2016 Patterson Club Open

October 10, 2016
Fairfield, CT

Men's Draw on Live Scoring 
Women's Draw on Live Scoring 

Despite the unrelenting rain that pummeled the courts on Sunday at the Patterson Open, the big story at the season’s first Grand Prix tournament was the high quality of paddle that shone through. Gabi Niculescu and Martina Ondrejkova and Johan du Randt and Mark Parsons took home the women’s and men’s titles, but the terrific matches played all weekend gave a glimpse of the high quality, fiercely competitive matchups we can expect in the season ahead.

 

Originally, the only main draw matches scheduled for Sunday were the women’s finals and the men’s semis and finals, but a blackout Saturday evening forced some rescheduling. In the women’s draw, co #1 seeds Cynthia Dardis and Amy Shay cruised through to the finals without dropping a set, defeating Kerri Delmonico and Jessica Guyaux 6-4, 6-3 in the quarters and the #3 seeds Ania Kazakevich and Heather Prop 6-4, 7-5 in the semis.

The other half of the draw failed to produce a finalist on Saturday, however, when a power failure prevented the co #1 seeds and reigning national champions Gabi Niculescu and Martina Ondrejkova and their opponents Liz Cruz and Roxy Enica from taking the court. When that foursome began play on Sunday, they were accompanied by a persistent rain that lasted almost the entire day. The four women produced an excellent match even with the difficult conditions, and looked dead even for the first two sets. When Niculescu/Ondrejkova pulled ahead to a 5-1 lead in the third, it looked like the match was over, but Cruz/Enica dug deep and leveled the score at 5-5. Although they lost the last 2 games and the match, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, Cruz and Enica gave notice that they will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

The rain continued throughout the women’s finals, a rematch of the 2016 APTA National Championship finals. The result was the same, with Niculescu/Ondrejkova beating Dardis/Shay 6-4, 6-1 in a match that showcased high quality shotmaking from both teams.

The quarterfinal reprieve finalists were Kerri Delmonico/Jessica Guyaux and Liz Jaffe/Dana Parsons. Ana Brzova/Alison Morgan won the reprieve draw by default over Florentina Hanisch/Viki Stoklosova. Marina Ruiz de Gauna/Ana Marija Zubori eked out a win the in the consolation draw, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 over Katie Adams/Molly Brown, and Carrie Cochrane/Mary Truslow defeated Cecilia Bowers/Jill Klaffky 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 to win the consolation reprieve.

On the men’s side, Saturday’s blackout pushed the completion of two quarterfinal matches to Saturday morning. #6 seeds Scott Kahler and Casey Watt took out the #3 seeds Martin Bostrom and Sebastian Bredberg in straight sets. They awaited the winner between #2 seeds Steve DeRose /Jon Lubow and #5 seeds Max LePivert/George Wilkinson. DeRose and Lubow won the first set on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story, with LePivert/Wilkinson taking the second set and then the third in a tiebreaker, winning 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-8) with both teams holding multiple match points. In the quarterfinal matches completed on Saturday, top seeds Johan du Randt and Mark Parsons defeated Anton Bobytskyi and Bernard Schoeman 6-0, 6-2 and #4 seeds John Hughes and Marc Powers climbed back from being down 0-4 in the third set to defeat Juan Arraya and Javier Ferrin-Kranewitter in a match that had spectators gasping from the players’ amazing gets and athleticism . Du Randt/Parsons took out Hughes/Powers in the semis, and LePivert/Wilkinson beat Kahler/Watts, setting up an exciting matchup that began just as the rain finally stopped falling. When du Randt/Parsons won the first set while only losing one game, it looked like the finals would be over quickly. The new team of LePivert/Wilkinson had other ideas, however, and won the second set 6-4. Although du Randt/Parsons emerged with a hard fought 7-5 third set victory and the Patterson Open title, LePivert/Wilkinson’s play signaled that they could rise to the very top of the APTA ranks this year.

In other draws, Bobytskyi/Schoeman defeated DeRose/Lublow 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinal reprieve, Rob Bakker/McKnight won the round of 16 reprieve, John Milbank/Oleg Tioutine won the reprieve, Nick Mazzarese/Adam Mirsky beat Michael Montalbano/ Aman Singh in a third set tiebreaker in the consolation draw, and Zack Rosenfeld/Scott Slobin won the consolation reprieve.

Thank you to tournament director Scott Slobin and the board of directors at the Patterson Club for providing their beautiful facilities and running a successful tournament.

Photos in flickr slideshow by Steven P. Mack/SPM Design