2017 Percy Cup
by John Lumley
With another sold out Percy Cup, eight teams descended upon Philadelphia to try and win the coveted title! New York the defending champions fielded two teams along with Philadelphia fielding two teams. Tuxedo, Washington, Newport and Aiken all had teams in as well.
Friday’s play kicked off at 11am heading well into the night finishing at 11pm! This saw Philadelphia 2 take a convincing victory over Aiken to start off strong on the campaign to take the title. Tuxedo played some great tennis is all of their three pairs to take a clean sweep over Newport. Philadelphia 2 had their second match of the day as the last match of the day. This saw another win putting Philadelphia 2 in prime location to make the finals. New York 1 had a tough first match against Newport but managed to sneak through 2-1.
Saturday morning fast approached with an 8am start for New York 2 vs Washington. Washington took a clean sweep winning all three of the matches. With results pouring in all day it looked like Tuxedo were pulling away towards making the finals. Newport vs Aiken was the early evening match and proved to be maybe the closest match all weekend. Minevitz & Hodges took the final point over Glance & Rabun 8/7 and then Aiken struck back with Glance & Ellis winning the final point in their match to take it 7/6!
With Philadelphia 2 safely into the finals it was a race between Philadelphia 1 & Tuxedo to see who would make it to the final. Tuxedo were in prime position going into the last match against New York 2. NY2 took the first match 8/7 in a nail bitter, the second string got the win 8/6 for Tuxedo and NY2 played some great Tennis in the final pair to win the match 8/3. This left a little gap for Philadelphia 1 but they needed to win every match with the 8 games. Vogt & Gorsen played very smart Tennis and took the first match vs Washington 8/3. Andrew Dick & Standish won 8/5 again playing good Tennis. It all came down to Sader & Auerbach where they found themselves at 7 games all! Clark & Kubasik still looked calm and collected and with some great returns of serves took the match 8/7 to keep Philadelphia 1 out of the final!
Rob Armstrong & Anders Cohen vs John Edwards & John Beam was the first match of the final. Beam & Edwards came out the gate strong and took the first set 6/4. Cohen found length on his serves & Armstrong’s retrieval was on point to bring them back and take the second set 6/3. Tied at 1 set all we started at 3 game all in the third. Of course it went the distance and the crowd were on the edge of there seats at 5 games all. Edwards was clinical in this final game and took the first rubber for Tuxedo 6/4 3/6 6/5!
The second match to go on was the 3rd string players of David Caldwell & John Schellenberg for Philadelphia vs James Shaver & Claire Voegele for Tuxedo. Caldwell running everything down and Schellenberg with some fantastic volleys gave them an early lead but Shaver controlling the ball and Voegele bring a variety of great length and good pace off the backhand volley bought it back to 5 games all. Caldwell had a little word to Schellenberg and both players were suddenly on fire and won the next three games to take the match 8/5 and bring the match to 1 rubber all.
It all came down to the last match to determine who would take home the trophy. Schuyler Wickes & John Iole for Philadelphia vs Charlie Michele & George Ughetta for Tuxedo. The first set was extremely tight all the way to 5 games all. Michele brining some serious heat at big points and Ughetta defending the Grille superbly managed to take the first set 6/5. The kept up the momentum and with Wickes trying all different types of angles & boasts to get them out of the groove it wasn’t enough. Tuxedo won the final match 6/5 6/1 and won the match 2-1 in rubbers to take home the 2017 Percy Cup!
