WDSA John’s Island Open Update: Pierrepont/Krizek To Face Quick/Hewitt In Sunday Final  
by Rob Dinerman



Dateline April 26th --- Top-seeded defending champions Suzie Pierrepont and Narelle Krizek will face their recent-years rivals Steph Hewitt and Meredeth Quick Sunday morning in the final round of the second annual John’s Island Open, sponsored by John’s Island Real Estate. Pierrepont and Krizek defeated 2011 Los Angeles Open finalists Amanda Sobhy and Latasha Khan 15-14, 10 and 9 today in one semifinal, after which Hewitt and Quick, the No. 1 WDSA team in 2012 now reunited after a hiatus caused by Quick taking a leave to swell the population, took the measure of second seeds Dana Betts and Tarsh McElhinny by a score of 15-7 12-15 15-10 15-9.

    U. S. Open champions Pierrepont and Krizek, straight-game winners over Emily Lungstrum and Alex Clarke in their opening match, struggled through a taut first game against Sobhy and Khan (three-love winners in their qualifying match against 2014 U. S. National Doubles finalists Kelsey Engman and Gina Stoker) until at 14-all, Pierrepont successfully guided a backhand volley drop shot just above the tin for a clear winner. Buoyed by this result, the top seeds cut out their tins and increased the pressure on Khan in the final two games, extracting some errors both from her and from her partner Sobhy, who may have felt that she had to go for too much on the opportunities she had as Pierrepont and Krizek moved efficiently along to their spot in the final.

   The bottom-half semi was more closely contested, with 2012 U. S. National Doubles winners Hewitt and Quick racing through the first game, after which a series of Betts reverse-corner winners and McElhinny forehand kills along the right wall evened the match at a game apiece. In the latter part of the third game, which featured numerous cross-court exchanges between Quick and McElhinny, Hewitt and Quick gradually gained an advantage, which they pressed all the way through the fourth as well to set up what should be a highly engaging clash tomorrow between the top two teams on the WDSA circuit.

 



Back To Main