LA Open Recap: Sobhy Wins WSA Singles, Betts/Pierrepont Take WDSA Doubles by Rob Dinerman Dateline November 17th
--- Amanda Sobhy split her pair of final-round appearances this
afternoon as the LA Open concluded. She soundly defeated world #38
Tesni Evans of Wales, 11-6, 11-4 and 11-2 in the final round of the WSA
singles event, then returned shortly thereafter to the doubles court,
where she and her partner, tournament chairman Victoria Simmonds, fell
to the top-seeded team of Dana Betts and Suzie Pierrepont by a score of
15-6 13-15 15-13 15-13.
The dynamics of
the doubles final were affected by the withdrawal of second seeds (and
finalists one week earlier in Cincinnati) Tarsh McElhinny and Steph
Hewitt due to the death several days earlier of McElhinny's
father-in-law. Dawn Gray and Amy Milanek were moved into the
second-seeded slot of the six-team draw and hence byed to the semis,
where they lost to Sobhy/Simmonds, quarterfinal winners over Cece
Cortes and Joyce Davenport. In the top half of the draw, Fernanda Rocha
and Karen Jerome defeated Orla O'Doherty and Ivy Pochoda before their
progress was stopped by Betts and Pierrepont.
The final was
highly competitive after the first game, with Betts and Simmonds
engaging in a good cross-court battle, Pierrepont asserting herself on
the right wall and Sobhy showing no ill effects from having played the
singles final less than a half-hour before the doubles match began.
Betts scored a number of reverse-corner winners and she and Pierrepont
maintained just enough offensive pressure to carry them through the
last pair of tightly-contested games.
