From a keen observer….
The Etchebaster trophy was keenly contested at the Racquet Club of Chicago from January 18th-20th 2019.
Although it was very cold with lots of snow falling over the weekend, we had 5 players coming in from New York and Washington.
There was also a strong field of Chicago players and some notable performances go to Ben Olson and Jonathan Lewis who both had good runs to the semi-final.
Chapin Lee, who was on the wrong end of a three-set thriller in the main event, went on to win the back-draw final against Trout Kinney 8-6.
The Etchebaster final of 2019 was between Emile Toscano of Washington and Devin Vrabel of Chicago (who earlier that day won the Kendrick cup for new racquets players). This game turned out to be a nail biter with Devin coming back from being 1 set and 5-2 down in the second to win the match 2-1 to cap off a great day for him in completing the tennis and racquets double, and also for the Racquet Club.
Thank you to the co-tournament chairman Pete Pacelli and Parker Pearson for their organization of the tournament and also to John Cashman, Steve Virgona and Conor Medlow for their help throughout the weekend.