by Jeff Horine
Team New England, after a 12-year drought, beat New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC to win the 2021 Whitney Cup during the weekend of December 9-12 at New York’s Racquet and Tennis Club in Midtown.
The Payne Whitney Memorial Cup is a doubles competition among all of the court tennis clubs in the United States, with each team fielding five doubles teams for each competition, including one senior (55+) team. Team New England is comprised of the best players from the T&R in Boston and the NTC in Newport, and this year’s team members were:
George Bell (T&R), Pete Dickinson (Newport), Shaun Herlihy (T&R), Jeff Horine (T&R) Captain, Ben Hudson (T&R), Todd Meringoff (T&R), Alex Spence (T&R), David Tedeschi (T&R), Jeremy Wintersteen (Newport) and Patrick Winthrop (Newport).
Each of the five doubles teams for New England won important victories to enable New England to beat Philadelphia 4-1, New York 3-2, and, in the finals, Washington 4-1.
In the #3 position, Hudson and Wintersteen played the first match of each competition, as determined through a random drawing prior to the event. Hudson as the “up” player and Wintersteen as the “back” player were a natural pairing by Horine, in his final year as Captain. All three matches for the pairing were statistical toss-ups based on the RTO rankings. However, Wintersteen’s steady floor game and body-straining recoveries coupled with Hudson’s solid volleying led the team to victory in all three of its matches, enabling New England to start each competition 1-0.
Meringoff and Winthrop played in the #1 position and dispatched their New York and Washington opponents in straight sets. The #1 position was the second pairing to play in each competition, and the victories by Meringoff and Winthrop against New York and Washington sent New England to a 2-0 lead in both competitions, leaving New England with three opportunities to win one match to claim the competition.
Dickinson, in his first Whitney Cup, and Spence were paired at the #2 position and delivered an important victory in the third match of the competition against Philadelphia in another statistical toss-up, enabling New England to take a 2-1 lead going into the final two matches, both of which were won by New England.
Tedeschi and Herlihy, who won two of their three matches, were underdogs against a tough Washington team in the Sunday finals. With hard-hitting opponents that included a former #1 player for Washington, Tedeschi and Herlihy agreed on an unorthodox strategy prior to the match for both players to stay back on the service side, while going out of their way to find the higher handicap player (albeit a respectable 22 handicap) from both sides of the net. The strategy and steady play led the pairing to an exciting three-set victory on Sunday that clinched the Whitney Cup for New England.
Bell and Horine played in the senior position in the deciding match against New York on Saturday evening to determine which team would face Washington in the Sunday finals. In front of packed dedans and galleries, Bell and Horine dispatched their opponents 6/0 6/1. In their second Whitney Cup as partners, Bell and Horine survived a few scares in the final match against Washington, but the pairing won all three matches in the competition without dropping a set.
This marked the first year since 2009, when New England last won the Whitney Cup, that neither New York nor Greentree (New York’s other team) won the interclub competition. Congratulations Team New England.
Click here for full results
Photos by Marco Calderon
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Ben Cook (Aiken)
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Charlie Hurstel Washington
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Ben Hudson (New England)
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Jeremy Wintersteen (New England)
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The dedans is transfixed
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Will Hopton (Philadelphia)
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Jim Zug (Philadelphia)
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Bill Barker (Washington)
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Peter Vogt (Philadelphia)
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Morris Clothier (Greentree)
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Simon Aldrich (Greentree)
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Steve Hufford (Washington)
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Greg Van Schaack (Philadelphia)
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Team Washington reaches the final!
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2021 Whitney Cup Champions - New England
