Results of National Championships and coverage of Men’s and Women’s Nationals and President’s Cups. The Tennis Channel films Men’s finals

PTM Editor Wayne Dollard reported on both events from Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — When it came to surprises and unanticipated drama the 2005 Marsh APTA Nationals delivered where no other championship had in recent memory.

On Thursday, March 17, sixty of the top women platform tennis players in the world kicked off the four-day competition by vying for the 2005 President’s Cup. The Region I women (Downstate New York New Jersey and Fairfield County, Connecticut) had won the competition each year since starting a four-year run in their own backyard with the APTA New Jersey Nationals in 2001. This year’s team was led by returning champions Susan Lovejoy, Susan Trizian and Kerith Flynn. With the absence of six 2004 nationally ranked playing veterans including the #2 national ranked player Aila Main, Region I was at a disadvantage. Waiting to take advantage was the hosting team, Region IV (Ohio, Western Pennsylvania Rochester and Toronto). The six women’s regions battled from the start of the morning into to the early evening hours, At the end of the day, the Region IV ladies Jessica Guyoux, Kelly Fischer, Lissy Hill, Janet Mazzola, Holly Peck Karen Henke, Natalie Lemieux, Ann Wagner, Nancy Budde and Heather Hairston Prop took home the Cup. The win for the Region IV women tied them with Region V ladies with seven President’s Cup titles since the event began in 1983.

On Friday morning the Women’s Main Draw matches began as did the Men’s President’s Cup tournament. Pittsburgh had 18 hosting sites and 52 courts at their disposal for the events. The Fox Chapel Racquet Club was known as – Paddle Central” for the 2005 National Championships with six courts, two viewing facilities, the draw and merchandise tent, a featured dining facility and two grandstand stadium courts.

The Edgeworth Club, located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Sewickley, hosted five competing men’s regions (Region VI, the far west, did not field a team). Since the men’s President’s Cup began in 1978, Region IV has been the king of the competition with 10 titles; Region III is second with nine Cup victories. Like the women’s team, the Region I men went into the competition as the defending champions with their win at the 2004 Cleveland Nationals. With seven returning veterans the odds were on Region I to win the Cup.

However, in as deep a draw as seen in recent memory, all five regions came out with loaded teams Nationally ranked players and new tennis talent filled the five doubles spots from nearly every team on every region. At the end of the day, Region V beat out the hosting Region IV team by one set to earn the title, their first since 1998 and fourth over the past 13 years. The Region V team consisted of Jay Woldenberg, Mike Sullivan, Michael Chabraja, John Noble, Ben McKnight, Dan Williams, Peter Berka, Ed Granger, Mike Marino and Mike Rahaley.

As the men were wrapping up their President’s Cup, the women were playing their second and third rounds of the main draw. Perhaps the match of the day occurred in the women’s round-of-16 when the two-time defending champions Susie Keane and Mary Doten lost a tight straight-set match to Chicago friends and rivals Terri Miller and Nancy O’Sullivan. Like Susie Keane (formerly Susie Mascarin, a top 20 world-ranked tennis play) Miller recently left the top of the women’s tour and has since become addicted to platform tennis.

The quarter-finals saw plenty of action for the 400+ spectators who came out to watch. The top-seeded team of Sue Aery and Gerri Viant lost to the #7 team of Cynthia Dardis
and Amy Shay 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. In the other quarter-final match-ups, the #2 seeded team of Kerrie Delmonico and Aila Main defeated the eighth-seeded Nancy Budde and Susan Rudd 6-2, 6-1; Miller and O’Sullivan defeated a third Chicago duo 5th seeds Sally Cottingham and Chris Sheldon 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; and Bobo Delaney and Tonia Mangan (3rd seeds) lost to the 2002 National finalists Cindy Prendergast and Lauren Zink (two months back from having a baby).

The semi-finals were played on Saturday morning on the stadium courts in front of a packed crowd. The higher-seeded teams of Delmonico-Main and Prendergast-Zink advanced, each in three-set battles over Miller/O’Sullivan and Dardis/Shay. By 1:00 p.m., the temperature had reached 40 degrees with mostly cloudy skies filling the air above, perfect platform tennis weather.

Fresh off their victory in Short Hills, New Jersey, Delmonico and Main felt that they had a mental advantage over their competition. After squeezing out a nail-biting first set
tiebreaker, Delmonico and Main broke serve three times in the second set and went on to win it 6-2. this victory was both the first Women’s Open National Championship finals appearance and title for the newly formed team. We can expect great things from them over the years to come.

While Delmonico and Main were concluding their match, the 2005 Marsh APTA Men’s Nationals were in full swing with a deep 104-team draw. The first-day draw highlights were dominated by the new team of Mike Cochrane and Mike Marino (seeded #7). After two solid early round straight-set performances, Cochrane and Marino ran into the 2nd seeded team of David Ohlmuller and Chris Gambino in the quarter-finals. The match generated great crowd interest and a palpable high level of tension. With precision drives and patient control Cochrane and Marino defeated the 2002 Nationals Champions 6-3, 6-3. At the same time in the other quarter-final matches, Anthony Cosimano and Steve Haller (#4) advanced over Scott Estes and Scott Mackesy (#5) 0-6, 6-2, 6-1; Scott Mansager and Flip Goodspeed (#1) defeated Charlie Usher and James Goldman (unseeded) 6-0, 6-2; and Mike Stulac and Bill Anderson were victorious over Bill Fiedler and George Zink (#11) 7-6, 6-1.

The Sunday morning semi-finals provided two awesome three-set matches. Anderson and Stulac upset the top-seeded Goodspeed and Mansager 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Their victory earned them their second time in the National finals in three years (The pair did not compete in the 2004 Nationals because Stulac’s flight was delayed due to weather).

On the other side of the draw, Cochrane and Marino continued their run. With steady play from Mike Marino and two-handed strokes cracking from both sides by Mike Cochrane the team upset Cosimano and Haller 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. The stage was set for the finals at the Fox Chapel Racquet Club’s stadium court

At 1:00 on Sunday March 20, Mike Stulac and Bill Anderson shook hands with Mike Marino and Mike Cochrane and began their final event warm-up. No matter the outcome, it was guaranteed that there would be new APTA Men’s Open National Champions. Over 500 spectators filled the stadium bleachers surrounding the center court anticipating a tense, taut match.

On hand, tournament Co-Chairmen Wayne Dollard, Ann Sheedy and Martin Sturgess had arranged with The Tennis Channel to have the match filmed and post-edited for an April broadcasting to their eight million household audience. Sturgess commented, ‘To my knowledge, this is the first time in platform tennis history that the APTA Championships will be broadcast on national television [Note 1]. It is a great thing for the APTA and it is a great thing for the sport.” Sheedy added, ‘With three production video cameras, cameramen, video scaffolding and on-court microphones the scene provided a possible glimpse of the future publicity and marketing of the sport. We’re pleased that our platinum sponsors Marsh, Sedgman, Whit Productions, Premier and Wilson pulled through for this historic eventA s the match started, there was a sense of surprise bordering on letdown/deflation as Cochrane and Marino dominated point after point. Tournament umpire Steve Nycum called out, “One game to zero, two games, three games to zero, four games to zero.” Within 30 minutes, Stulac and Anderson were down 6-0, 3-0, 30-15. Stulac recalled, “At that point we wanted to stay on the court as long as we could. Mike (Cochrane) was pounding the ball and Mike (Marino) volleyed everything. Bill and I felt that we needed to be more aggressive ourselves.” After forcing three missed volleys, Stulac and Anderson were on the board at 1-3 in the second set. Anderson explained, “Who would have expected so much excitement from the local audience when we earned our first game at 0-6, 1-3! We didn’t want to let them down.” The excitement was not in vain as the backcourt became a blasting area for Stulac’s backhands from the deuce court and Anderson’s forehands from the ad court.

Having been down the first nine games, Anderson and Stulac came back to win 12 of the final 17 games by a final score of 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Cochrane and Marino were true gentlemen and ambassadors for platform tennis as they thanked the crowd and their opponents over the recorded broadcast for The Tennis Channel.

Note 1: Sturgess was incorrect. A number of matches had been filmed for TV in the 1960s and 1970s, with the first being in 1962.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 6, Issue 5, April, 2005