Kelly Fischer and Jessica Guyaux win 10th West Penn Women's Open Title

By Christi Hays
December 3, 2016
Sewickley, PA

DRAW on Live Scoring 

The 49th installment of the annual Women's West Penn NRT tournament held in Pittsburgh was a grand success on nearly every level. The 12 courts in the Sewickley area were full for the two day tourney with the 56 teams that came from Toronto, Rochester, Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago and all over the Pittsburgh area. The overcast, forty degree days were perfect for paddle. Tournament director Amy Schultz and her Allegheny Country Club committee took care of every detail- lovely meals, fantastic favors, beautiful prizes and a knockout raffle at dinner on Thursday that featured paddles donated by Viking, Fromuth Tennis, Wilson and Master Athletics. It was a lively and impressive event.
This long running tournament has had an impressive winners list of dominant teams through the years- and a few APTA Hall of Fame honorees. In the 60s it was Charlotte Lee and Peggy Stanton winning twice. In the 70s it was three teams who each won twice: Anne Kline/Barbara Allen (Cleveland), Yvonne Hackenberg/Janet McCutcheon (Kalamazoo) and Pam Bermingham/Anne Jackson (Pittsburgh). In the 80s it was Molly Slater/Mary Ginnard (Cleveland) and Kathie Kenkel/Brenda Moffit (Pittsburgh) who dominated play. Molly and Mary took the title three times. Kenkel/Moffit won two titles in seven trips to the finals. When Christi Hays and Chris Ford (Pittsburgh) teamed up in the 90s they went on a streak of seven consecutive titles in nine different trips to the finals.
But no team has been as dominant as the talented team of Kelly Fischer/Jessica Guyaux. Since teaming up in 2004 they had won nine times (six in a row) in 10 trips to the finals leading up to this year. In those years the tournament designation changed from PCQ to NRT. So they faced even stiffer competition from the likes of Heather Prop/Lynn Schneebeck who won twice and handed Fischer and Guyaux their only loss.
So the question again this year was-could they keep it going? And the answer was a resounding yes, winning this year’s final over Abby Hand and Amy Heil (Columbus) 6-4, 6-4 for their tenth title overall and seventh title in a row, tying Hays/Ford’s streak. Can you say impressive? Congrats once again to Kelly and Jessica. Long live the West Penn Queens!

Results:
3rd/4th Playoff: Jenny Kelly (Pittsburgh)/Janet Mazzola (Cleveland) and Sally Jones/Cathy MacKinnon (Chicago) Did not play
Quarter Final Reprieve: Dionne Bothner/Sandra Odenbach (Rochester) defeated Fran Bolanis/Sarah Stallings (Pittsburgh) 6-2, 6-3
16 Reprieve: Carla Lavrusky/Sarah Lynch-Balint (Pittsburgh) defeated Chrissy Clutterbuck/Lindsey Rozek (Cleveland) 4-6,6-0,6-2
32 Consolation: Kelsey Friday/Nicole Kriebel (Pittsburgh) defeated Patty Casey/Susan Mah (Pittsburgh) 6-1,6-3
32 Consolation Reprieve: Gail Denton/Terri Samolovitch (Pittsburgh) defeated Roxanne Kiliany/Josie Schwartz (Pittsburgh) 6-0,6-1
Consolation: Spencer Caravaggio/Laurel Echavarria (Pittsburgh) defeated Becky Kraus/Debbie Rossman (Pittsburgh) 6-1,6-3
Consolation Reprieve: Ingrid Meene/Sue Wilhelm (Pittsburgh) defeated Georgi Fishter/Tammy Debonis (Pittsburgh) 6-1,6-2