Chicago Charities – Berendt and Cooper capture the Women’s and Caldwell and Cordish the Men’s

With the lone exception of the National Championships, no other tournament packs the talent like the Chicago Charities. With few exceptions, the best of the best showed up for the 35th annual tournament benefiting the Northwestern Healthcare Kellogg Cancer Care Centers.

Women’s: On November 2nd, 52 Women’s teams kicked off the 2007 Chicago Charities. Six of the top eight teams from the 2006-07 season competed. Absent was the nation’s top team – Lauren Zink/Cindy Prendergast and the nation’s #6 team – Bobo Delaney and Tonia Mangan.

Last season’s #2 team of Sally Cottingham and Chris Sheldon took the #1 seed spot, while Delmonico/Main, Doten/Keane, Dardis/Shay, Prop/Schneebeck, Ohlmuller/Takach, Flynn/Tarzian and Henke/Lemieux rounded out the 2-8 seed spots. Tournament Director John Noble’s draw sheet ran as expected with all seeded teams reaching their anticipated finish with one exception and it was a major exception!

In the round-of-16, the 8th seeded team from Pittsburgh, Karen Henke and Nathalie Lemieux, ran into a freight train when they lost to Laura Berendt and Annica Cooper 6-0, 6-0. Cooper (New York City) had been playing the sport for just over a year when she called Berendt (Chicago), the assistant pro at the Glenview Club, looking to pair up. The two had been Chicago junior tennis rivals before eventually starring in college and eventually playing the pro circuit.

With all other seeds making their way into the quarterfinals, Berendt and Cooper ran into the top-seeded team (and #2 in the country), Sally Cottingham and Chris Sheldon.

After losing the first set 6-4, Berendt and Cooper stepped up their baseline ground-stroke attack. At the same time, they elected a net strategy rarely seen in the women’s game, with Berendt pounding low forehand overheads into the corners. The unseeded team won the remaining sets 6-2 and 6-4.

In the Saturday morning semi-finals, the 3rd seeded team, Mary Doten and Susie Keane felt little consolation with their drawplacement, knowing that they had to play the ladies that just defeated the #1 ranked team.

The two-hour match began at 11a.m. and was watched by 100+ spectators. Everyone got their money’s worth as the former national champions traded ground-strokes and volleys with the tournament’s upset team. In the end, Berendt and Cooper outlasted the veterans, Doten and Keane, 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 paving the way for a final against the 2nd seeded team from New York, Aila Main and Kerrie Delmonico-Stulac. Main and Delmonico-Stulac made their way to the finals by winning back-to-back three-setters against the #7-seeded team of Flynn/Tarzian (6-2, 3-6, 6-3) in the quarters and #4-seeded Dardis/Shay (7-5, 3-6, 7-6) in the semis.

On one side of the net, the finals exhibited powerful backhand drives from Main and well-placed forehands from Delmonico-Stulac. On the other side, Berendt and Cooper stunned the seeded team with powerful forehands and backhands from every angle.

With the final score of 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 it was certainly one of the most offensively-oriented women’s finals ever played in the Chicago Charities. All who attended were privy to an amazing show of platform tennis.

Men’s: For those surprised how packed deep the women’s draw was, they must have been amazed to see that 14 of the top 15 men from the 2006-07 season competed in the 2007 Charities.

The seeded teams were: #1 Cochrane/Estes, #2 Caldwell/ Cordish, #3 Goodspeed/Mansager, #4 Bancila/Easterbrook, #5 Gambino/Ohlmuller, #6 Keevins/Uihlein, #7 Berka/Granger and #8 Bondurant/Johnson.

The round-of-16 had one upset, if you’ll call it that, when two Chicago teams met up; one, a pair of former national champions- Mike Marino and Bill Fiedler and two, the #8-seeded team of Scott Bondurant and Mark Johnson. Marino and Fiedler defeated the seeded team and then went on in the quarterfinals to defeat the #1 seeded Mike Cochrane (New York) and Scott Estes (Toledo) 6-2, 6-2.

The biggest surprise of the men’s draw occurred in the Saturday evening men’s quarter-finals when the #6 team Uihlein and Keevins defeated the #3 seeded Goodspeed/Mansager, 6-0, 6-0!

The semi-finals were set with Marino/Fiedler against Gambino/ Ohlmuller and Caldwell/Cordish against Uihlein/ Keevins. Gambino and Ohlmuller made it to the semi after a tight 6-2, 7-5 win in the quarters vs. Bancila/Easterbrook and a win against Heil/English in the 16′s. Caldwell/Cordish reached the semis, defeating Albrikes/Jonason in the 16s and Berka/Granger in the quarters.

A game of momentum and match-ups, the semis showcased the best players in the sport, with Caldwell and Cordish advancing over Keevins/Uihlein 6-1, 6-4; and, Gambino/Ohlmuller over Marino/Fiedler 6-3, 6-3.

A hundred spectators packed the Glenview club to witness a display of inhuman reflexes, power, consistency and chessmanship. After 90 minutes of battle, Caldwell and Cordish walked away with the Charities title, taking the finals 6-2, 6-3.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 2, December, 2007