National Championship results and coverage of Men’s and Women’s Nationals

One hundred and eleven men’s teams negotiated their way to Philadelphia to compete for the prestigious, year-end, National Platform Tennis Championships, March 8th and 9th. When the dust cleared on Sunday afternoon, the defending National Champions, Scott Mansager and Flip Goodspeed had been upset in the semifinals by Mike Stulac and Bill Anderson. Stulac and Anderson were then defeated by David Ohlmuller and Chris Gambino in two hard-fought sets in the finals. For Ohlmuller and Gambino, the victory was especially sweet as they recaptured the National Championship from two years ago.

“We had a great year, capped off by an amazing Nationals,” said David Ohlmuller. “The tournament was first class all the way. The atmosphere made it feel like the US Open,” exclaimed the three-time National Champ.

With Mother Nature cooperating and providing partly sunny skies and temperatures in the 40′s, the tournament played out according to seed, with seven of the top eight seeds reaching the quarterfinal round and the top four seeds reaching the semis. Stulac/Anderson, playing their first season together, finished a tremendously successful year. They defeated Rusty Wright and Chris Cochrane in the round of 16, Jim Kaufman and John Milbank in the quarters and the defending champs, Mansager/Goodspeed in a tight two set match in the semi’s, 6- 3, 7-6 (2).

The road to the final for Ohlmuller and Gambino was equally difficult as they defeated John Schmitt and Mike Cochrane (the two fisted whirling dervish from NY) in the quarterfinals and Scott Estes and Scott Mackesy in the semi’s.

The finals was a test of patience as momentum swung back and forth in the first set, shifting to the ultimate winners when Gambino held serve at 3-3, in a 20 minute service game, that lead to a 6-3 first set victory. In the second set, the break points and momentum stayed with Ohlmuller and Gambino, as their confidence grew. Unforced errors were practically nonexistent as the champs played a near flawless second set.

David Kjeldsen, owner of Viking Athletics stated, “As both a friend and employer, watching David play tournaments for 23 years and never have I seen him as focused as he has been over the past 12 months. This season, David and Chris won, among others, the Nationals, the Chicago Charities, the Sound Shore Invitational, and Short Hills. In 30 matches, they were undefeated. In fact, they only dropped one set all season(Hough/Uihlein in the Chicago Semi-finals)! I doubt that anyone will ever duplicate that record.”

Just as the Men’s Nationals had their excitement, the women had their own. It would have been hard to imagine an unseeded team breaking the normally very consistent ranks of the women’s tour; however, the unseeded Chicago team of Mary Doten and Susie Keane did just that.

On March 7, 2003, 128 women came out to compete for the right to be called the best in the country. With the absence of the two strongest women’s ad-court players (and 2002 National Finalists) Sue Aery and Lauren Zink, the Women’s Nationals was ripe for the picking.

The top seeds were led by (1) Bobo Delaney & Tonia Mangan, (2) Kerri Delmonico & Shelley Morse, (3) Sally Cottingham & Chris Sheldon, and (4) Hilary Debbs & Patty Hogan. They all advanced to the quarterfinals where Mary Doten & Susie Keane defeated the 3rd-seeded Cottingham and Sheldon (five-months pregnant). In the previous round, Doten and Keane upset the 5thseeded team of Robin Fulton and Cindy Prendergast.

Advancing to the first semi-final, Delaney & Mangan matched up against Debbs & Hogan. In the other, Doten & Keane played Delmonico & Morse. In two fantastic, crowd-packed performances, Debbs & Hogan and Doten & Keane were victorious. The finals were set.

After knocking off the 5th, 3rd, and 2nd seeds, did Doten and Keane have the experience to triumph in the finals against veteran 1999 National Open Champion Patty Hogan and her partner Hilary Debbs? For Keane, a former 27th world-ranked women’s tennis star, this was only her third platform tennis tournament. Her mental toughness was certainly not to be questioned.

8alancing a powerful offense with a consistent defense, Doten and Keane pulled away with a straight set victory and earned the right to be called The Best of 2003.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 4, Issue 5, May 2003