by Peter Pell
2019 Whitney Cup by the Numbers…
5
The number of consecutive Whitney Cups won by New York prior to this year. The Greentree team ended the streak on the back of remarkable wins in the finals by Addison West & Ben Stein (over Spike Willcocks & Lex Miron), Dylan Patterson & Hugh McDonald (over Bruce Manson & Jonathan Larken), and Simon Aldrich & Rob McLane (over Greg Van Schaack & Lincoln Frank).
0.08
The differential in the ratio of games won to games lost, which sent Greentree to the finals over New England and Washington. The three teams each beat each other and were tied in matches won (5 each) and the ratio of sets won to sets lost (1.00). The next tiebreaker is the ratio of games won to games lost and Greentree advanced with a ratio of 1.08 (98 games won/ 91 games lost) to New England’s ratio of 1.00 (109/ 109) and Washington’s 0.93 (97/104).
2
The number of match points that the Tuxedo-Aiken-Chicago team of Alan McHugh and George Handy earned against Greg Van Schaack and Bruce Manson. Had they won one of those points Tuxedo-Aiken-Chicago would have advanced to the final instead of New York. The roars from the crowd on Saturday evening were deafening, as both groups came down to the final match.
38
Combined age of Noah Motz and Erik Barker, who played number one for Washington. They are likely the youngest pair in Whitney Cup History and were the fan favorites throughout the weekend, giving remarkable accounts of themselves throughout the weekend.
Seemingly Infinite
Number of Whitney Cup matches won by Simon Aldrich (“Mr. December”).
71
The percentage of matchups (5 out of 7) that were decided 3 matches to 2. Had it not been for a couple of key injuries to players on the Philadelphia team, all 7 could have been 3-2.
5
Number of upsets (as defined by a team handicap differential of 2 of more) out of the 35 matches played. The number of upsets (as indicated by handicap) is remarkably consistent from year to year.
Most notable about the list of upsets is the prominence of newer players, including George Handy III, Charlie Michele, Dylan Patterson, Hugh McDonald, John Beam, and Jason Mengel.
87
Whitney Cup iteration that will commence on December 11, 2020. The seeds will be Greentree (1), New York (2), New England (3), and Tuxedo-Aiken-Chicago (4).
