New Jersey Hosts the Best and Brightest in the Game

On the shores of Franklin Lake, New Jersey, players from all over the nation converged on the Indian Trail Club (and 17 other area clubs) in early March for the APTA Men’s and Women’s National Championships. They were met with cheerful faces and crisp lake breezes. APTA Men’s and Women’s

Day One: President’s Cup
Despite the best laid plans of organizers and Tournament Director Michael Gillespie, a driving wintery mix of snow, sleet and rain welcomed the participants to the Men’s and Women’s President’s Cup on Thursday morning, March 7th.

Coming off a two-year winning streak, the Region V (Chicago/Midwest) ladies had high expectations going into the President’s Cup. 2013, however, was not to be their year in the six-region match-up. In round-robin play, Region I dominated Pool A and Region III in Pool B. In a four-team playoff, Region I defeated Region V four matches to zero, and Region III defeated Region VII, 3-1. Region I (NJ/Eastern NY) would not be denied in the finals, as they defeated Region III, 3-1.

Like their regional sisters, the Region V men are no strangers to the President’s Cup — having won the title the past three consecutive years. Again, like their Midwest ladies, the men ran into a brick wall in New Jersey. In the two-pool round-robin format, Region III carried Pool A and Region II won Pool B. The two teams competed in the finals with Region II (New England), heavily laden with previous National champions and finalists, taking their first title since 2008.

Day Two and Three: Early Rounds Heat Up
On Friday morning, the women kicked off the early rounds of the 2013 National Championships. Over night, Mother Nature paid Northern Jersey another visit and left behind eight inches of wet winter wonderland.

Cynthia Dardis and Amy Shay came into the tournament as the nation’s top-ranked team and seeded first above the 96-team women’s field.

The Indian Trail Club was pulling for their home pro, Ana Brzova, with partner Viktoria Stoklasova, who were seeded second. Many spectators had their money on Lauren Zink and Cindy Prendergast, three-time and defending Women’s Open Champions (’08, T I and ’12), who were down the list as seventh seeds due to 2012-13 tournament inactivity. Liz Jaffe and Lisa Rudloff were Nationals finalists in 2011 and 2012 and were seeded third.

Kerri Delmonico and Sandra Birch-Krusos rounded out the fourth spot.

Throughout the challenge of unpredictable weather, 15 of the 16 seeded women’s teams reached the round of 16. The sole upset came when Suzanne Lemery and Kelly Rohrbach defeated Pam Ruoif and Kelly Van Calcar, seeded eleventh.

Six of the top-seeded teams advanced into the quarterfinals after Maria Manley and Lauren Cash (seeded sixth), were bested by perennial favorites Bobo Delaney and Tania Mangan. Jaffe and Rudloff were taken outbyAnia Kazakevich and Marina Ohlmuller.

Day Three: Quarterfinals and More
Saturday dawned bright and much warmer, a spectator’s delight, as the women’s quarter-finals began. Brzova and Stoklasova defeated Zink and Prendergast, Keri Flynn and Sue Tarzian outplayed Kazakevich and Ohlmuller, Mary Doten and Chelsea Nusslock overcame Birch-Krusos and Delmonico, and Dardis and Shay outlasted Delaney and Mangan.

In the afternoon, the semi-finals were highly watchable, which was good news for the hundreds of spectators. Chicago’s Doten was out to show the top-seeded Dardis and Shay how she s earned her previous six Nationals Open Titles (with Susie Keane).

For the third year in a row, she was partnered with hard-hitting Nusslock. After a tight 7-5 first set, Doten and Nusslock turned up the heat and took the second set 6-1, advancing them to the finals.

The other semi had the local crowd cheering for their pro, Brzova, and her partner Stoklasova over Flynn and Tarzian. The local favorites were perhaps a little nervous, dropping the first set in a tiebreaker.

Feeling the crowd’s energy, Brzova and Stoklasova rallied back 6-0 and 6-4 to make the trip to the finals.

On Friday afternoon, March 8th, the 128 men’s teams took to the courts. Last year’s champions, Drew Broderick and Chris Gambino, were looking for a repeat of the 2012 Nationals where they defeated Johan du Randt and Matt Porter, 7-6, 6-3, in the finals.

There was no rest for the “wicked” top seeds early on. With a full draw, no one was lucky enough to receive a bye. The first four rounds saw the usual suspects earn their spots into the round-of-16 where 11 of the top 12-seeded teams advanced.

Three unseeded teams—Rob Bakker and Doug Jones, Jerome Barnes and Rick Witsken, and Dan Rothschild and John Schmitt— scrapped their way in and deserved notice.

The quarterfinals provided the after-dark evening entertainment for hundreds of spectators.

Mark Parsons and du Randt advanced 6-2, 6-0, over Barnes and Witsken to earn their semi-final spot. Juan Arraya and Lennart Jonason outlasted Drew Eberly and Brian Uihlein 11-9 in a third set tie-breaker. Steve DeRose and Jon Lubow also had a marathon matchup but overcame Alex Bancila and Matt Porter. In the final quarter, looking for a 2012 repeat, Broderick and Gambino cruised past Ben McKnight and Peter Rose. The semis were set for Sunday.

Day Four: Semis and Finals
Spring arrived early for the women’s final, which were standing room only for a packed crowd of over 250. Doten and Nusslock had an early lead, but Brzova and Stoklasova made the most of their powerful groundstrokes and complemented them with touch and finesse at the net. The 7-5, 6-2 decision marked the first time two foreign-born women partnered to win the Women’s Championship.

Earlier that morning, the men’s semi-finals started up. On court one, du Randt (2010 champion and finalist in 2011 and 2012) was out to prove why most consider him the best player in the game. Partnered with Parsons (a contender for the top-player designation), the duo seemed unbeatable. Their semi-final matchup was with Arraya and Jonason. Arraya’s devastating spin overheads and Jonason’s aggressive backhands kept du Randt and Parsons on their heels. After two hours of blood, sweat, and tears, du Randt and Parsons took the match 7-6, 7-6, and walked one step closer to the finish line.

The second semi-final witnessed reigning champions Broderick and Gambino being taken on by DeRose and Lubow. Broderick and Gambino set aside their power game in exchange for long, controlled points with carefully selected offensive shots. DeRose and Lubow, on the other hand, took their chances with risky overheads, drop shots and aggressive groundstrokes. In the end, fortune favored the risk-takers as DeRose and Lubow won, 6-4, 7-5.

The finals were played just after the women had concluded their entertaining match. All four men wore smiles in the warm-up, which somehow never faded as the match began.

Point by point, du Randt hit crushing forehands while Parsons unleashed his trademark backhands. Whenever the match tightened up, it seemed that Parsons and du Randt would kick it into overdrive for a few points to regain the lead. DeRose and Lubow were outgunned on this day by a final score of 7-6, 6-3.

This year marked the first year that both the Men’s and Women’s National Champions were foreign-born. Brzova’s highly contagious energy seemed to be the hallmark of the Indian Trail Club. With ten courts, a grandstand center court, a two-story clubhouse with all the amenities, and an endless number of employees and volunteers on hand the 2013 Nationals was as memorable for the venue as the competition. Next year, the National Championships will go to the Golden Triangle in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Zink and Prendergast Win Their Third Women’s Open Team Title

Last year, Lauren Zink and Cindy Prendergast plowed through the APTA National Championships, in Chicago, without dropping a set. Concluding her victory speech in 2011,
Prendergast said, “Lauren and I look forward to next year and trying to repeat.” And repeat they did.

On March 15th, 80 women’s teams, from coast to coast, came out to compete in the 2012 APTA National Championships on Long Island. For the seventh time in the past eight seasons, Zink and Prendergast found themselves battling in the finals for the National Championship.

All of the 16 women’s seeded teams reached the round-of-16. Seven of those top eight reached the quarterfinals; newcomers Ana Brzova and Viktoria Stoklasova took out the veteran eighth-seeds Bobo Delaney and Tonia Mangan. The ladies were playing with emotion as Bobo’s mother (and Tonia’s mother-in-law), paddle legend Nancy Mangan, passed away the day before.

The women’s quarterfinals featured the 8th-seeded Zink and Prendergast knocking off 3rd-seeded Kerrith Flynn and Susan Tarzian. Although they were reigning National Champions, Zink and Prendergast were seeded eighth because Women’s finalists Liz Jaffe and Lisa Rudloff scramble against the National Champions they didn’t compete together in any other tournaments this season.

Three of the four semifinalists were repeats from 2011: Lauren Zink and Cindy Prendergast, Liz Jaffe and Lisa Rudloff, and Mary Doten and Chelsea Nusslock. The fourth team to round off the semis was the top-seeded pairing of Amy Shay and Cynthia Dardis who set the season on fire.

The semifinal between the top-seeded team and the defending National Champions proved to be the match of the weekend. Dardis and Shay showed why they deserved the right to be first seeds, while Zink and Prendergast showed how they earned three Open National Championships (two together and one as Prendergast-Hogan in 1999).

Zink and Prendergast were up on Dardis 6-3, 5-3, but the top seeds fought back to take the second set 7-5. It was the only set Zink and Prendergast were to lose, as they rebounded and took the third set 6-1. After the match, Prendergsat said, “Our toughest match was against Dardis and Shay. They just never stop fighting. They’re a team that you never feel comfortable being ahead against”

The second semifinal witnessed last year’s National finalists and Long Island favorites Liz Jaffe and Lisa Rudloff defeat Chicago’s Mary Doten and Chelsea Nusslock, 6-1, 6-4.

The repeat finals from 2011 was played on Sunday at the Huntington Country Club. In platform tennis, sometimes it’s about match-ups. It appears that this one points in favor of Zink and Prendergast. At 6-1, 6-3, the score of the final match was similar to last year’s final (6-2, 6-1). While Zink and Prendergast may never be ranked number one, they sure play like they are number one.

Perfect Season for Broderick-Gambino Ends in National Championship Victory


The 22-and-0 season was the first time in nearly a decade that a team achieved the feat.

The perfect season began October 14th, 2012 at the Scotio Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. Playing together for the first time, Drew Broderick and Chris Gambino went 5-and-0 against the top teams in the country, winning the Premier Cup and $2,800 cash. They repeated their success at the Atlantic Classic (4-0), the Chicago Charities (6-0) and then the National Championships (7-0). The 22-and-0 season was the first time in nearly a decade that a team achieved the feat (Gambino did so with David Ohlmuller in the 2001-02 season).

The men’s Nationals began at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 16. Broderick and Gambino, although entering with a perfect season in hand, were seeded third behind the 2011 Nationals Champions Mike Stulac and Mark Parsons (2nd seeds) and finalists Johan du Randt and Matt Porter (1st seeds).

The draw went smoothly with the top eight seeds advancing to the quarter-finals. (See page 25 for full draw.) Showing the depth of new faces in the men’s draw, 7 of the 16 men reaching the APTA Nationals quarterfinals did not do so in 2011.

In their quarter-final, Broderick/Gambino came up against 6th-seeds Steve Derose and Jon Lubow. It was another match where the undefeated teamstayed steady and pounced only when the time was right. They won at 6-2, 6-2, another match that didn’t go into a third set. Good thing for the undefeated team, because the Sunday semifinals was another story.

On a warm, beachy kind of day, on Court 2, du Randt and Porter defeated Arraya and Bancila 6-4, 6-3. On the neighboring semi-final court, Broderick and Gambino had their hands full with the defending National Champions. Parsons and Stulac took the first set 6-3 but Gambino and Broderick dug deep. They lengthened the points and played a more traditional paddle match punctuated with winners just when they needed them. After three-and-a-half hours Broderick and Gambino prevailed by 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Due to the length of that semifinal, the Men’s Nationals final was pushed back about an hour. Everyone guessed that Broderick and Gambino would be gassed. But they showed their mettle as they defeated du Randt and Porter 7-6 (4), 6-3. In the end, Broderick and Gambino dominated the entire 2011-12 season and showed everyone in the sport why they deserve to be called National Champions.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 13, Issue 5, April, 2012

Being charged with putting on the biggest tournament of the season is no small thing, and, in the case of the 2011 Chicago Nationals it was an outright miracle of organization and coordination.

John Noble, Matt Garavaglia and Shannon Vinson, coordinators of the event, had to arrange for 84 courts of play at 22 sites all within a 25-minute radius of Chicago’s North Shore Corridor for 452 competitors.

The trio had to coordinate everything from ensuring the bleachers were delivered and installed on time, to putting together the program and merchandising for the event. Thankfully, there were 175 volunteers who were organized by Walter and Ann Fyk.

“They are a wonderful couple and they organized it by day, by club, by time slot. They ran with it,” Vinson said. “We needed many volunteers to execute the weekend. The level of excitement for the event to return to Chicago was high and many were eager to help. They wanted to help out more, which was really nice!’

While at the time of writing, the organizers of the Chicago Nationals have not had an opportunity to perform a full event post-mortem, their overall impression of the event was overwhelmingly positive.

“It went very well,” Noble said. “The only thing difficult is planning for the number of attendees, not players but actual spectators. On Saturday night we had so many attending that we had to use satellite parking and shuttle buses. We had more of an audience than we’ve had in the past. There was a lot of enthusiasm and attention surrounding the event, so handling the volume of spectators was our biggest limitation. But it still went well:’

Vinson said that while she’s run other events, she’s done nothing the size of the Nationals.

“Overall, I thought it was a wonderful weekend. The participants had a great time. The spectators had _a great time. There were a couple hiccups, but they were mostly things behind the scenes and nobody noticed,”she said. “No matter how much planning you do, the last 72 hours are the most important. Everything has to come together at the right time for it to work. That, to me, was our biggest team effort. Checking off what we needed to do so that we could be ready to welcome people Wednesday night.”

Vinson said the hosting venue, the Glen View Club, did everything the committe members asked to help ensure the event went off without a hitch. “They were outstanding,” she said. “Their management was so easy to work with. Anything within reason, they’d help us accommodate it.”

“We shared responsibilities and tackled the event,” Noble said. “Together we had the right people heading the right committees; all working together to execute the event.”

With a full Men’s draw of 128 teams, and a draw of 98 Women’s teams, Vinson said she had the opportunity to be both an organizer and a player.

I “I was a member of the President’s Cup team from Region Five and the main draw. Saturday and Sunday I watched a lot of amazing paddle,” Vinson said. “I had the best of all worlds. The game is changing. It’s very aggressive. The men’s final was the most unbelievable thing I’ve seen. The gets, the speed of the players, and the longevity of the points are all amazing:’ she said. “All in all, it was unbelievable paddle.”

The trio will be organizing the Mixed Nationals in the near future, and seems to be quickly becoming the go-to group for large-scale tournament events. “We’ve received an outpouring of support and gratitude from the players and those who came to watch,” Vinson said.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 12, Issue 5, April, 2011

2010 APTA National Championships: On-line Postings Provide Real Time Story


Thursday, March 4, 7:30 a.m. EST
We’re here at the Waynesborough Country Club in the Philadelphia suburbs for the 2010 APTA National Championship Competitions. I will be documenting the event and posting news and results every few hours.

Today, we will feature the Women’s and Men’s President’s Cups. Tomorrow will be the Women’s day one of the Nationals. The men will play some first round matches to open up more courts for Friday’s matches.

Thursday, March 4, 9:15 a.m. EST
Well, the team photos have been taken, and the Men’s and Women’s President’s Cup competitions are under way. Are you familiar with the President’s Cup? This special event is held every year immediately prior to the Nationals. Each APTA region selects five of their best teams (excluding the very top-ranked players), to compete in a round robin against other regions. All President’s Cup players also play in the Nationals, making for a grueling, but exciting, long weekend of paddle. Players compete throughout the tournament season to accumulate enough President’s Cup Qualifying Points to represent their regions. That’s what the PCQ marker on many tournaments is about.

Thursday, March 4, 1:55 p.m. EST The President’s Cup matches are into full swing on a beautiful sunny day. Jackets are off and people are sitting outside. Photographers are busy so we should have our first photos posted tonight.

This evening at Waynesborough CC there will be awards for the President’s Cup and check-in for men and women.

The women’s tournament starts Friday morning and the men play early round matches starting a little later in the day Friday.

Thursday, March 4, 10:00 p.m. EST
Congratulations to the Region 5 Men’s team and the Region 1 Women’s team for their victories in the President’s Cup.

Friday, March 5, 12:00 noon
The weather has been fantastic. Cool and sunny in the SOs with a few clouds floating in and out. The women’s seeds have held as the first few rounds are completed and people are breaking for lunch. Some of the chat revolves around the experience of being taken out by top seeds and whether of not it was a learning experience.

Updated draws are posted periodically.

We have posted a slide show from the President’s Cup on the APTA’s web site. Photos will be added throughout the day as we can drag ourselves away from watching matches.

Friday, March 5, 1:30 p.m.
The women’s round-of-16 matches are starting as everyone finishes lunch and regroups. In the main draw, 15 of the 16 seeds have progressed to the round of 16.

In the single upset so far, Heidenberger and Shelburne defeated 13th seeds Jones and MacKinnon in the round of 32.

The check-in desk continues to be busy as men arrive for check-in.

Friday, March 5, 5:15 p.m.
The women’s quarter-finals are well underway. The top four seeds made it through to the quarter-finals.

Men’s action is also into some second rounds.

Women’s Quarters:
Doten-Keane (1) vs. Flynn-Tarzian (9)
Lemery-Ohlmuller (12) vs. Delmonico-Main (4)
Dardis-Shay (3) vs. Prendergast-Zink (6)
Parsons-Sheldon (7) vs. Prop-Schneebeck (2)

Friday, March 5, 9:00 p.m.
This evening, the ladies finished up the quarter-final matches, setting up the semis which are scheduled to start tomorrow at 10 a.m.

Top seeds Mary Doten and Susie Keane face off against 4th seeds Kerri Delmonico and Aila Main. The second seeds, Heather Prop and Lynn
Schneebeck, play Cindy Prendergast and Lauren Zink. Should be a pair of excellent matches.

Saturday, March 6, 9:00 a.m.
At the party last might, semi-finalist Cynthia Prendergast was inducted into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame, the highest honor in the sport. Her induction speech was written by former partner Patti Hogan and delivered by Tim McAvoy. Cindy will be playing the semis this morning.

Saturday, March 6, 1:00 p.m.
Wow, what a day! The weather has cooperated fully and the play has been spectacular at tournament central. Based on the scores coming in from all the locations, there have been a lot of very competitive matches played today in the backdraws.

In the APTA Women’s Nationals, the two semi-final matches were contested simultaneously on side-by-side courts, providing continuous action for a huge crowd of spectators. Both semis went to three sets, but while Prop-Schneebeck and Delmonico- Main fought hard for tickets to the final, in the end it was to be a repeat of last year. Newly inducted Hall of Famer Cindy Prendergast and partner Lauren Zink take to the main court to have another crack at 5- time National Champs Mary Doten and Susie Keane, trying to increase their own title counts.

Saturday, March 6, 4:00 p.m.
Despite the vocal support, a large home-area crowd, and many outstanding points, Prendergast and Zink fell to Doten Keane 6- 1, 7-5. Doten and Keane now hold six APTA Women’s National titles. They have won in six out of the last eight years, and have won every time they have reached the final.

After the match, Cindy Prendergast told Platform Tennis Magazine, “We started out shaky and then improved. The second set was a good one.” Lauren Zink added, “They certainly bring their ‘A’ game every time they play us. Since we lost to them again in the National finals, I think that we’ll take up beach paddle and play them next year in bikinis.”

When Susie Keane was asked how she felt, she said,”We had a tough semi and were warmed up to play a great first set in the finals It was a warm day and hard to keep the ball in the court. We all made unforced errors that we were unhappy with.” She added, “Eight years ago, Mary and I played our first Nationals together here at Waynesborough. We were unseeded and it was a balmy 60 degrees. Naturally, we were looking forward to a warm day again today for the semis and finals. We got what we hoped for.”

Mary Doten concluded, “We played well in the finals and never let up. A match like this can turn on a dime.”

The men have been keeping all the other courts in town busy. Some seeds started to fall in the round of 32, when Gillespie-Stulac took out 13th seeds English-Heil, Dana- Jonason defeated 9th seeds Caldwell- Cordish, McKnight-Rose bested 14th seeds Broderick-Moore, and Parsons-Schmidgall beat 15th seeds Arraya-LeFevre. The quarter-finals are scheduled at the Waynesborough stadium courts for 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., accompanying the evening festivities. Check draws for updates. We’re posting regularly.

Saturday, March 6, 9:00 p.m.
What an amazing night in Waynesborough! The men’s quarter-finals were, simply put, amazing. In summary, Cosimano and Haller defeated Cochrane and Estes; Albrikes and du Randt defeated Rothschild and Schmidt; Goodspeed and Mansager defeated Bondurant and Johnson; and, Marino and Uihlein defeated Berka and Eberly.

Sunday, March 7, 10:45 a.m.
All the action today is taking place at tournament central, Waynesborough CC. With five permanent and three temporary courts, there is enough court space to comfortably handle all of the late round matches.

On the stadium courts, the two semi-final matches started up at 9:30, to a large crowd of spectators. After a little over an hour, one semi is finished and one has just finished the first set.

Jerry Albrikes and Johan du Randt took care of business quickly, defeating Anthony Cosimano and Steve Haller 6-0, 6-2 in a fast paced slug-fest. At the same time, Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager crafted their way through Mike Marino and Brian Uihlein in a more traditional mix of patient set-up and quick attack.

This afternoon’s finals will feature the 8-time National Champions, Goodspeed and Mansager, against the dark horse 16- seeds, Albrikes and du Randt.

Sunday, March 7, 1:25 p.m.
All the back draws are complete and the crowd is buzzing in anticipation of the men’s final, scheduled to start momentarily. Check the draws for results for all of your pals. As soon as the final is over we’ll be posting the results. Then after your intrepid reporters and photographers have a chance to catch their flights home, well be posting more information and lots of photos.

Platform Tennis Magazine spoke with Scott Mansager before walking on the court for the finals. He said, “We have never played Johan or Jerry before. Flip and I hope that we can figure out a winning strategy during the match.”

Ironically, du Randt said the exact same thing.

Sunday, March 7, 3:30 p.m.
With hundreds of excited spectators on hand, Jerry Albrikes & Johan du Randt have claimed their first national title, defeating Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.

The match may be a sign of things to come as du Randt displayed one of the most awesome exhibitions of offense in platform tennis history. Jerry Albrikes held his own and picked his opportunities carefully when to attack.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 11, Issue 5, April, 2010

PTM reported from Cincinnati:

Mary Doten and Susie Keane Reach High to Capture Third National Title

In some ways, the Nationals is like any other tournament. There are draws, favors, reunions with friends, good lunches and the highs and lows of personal performance. But the Nationals is also something very different. There are temporary courts and a camera tower. Every hut has monitors and extra balls. There’s a merchandise tent, lots of sponsor banners and multiple parties. A masseuse works tired muscles. The finals play to big crowds. And at the Nationals the “thrill of victory” and the “agony of defeat” are just that much more intense.

The bulk of the women’s tournament was played Friday. Play started at 8 a.m. and ran reasonably on time, with the last quarters finishing up just before 6 p.m. The weather was warm and windy like Thursday, with overcast skies.

All the seeds passed through to the quarter-finals and the growing audience was treated to exceptional paddle on all sides. On the permanent courts, spectators watched the Delmonico-Main/Prop-Schneebeck match as well as the Ohlmuller-Sheldon/Delaney-Mangan match, sitting on chairs and benches on the wide platform around the fire pit.

At the back side of the hut, where there is large covered porch, the Dardis-Shay/Prendergast-Zink and Budde-Welscher/Doten-Keane matches were played on the temporary courts installed over Kenwood’s tennis courts. The play was inspiring, and was a fascinating show of the different skills and styles of the players.

One spectator was overheard saying, ‘Why would you want to be playing when there’s paddle like this to watch?” while another was asking, “Doesn’t watching this make you want to go play?” It’s likely that more regular players would answer “yes” to the second question.

Late Friday, Cincinnati locals Heather Prop & Lynn Schneebeck (#5 seed) defeated Delmonico-Main (#3 seed) in a three-set quarter-final, giving fans a chance to root for the home team in the semis on Saturday. The #7 seed Prendergast-Zink, #4 seed Delaney-Mangan, Prop- Schneebeck and #2 seed Doten-Keane also advanced to Saturday’s semi-finals.

On Saturday morning, the Cincinnati fans pulled for their team, but in the end opponents Doten & Keane were the ones to move to the finals. The other semi was an east coast battle between long time partners Bobo Delaney & Tonia Mangan and defending champs Prendergast & Zink. With overpowering returns and wall-like volleys, Zink and Prendergast bested Delaney and Mangan.

The crowds grew throughout the day as the men joined the women. By the time the women’s final went on at 3 p.m. the hut at Kenwood was impossibly loud and boisterous. Spectators filled all available seating. Fans got what they had come for in an exciting final.

Enjoying the gorgeous but windy 70 degree weather, the spectators were treated to an amazing display of athleticism and power.

The first set was an evenly matched and aggressive spectacle. All four ladies brought their best games. Doten & Keane won in a tie-break.

In the second set, Prendergast & Zink pulled out to a wide early lead of 5-0 and ended up bringing it home 6-3. Then, as often happens in this sport, the tide turned and 4-time champs Mary Doten of Hinsdale, IL and Susie Keane of Grosse Pointe, MI overcame defending champions Cindy Prendergast of Wilmington, DE and Lauren Zink of Lititz, PA, 6-1.

Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager Earn Eighth National Title
The men spent Saturday working their way through the draws, looking for the coveted finals slots. Of the 16 seeded teams, 14 made it to the round of 16. English-Heil (6) and Albrikes-Jonason (1s) lost in the round of 32, with English-Heil going on to win the 32 Consolation.

In the round-of-16, unseeded Mark Parsons and Brian O’Connor, who had won over Albrikes-Jonason, defeated #2 seeds Mike Cochrane and Scott Estes in three sets. They lost to Marino-Stulac in the semis but went on to win the quarter-reprieve.

The other quarter-finals saw Bancila-Easterbrook over Dave Keevins and Brian Uihlein, Steve DeRose-Jon Lubow over Ben McKnight-Peter Rose and Flip Goodspeed-Scott Mansager over John Schmitt-Dan Rothschild.

The final day of the APTA National Men’s and Women’s Championships was focused on the late rounds of the men’s draw. In contrast to the beautiful sunny Saturday, the Men’s semi finals and final matches on Sunday were played under threatening skies and wind gusts that made every lob a bit of guesswork.

The highlights were the main draw events at Kenwood Country Club, tournament central. In the semi-finals #4 seeds Alex Bancila and Brad Easterbrook defeated #7 seeds Mike Marino and Mike Stulac, and #1 seeds Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager defeated #3 seeds Steve DeRose and Jon Lubow.

In the finals, Goodspeed and Mansager played carefully, waiting for their chance to attack. Soft overheads, were mixed with slashes and spins. Booming drives were countered by soft hands again and again. As in the women’s final, the first set went to a tie-break, won by Bancila and Easterbrook.

What would be a good way to finish up the season after being inducted into the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame, winning the Men’s Senior 45+ title, and securing the number one position in national rankings? How about an 8th National Championship title. That’s exactly what Flip Goodspeed of Grand Rapids, MI and Scott Mansager of Chicago, IL did by taking the next two sets 6-3, 6-4, grabbing yet another APTA Men’s Open National Championship title.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 10, Issue 5, 2009

Made for Living. That’s the hometown slogan of Rochester, New York. The slogan just as well could be Made for Paddle. The Rochester area has had a proud platform tennis tradition for decades.

In 1988, the city was handed their first opportunity by the APTA to show what they could do. Local paddle guru and owner of the Shadow Lake Country Club, Fritz Odenbach agreed to chair the Nationals.

What the city lacked at the time in number of players and courts, they made up for with hospitality and enthusiasm. The Nationals brought together entertaining parties and a social aspect that had never been prevalent at a prior Nationals. The standards set in Rochester were the benchmark for all future Nationals. Odenbach was asked to host the Nationals again in 1996, 2000 and then again in 2008.

Today, Rochester platform tennis has grown by several fold. Fritz Odenbach has been instrumental in that success.

In preparation for the 2008 Nationals, Odenbach needed to increase the number of courts at Shadow Lake – the host site. Chris Casiraghi, President of Reilly Green Mountain; installed three temporary courts for the Nationals, bringing the Shadow Lake total to eight.

Other Major sponsors- Viking Athletics, Cobblestone Capital Advisors, Manning & Napier Advisors, Wendy’s Restaurants, M&T Bank, Wegmans, Centra Financial Group and Kodak supplied the majority of the heavy lifting while dozens of additional paddle friends contributed to ensure the financial stability to undertake the event.

Women’s Open Nationals: The competition at the 2008 Women’s Nationals was arguably the best in the history of the sport. The Friday competition saw all top eight seeds move on to the quarter-finals.

On Saturday, morning, top-seeded Bobo Delaney and Tonia Mangan played against #7 seeds, Cindy Prendergast and Lauren Zink. An unfortunate draw placement for Delaney and Mangan, the team going into the Nationals with the most ranking points was eliminated in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 by two of the best players in the game.

The second quarterfinal lined up Heather Prop and Lynn Schneebeck (#5 seed) against Kerri Delmonico and Aila Main (#4 seed). The 2006 National Champions, Delmonico and Main overcame the sole Region IV team in the quarterfinals.

In possibly the greatest upset of the women’s tournament, 4-time National Champions, Mary Doten and Susie Keane (#3 seed) lost to one of the hottest teams in the game, Cynthia Dardis and Amy Shay (#6 seeds).

The fourth quarter match-up showed off Laura Parsons and Annica van Starrenburg (#8 seed) against Sally Cottingham and Chris Sheldon (#2 seed). Parsons and van Starrenburg had only played one tournament together all year, winning the Chicago Charities. On this day they again played to their ability by beating Chicagoans Cottingham and Sheldon 6-0, 7-6.

The Saturday morning semi-finals showed off the power Lauren Zink and Laura Parsons and the consistency of Cindy Prendergast and Annica van Starrenburg. In the first semi, Zink and Prendergast outlasted Delmonico and Main 7-6, 4-6, 6-2 in a two-hour thriller. Able to play their match and then watch the third set of the Zink-Prendergast final, Parsons and van Starrenburg won their semi against Shay and Dardis 6-1, 6-2.

The women’s final saw blazing forehands and backhands, coupled with amazing hands at net. In front of a packed crown, Zink and Prendergast earned their second National Championship by a score of 6-4, 6-4.

Although seeded 7th and 8th, many predicted the final match-up. Next year’s Nationals will again be a deep battleground with no less than eight teams capable of taking home the title.

Men’s Open Nationals: To be a men’s champion in 2008, you had to overcome cold and snow, sun and warmth, day play and night play. If you had a weakness to mother
nature, she would have found it this weekend.

The road up to the semis was a bumpy one, but three of the top four seeds advanced. Caldwelll and Cordish (#2) failed to make the semis when they were upset by Rothschild and Schmidt (#7) 7-6, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals, Goodspeed and Mansager defeated Rothschild and Schmidt; while, Keevins and Uihlein spun their way through Estes and Cochrane- a match many throught was the best of the tournament.

Goodspeed and Mansager were set to play Keevins and Uihlein in the finals. The last time the two teams met was in the Chicago Charities earlier this season (Keevins and Uihlein won the match-up 6-0, 6-0).

In the finals, Keevins and Uihlein won for the second time in three years by a final score of 6-4, 6-4. Three balls were shredded as the team sliced their way to victory. David Keevins stepped up his overhead attack and showed that what Brian Uihlein could do with an overhead, so could he. Both players played near-flawless paddle.

The 2008 Rochester APTA Nationals was a tremendous success and is a feather in the cap for Rochester. Congratulations to Fritz and Sandra Odenbach and all of their volunteers for running an event to be remembered.

Photos by Bob Considine (www.paddlepro.com)

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 5, May, 2008

Nationals Chairman Bill Taubner and his staff of volunteers had nearly every angle covered for the week-long platform tennis festivities in Pelham, New York. In a word, the start of the Women’s Platform Tennis Nationals could be summed up as soggy. Rain plagued most of Friday, March 22, the first day of the competition. Despite the best efforts of the staff of the New York Athletic Club to dry courts in between showers, by 3 p.m., a substantial shower lasting a solid 40 minutes persisted.

A few games already in play were completed, but as the tired and cold players felt the usually crisp hits of the ball turn into a soggy, hard-tocontrol effort, spectators and fellow competitors drifted away to the dry confines of the clubhouse. There, they waited and hoped for the rain to subside enough for the New York Athletic Club staff to once again bring out the towels and push-blowers to dry the courts.

By 3:45, however, the rain let up enough for play to resume on the four heated lower courts at the NYAC.

There, the most major upset in the 2007 Women’s Nationals came after Heather Prop and Lynne Schneebeck, both of Cincinnati, defeated the number one team in the country (and 2006 National finalists) – Kerri Delmonico and Aila Main.

The pair said their strategy consisted of simply playing a lot of matches. “We played five matches in the President’s cup,” Prop said. “We tried to play the ball and our team, not our opponents.”

Schneebeck said her team’s strength comes from the fact that each player knows the other’s style. “(Prop’s) kind of quick. She’s got the spin,” Schneebeck said. “Today we were really focused.”

Prop and Schneebeck’s win took them to the Saturday morning semi-finals, where they were defeated by 3-time past Nationals Champions Mary Doten (Chicago) and Susie Keane (Detroit) 6-1, 6-1. To get to their semi-final, Doten and Keane defeated Bobo Delaney (New Jersey) and Tonia Mangan (New York) co-seeded as the #4 teams in the women’s draw, in the quarter-final, by a score of 6-2, 7-5.

The other semi-final pitted Cindy Prendergast (Delaware) and Lauren Zink (Lancaster, PA) against the third-seeded Chicago duo Sally Cottingham and Chris Sheldon. “We’ve trained hard and we’re focused;’ Cottingham said before the match. Prendergast and Zink responded in one of the most exciting matches of the women’s event, winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

In the finals, Doten and Keane were challenged by the formidable Cindy Prendergast and Lauren Zink in a grueling match that was nearly a solid two-and-one-half hours of edge-of-your-seat platform tennis. Despite Lauren Zink’s cannon-like forehands and Prendergast’s solid backcourt performance, Doten and Keane proved once again that they are National Championship material and pulled the match out 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.

Doten, who left for the airport immediately following the match, said it helps to have three prior Nationals under your belt when you enter a court with this kind of competition. “You know that you can be down five games to four and still pull it out,” she said. “Lauren has a wicked forehand, and the toughest part is figuring out whether to hit it or get out of the way.”

Keane also said she felt the pressure of her competition’s groundstrokes. “The most difficult is the fact that Lauren’s forehand is scary. You feel a little rushed. Cindy is as solid as can be. We got a little lucky,” Keane said. “It could have gone either way. I’m glad it was such a good match. It was probably the best final we ever had.”

Keane said she has had to change her pre-nationals training to meet and overcome such competition. “Now that I live in Detroit, its not like Chicago. I kind of come out three weeks before Nationals and I cram with my friend Eva Welsher. We drill all day. I don’t have the games I used to have in Chicago.” Keane said that her drilling partner is definitely the key to her personal success.

The Men’s Nationals began on Saturday under threatening skies on a breezy 45 degree day. The 128-team draw saw few surprises in day one, as 14 of the 16 seeded teams advanced to the round-of-16, followed by 7 of the top 8 reaching the quarter-finals.

On Sunday, the rain gave way to a perfectly sunny, 50-degree day. Crowds swelled to more than 500 people to watch the semi-finals of the National Championships. To say the least, it was a perfect day for platform tennis at this historic club on the Long Island Sound. Sailboats meandered back and forth in the distance as the best players in the country took center court.

In the first semi-final, the top-seeded Baltimore team – David Caldwell and Blake Cordish played seven-time National Men’s Champions Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager. Starting at 10 a.m., the match extended past 1 pm. Goodspeed and Mansager used patience measured with calculated offense to defeat the more-aggressive Caldwell/Cordish.

The second semi-final featured four of the most exciting players on the tour. The second-seeded team of Dan Rothschild and John Schmitt fought hard against fourth seeds – Mike Cochrane and Scott Estes. Many thought the three-set battle was the best exhibition of the entire championship weekend with Cochrane and Estes prevailing.

The Men’s finals paired off Cochrane and Estes against Goodspeed and Mansager. Prior to the match, Goodspeed said his team’s strategy would consist of slowing down the aggressive Cochrane/Estes offense, but that strategy was offset early on in the match.

Cochrane/Estes won 6-3, 6-4 after an intense 2-hour finals battle.

“I feel they absolutely did try to slow us down,” Cochrane said after the win. “That was one of the reasons why I tried to create a faster pace. They tried to wait it out and we looked for good shots to make.”

Estes said the team strategy might have been different if they didn’t lead early in the match. “It would have been very different if we were behind,” he said. “We tried to stay ahead.”

The 2007 National finals was a first for Estes. Cochrane, however, played in the 2005 National finals.

Source: Platform Tennis News, Vol. 8, Issue 5, April, 2007

If the 2006 Nationals had a decidedly Chicago flavor, it wasn’t lust because of the location. Men’s champions Brian Uihlein and Dave Keevins and Women’s champion Mary Doten are all long standing area residents and Susie Keane, though living in the Detroit area, learned her paddle skills in Chicago.

The path to the finals for both winning teams was dramatic, though in very different ways. Keevins and Uihlein had to survive four consecutive three-setters from the round of 16 on, and came from behind in every match to win. Maybe their gutsiest win came in a three-set quarter-final against Anthony Cosimano and Steve Haller when, down 5-6 and triple match point and Uihlein cramping badly, they survived in a tie-breaker. The semis proved no easier against defending National Champions Bill Anderson and Mike Stulac. Stulac showed his toughness by overcoming a sprained ankle incurred in the first set while diving for a particularly nasty Uihlein spin serve. The teams traded the lead throughout the match with last year’s champs staying in it by virtue of their spectacular volleying and the new champs applying relentless pressure with their big forehands. At the conclusion of the 2 1/2 hour match, Keevins/Uihlein came up with just enough big points to win 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to reach the final.

The final matched Keevins and Uihlein against Blake Cordish and David Caldwell who were on an amazing roll having given up a total of only 6 games in their three previous matches. The final was played in a steady snowfall that made the conditions challenging at best. The Chicago “ground crew” mopped the court with towels before the match and during changeovers to give the players decent footing. Everyone from tournament chair Alan Graham to former national champions Bill Fiedler and Rich Maier pitched in to make the
court playable. The level of talent on the court overcame the conditions and Caldwell/Cordish took the first set in a tiebreaker. They went up a break in the second set and were serving at 4-2 when the Chicago team made their move. In nailbiting fashion, with every game tight, Keevins/Uihlein won the second set in a tiebreaker.

In the final set, the steam from the heaters was so thick that most of the 300+ spectators could only guess at what was going on during most points. But the players maintained a ridiculously high level of movement and shot making and waged a seesaw battle that ended with Keevins and Uihlein breaking serve to win the title 6-4 in the third to become only the second all-Chicago team to win the Championship in the 76-year history of the event.

The drama on the Women’s side was not contained solely on the court. The semis were set with two New York/New Jersey teams on one side of the draw and two Chicago/Detroit teams on the other. Defending champions Kerri Delmonico and Aila Main squared off against Bobo Delaney and Tonia Mangan in a match-up of the #1 and #4 seeds. Delaney/Mangan played a nearly flawless first set and won it 6-4 relying on their well-refined teamwork attack. But Delmonico/Main were not ready to give up their title and battled back to take the second set 6-4. With both teams fighting for every point, the top seeds prevailed in a tiebreaker to advance to the finals.

Waiting for Delmonico and Main were Mary Doten and Susie Keane, who had their two-title winning streak ended at last years Nationals by Aila and Kerri. If Doten and Keane looked surprisingly fresh, it was because they received a pass to the final when the unseeded team of Kristen Klauke and Terry Miller defaulted just before the scheduled semi. Klauke had come down with a bad flu bug after defeating the third-seeded team of Dardis and Shea in the quarter-finals and was unable to play thus setting a match-up of the winners of the last three National Championships.

Doten and Keane showed no ill effects from their layoff and took the first set 6-4. With their rhythm established and confidence growing, they dictated played and gave Delmonico
and Main no openings to counterattack. They gave the Chicago crowd what they wanted and closed out the match by winning the final set of the Women’s tournament 6-2.

Congratulations to all the participants of this years Nationals. It seemed like the over 420 players were unanimous in their praise of the exceptional job done by the tournament staff. The food and service at Glen View Club were great, the beer and wine never ran out, and the Saturday night party was one of the best in years. Special acknowledgment goes to behind-the-scenes magicians Bill O’Brien and ARIA. Executive Director Marjorie Hodson who ran tournament central and coordinated innovations like hourly result updates on paddlepro.com and the distribution of current draw sheets at the lunch locations and throughout the tournament.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 5, April, 2006

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