By Barney Tanfield and Pete Dickinson
On Friday January 20th players from eight clubs arrived in Midtown for the 2023 Kendrick/Etchebaster weekend to display what is surely a promising future for all participants.
The round of thirty-two kicked off on Friday afternoon with both East and West courts hosting some entertaining competition. James Cannon, Conor Allen, and Christopher Gould made things interesting early, all winning in the third set 6/5. Top seeds made their presence known on both sides of the draw with dominant wins from John Pak, Stephen Wetherill, Ned Lanipher, and Sebastian Kreitz. These four generated a lot of speculation as to who might ultimately prevail.
With twelve matches to play on Saturday, Wil Hagen joined a list of potential winners dropping only four games in two matches on his way to the semi-finals. Pak and Wetherill followed in similar fashion, setting a primetime matchup for an East Court semi final. Kreitz joined the last four standing after a well fought three sets to face Hagen in the West Court semi final.
Sunday’s attendance was strong despite a strong nocturnal showing from many of the entrants. In the top semi, the age old Etchebaster battle of elite squash background vs elite tennis background was again reignited. Stephen Wetherill put on an excellent show against John Pak and the former squash great (soon to be Court Tennis great) sealed his path to the final in straight sets.
The bottom semi was not dissimilar thematically. Many an eyebrow was raised when Wil Hagen clinically engineered his own straight set win against a more
polished Sebastian Kreitz. Wil’s stoic demeanor, coupled with an incessant smile misled many in the early rounds but now all began to see the fury within.
The final saw Stephen Wetherill against Wil Hagen. Wetherill a former Dartmouth squash standout vs Wil Hagen, a former Penn squash standout. As one would expect, the match featured superb retrieving from both young men. Perhaps what was unexpected was the tact, technique and execution on display. Hagen took advantage of his home court knowledge and won 6/1, 6/3, cementing his courtside gold paint.
Congratulations to all the participants for tremendous sportsmanship and play throughout the event. A major thank you to the tournament chairman- Peter Cipriano, John Beam and George Handy III. The future of Tennis in the states is bright!
