by James Asher
This year’s Jimmy Dunn had record numbers across the park with 51 doubles teams filling out eight separate draws. We had players from across America as well as players from England and France, which was fantastic to see. The play started on Thursday at noon and finished on Sunday at 6 pm. The longest Jimmy Dunn in history! As well as being the biggest draw the Jimmy Dunn has seen, it was also one of the best-fielded draws in terms of talent we have seen for many years.
The Open division final pitted Rob Whitehouse and Steve Virgona against New York’s Barney Tanfield and Peter Cipriano. In what was the closest final in recent memory, Tanfield and Cipriano won the first set 6-5. Down 5-3 in the second set, Virgona and Whitehouse used their battling qualities to fight through and win the second set 6-5. The third set was nip and tuck with both teams going blow for blow. Virgona and Whitehouse ended up sneaking through and taking the set and the match 6-5, 5-6, 6-5 in 1 hour and 40 minutes!
The A draw saw Jon Crowell and Alex Spence against doubles specialists Tom Brownlie and Kenny Soffer. With high-quality control and pace, this was a fantastic match. Both sets were tight, but it was the experience of Crowell and Spence who got through the closing games to win 6-3, 6-4. The B draw was Kenny Soffer and Peter Vogt up against Boston’s Ben Hudson and Tyler Sloan. Hudson and Sloan had a great run up until the final but just ran out of energy to succumb to Soffer and Vogt 6-2, 6-4.
The C draw was another tight match as Mike Barton and Lucas Garvin played Peter Roessler and Chris Barrus. Barton and Garvin started strong winning the first set 6-2 and looked comfortable only to have Roessler and Barrus fight back and win the second set 6-4. They continued their dominance to go up 5-3 only for Barton and Garvin to fight back again and take the match 6-5! The D1 draw saw Peter Rimmler and Drew Oliviera against Will Winmill and Christian McCall. Rimmler and Oliviera took an early lead and continued the pressure to win the match 10-6.
The D2 draw was Adam Yaari and Rick Griffith against Rory O’Connor and Brad Williams. O’Connor and Williams had a fantastic run in the tournament with some impressive results but came unstuck against the experience of Yaari and Griffith with the latter winning 10-4. In the D3 draw, Kyle Reap and Peter Griffith overcame Lokesh Prabhu and TJ Dougherty 10-3 in another high-quality match. The E draw saw another impressive performance from Andrew Brown and Brittany Wakim against Greg Certo and Seth Beber to win 10-4. It was impressive from Wakim, a new player, playing in her first tournament.
Thanks to everyone who came to the event. A special thanks to our sponsors without whom these tournaments would not happen. We hope to see everyone again next year.
