton & Mark Chaloner (Greenwich) in four and Lenny Bernheimer & Matt Jenson (San Francisco) in five.
The University Club Pro Doubles Championship and its sister tournament, the University Club Pro-Am Doubles Championship have become an important mid-January fixture on the ISDA Professional Doubles Tour. With 2 sponsors, 63 patrons and 16 amateur players providing financial support for the event, the professionals competed in both the Professional and Pro-Am tournaments for $32,000 in prize money. A chance to see the top professionals in the world brought out sizeable galleries throughout the weekend. This year, the finals were again held on Sunday after brunch and provided a two hour, tremendous five game match between last year’s champions Damien Mudge (New York) & Viktor Berg (Vancouver) vs. second seeded Paul Price (Toronto) & Ben Gould (New York). Down 2-1 in games and 6-2 in the fourth, Paul changed tactics and abandoned his error-prone shots in favor of hard cross courts, bringing Ben into more points. It worked as they won the last two games and their first title of the year after losing the first two events of the season to Damien & Viktor.
The North Draw in the Pro-Am was composed of teams that won their first match, but lost in the quarter-final round of the main draw. Fellow restaurateur Dave Riccio & Clive Leach (New York) pulled this one out with a magnificent five game final victory over the Chilton-Chaloner tandem. Leach was spectacular, covering much of the court and shouting encouragement for the ones Dave handled. Dave was also a big hit on Saturday evening as his Café Vittoria in the North End was host to many into the wee hours of the morning. Dave & Clive defeated the Stocklan-Berg pair in four in the semis while Court & Mark chalked up a rare three game victory over Jeff Rodman & James Hewitt (Toronto) in the same round.
Moving to the West Draw with some hurt feelings and sore muscles were losers of first round matches. Steve Quigley, one of four rookies in the field (Tsai, Rodman and Kanwal were the others), paired with last year’s champion Ben Gould (New York) to win the fifth game, 15-14, over Joel Kozol & Russell. Joel is the oldest but among the most accurate players in the draw and was playing his eleventh Pro-Am event of the thirteen held. Jamie Fagan & Greg Park (Philadelphia) moved onward with a four game conquest of Jim Bildner & Damien Mudge (New York). Jamie is also playing with a new hip and joins Mac, Nimick and Poor as recently reconstructed warriors. Matthew Kozol & Jonny Smith (New York) dropped the first two games to Philip Bullen & Willie Hosey (Toronto), then inched back to win the last three, including the fourth game by a single point. Amrit Kanwal & Preston Quick (Boston) were the last to move forward with a four game decision over Hearty & Nanda. In the semis Fagan & Park won in four over Quigley & Gould; Kanwal & Quick took the second three game win of the tournament over Kozol & Smith. The final was a right wall battle between Jamie and Amrit resulting in another five game match in the latter’s favor.
The South Draw was reserved for West Draw quarter-final losers. Jim Bildner is the only amateur to play in all thirteen of the Pro-Ams. Experience paid off as he and Mudge won a five game semi over Joel Kozol & Russell. In the other five game semi Bullen & Hosey triumphed over Hearty & Nanda. In yet another five game match Philip and Willie prevailed to win the Champions trophy for the South draw. With that five game final, every final match of the four draws went the distance.
This year’s event was universally acclaimed the most successful of all with generous financial sponsorship, spirited play and full galleries supplemented by a delicious dinner Friday evening and brunch Sunday. This event increases the interest in doubles in general and in particular, afforded all the chance to see great athletes (the professionals!) in action. Doubles continues to grow at the University Club and Boston in general as another court has appeared at the new YMCA in Marblehead. And with any luck a new court at the Union Boat Club may some day appear.