The Premier Cup – players compete for $5,000

PTM Editor Wayne Dollard had the story:

On Saturday, October 8th, 16 of the top men in platform tennis competed for $5,000 in prize money at the first-annual Premier Cup. The group included last season’s #1, #2, #3, #5, #6, #8 and #11-ranked teams.

Nearly one year ago, David Dodge (owner of Premier Platform Tennis Courts) and Jason Gray (head professional at Four Bridges Country Club) were brainstorming on ways to bring improvements to platform tennis. In the spirit of tennis’ ATP tour, the two men came up with the “Premier Purple” court color. The demand for the new look has been overwhelming
on Dodge. He explained, “Wherever I go, I am being asked to repaint old brown and green courts with the new Premier Purple. The more vibrant color is not only refreshing but it also makes line calls easier because of the ball contrast on the court.”

At the 2005 National Championships in Pittsburgh, Dodge and Gray introduced the “service gap” a six-inch erased portion of the alley line behind where it meets the corner of the service box. The line gap has made calling serves in or out around the outside corners of the service boxes easier.

Having made innovative changes to the court, Dodge and Gray decided they wanted to do something that hadn’t been done in 20 years and host an invitation-only prize money tournament for the men’s top players. Dodge agreed up front to sponsor the $5,000 purse. Reebok, Viking and Michelob Ultra followed suit. Finally, the top eight 2005-ranked teams were invited and the event was scheduled at Gray’s courts at Four Bridges Country Club in West Chester, Ohio.

With 11 of the top 16-ranked men making the event, the success of the Premier Cup was guaranteed. Following a 10-game pro-set, round-robin format the teams were divided into two brackets based on the previous season’s ranking.

The tournament produced some of the most exciting play ever witnessed on the platform tennis court as the 2005 Nationals winners (Mike Stulac and Bill Anderson) met up against the National finalists (Mike Cochrane and Mike Marino) twice, once in the round robin, and once in a third-place playoff. The finalists defeated the National Champions in both match-ups. When #6-ranked Scott Mackesy could not make the event with partner Scott Estes, former National Champion Bill Fiedler was called in to partner with Estes. The pair had a close loss to Goodspeed / Mansager before winning 10-1 over David Ohlmuller and Chris Gambino and 10-2 over Rob Pierce and Greg Bennett. In the semi-finals, Estes and Fiedler cooled the smokin’ hot team of Cochrane and Marino 6 2, 6-2 Perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament was the dominating performance of Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager who lost 13 games in the three-match round robin before tightening up and dropping only five games in semi-final and finals action.

All players viewed the event as a tremendous success. Gray said, ‘This is the first time in 20 years that this format has been tried. Not only will we repeat the event next season, but right now I am also in the works to add a women’s Premier Cup competition.”

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 2, November 2005