2018 USCTA Amateur Doubles @ The Tuxedo Club
November 30– Dec 2, 2018
By Dawson Lane
A small but very talented group of doubles teams competed @ The Tuxedo Club for the 18’-19’ USCTA Amateur Doubles Championships.
With only 7 teams in the draw; top seeds Will Hopton & Jon Crowell moved through to the semifinals without having to play a match.
Quarterfinals
Local favorites but decided underdogs Dan Laukitis & Nick Shumaker started the tournament off playing the #2 seeds Peter Cipriano & Tom McGinnis. Some spirited play from the Laukitis & Shumaker team made for a very fun and competitive first set that went to Cipriano & McGinnis 6-3. Cipriano & McGinnis tightened things up a bit in the second set and moved through to the semifinals with a 6-3 6-1 victory.
The second match of the tournament also saw Tuxedo being represented by George Handy & John Beam. Unfortunately for the home club; Zach Sacks & Alex Spence showed their class and cruised to a 6-1 6-3 victory setting up an anticipated semifinal versus Cipriano & McGinnis.
The final quarterfinal was on paper…the most evenly matched pairs àKen Soffer & Tom Brownlie from Philadelphia against the father-son combo of Bill & Erik Barker from Washington D.C. Barker2came out on fire and never let the Philadelphia pair get into the match….winning in a blink of an eye 6-0 6-1.
Semifinals
Sacks & Spence vs. Cipriano & McGinnis was much anticipated by the crowd at The Tuxedo Club. While there were some crowd pleasing rallies and some fantastic points; Cipriano & McGinnis had a little too much offense and were more consistent as they cruised to a 6-3 6-2 win and a place in the Final.
Hopton & Crowell finally got a chance to participate in the tournament taking on the ‘surprise??’ semifinalist pair of Bill & Erik Barker. The Barker team took it to the tournament’s top seed going down in three very tough sets. It would have been very interesting to see how Hopton & Crowell would have responded if they had lost the first set; but they persevered and earned the other spot in the Final with a 6-5 3-6 6-2 victory.
Final
The top two seeds squared off in the 18’-19’ USCTA Amateur Doubles Final. A nice crowd in the dedans of The Tuxedo Club was anticipating some fantastic doubles and a good match. The first two sets were a bit anti-climactic as each team took turns having an ‘off’ set as they split the first two sets with identical 6-2 scores.
Cipriano & McGinnis played a solid first seven games of the third set in taking a 5-2 lead and what was looking like a 2 set to 1 lead. Consistency suddenly became a four-letter word for the Cipriano & McGinnis pairing as balls found their way into the nets and out of play and the match was quickly at 5-5 and the crowd sensed a turning point. The 5-5 all game was back and forth but Hopton & Crowell snuck over the line to take a 2 set to 1 lead and also had the all-important ‘momentum’.
Hopton & Crowell took the ‘momentum’ and ran with it as they maintained a lead throughout the fourth set winning 6-3, and the match 2-6 6-2 6-5 6-3.
Congratulations to the 18’-19’ USCTA Amateur Doubles Champions Will Hopton & Jon Crowell.
Thank you to The Tuxedo Club for hosting the tournament and the Tuxedo Racquets Committee for organizing the event.
