By John Lumley
We had eight strong teams descend upon Philadelphia for the 2018 Percy Cup. Friday’s play saw a great start from Newport only dropping 1 game from the maximum they could have gotten. Philadelphia 1 team also had a dream start winning all of their matches in their first game. New York 2 even though they lost 2 of their matches got to 6 in 2 of them meant it kept them in it leading into Saturday. With all of the players around it was a great atmosphere down in the basement and everyone was excited for the rest of the weekend.
8am Saturday came around quickly and started with Philadelphia 2 vs Aiken. Aiken’s first pair were on form and had obviously gone to bed early as they were fired up. Handy and Cook took it 8-3 but with the pairs two and three still left to play Philadelphia 2 had other plans in store. Katz and Caldwell won 8-5 tying it at 1 match all and the surprising team of Schellenberg and Broussard won 8-4 to give Philadelphia 2 the win.
Up next – Beam and Michele took to the stage eager to make up for their lose from the night before and earlier that day. Michele teeing off on everything, couldn’t miss and Beam finishing points with his lovely volley, took the match 8-1 against New York 1. Dream team of Kilgore and Scherer were up next and played perfectly together to win 8-5 giving Tuxedo a 2-0 lead. The final match was the third pair and it was a battle. Two games all, three games all, four games all, five games all, six games all and buzzzzzzzzz….the match ended at 6 games all! Well played by Fraser and Ross versus Stebbins and Riley.
After some very aggressive addition and calculations Philadelphia 1 and New York 2 made it into the final. First up were the undefeated team of Patrick Harris and Andrew Dick versus Adam Inselbuch and Peter Roessler. Both teams had a good start with Philadelphia 1 taking a small lead of 4-2. New York 2 fought back to bring it to 3-4 but Harris couldn’t miss a ball to take the first set 6-3. Andrew Dick served and returned well, adding a mixture of pace and length on the return, kept the momentum going and Philadelphia 1 took the first match 6-3 6-1.
1-0 to Philadelphia 1.
Chris Casazza and, Saby Bose were up next against Theodore Goneos and Peter MacGuire. First set was nip and tuck with both teams exchanging games. Before we knew it, they were tied at five games all, 40-all. Casazza, the Philadelphia team Captain, stepped up and took the set with a great backhand volley. With momentum in their favor and Bose using his superb volley won the match 6-5 6-2. With the match going to Philadelphia 2-0 the third team stepped out on court. Jon Auerbach and Jeremy Thompson versus Andrew Foote and Winston Simone Sr. Auerbach and Thompson got off to a flying start taking the first set 6-2. Foote and Simeone Sr started to fight back in the second set going to 4 games all, but Auerbach playing great tennis at the net, finished off the match 6-2 6-4 and gave Philadelphia the 3-0 win over New York 2 to bring home the Percy Cup!
