Suzie Pierrepont Ruptures Achilles, Will Undergo Surgery Today
by Rob Dinerman

photo WSDA

Dateline May 6th --- In the wake of the left Achilles tendon rupture that she sustained this past Sunday during the fifth game of the final round of the MetroSquash Chicago Open at the Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, IL, Suzie Pierrepont will undergo surgery to reattach the tendon today in the hope of making a full return to the WSDA women’s pro doubles tour this autumn. Pierrepont and her first-time partner Fernanda Rocha were at 5-6 in the fifth game against another pair of debuting teammates in Dana Betts and Gina Stoker when Pierrepont hurt herself while maneuvering around Betts as she pursued the ball in tight quarters along the left wall. The injury occurred a year virtually to the day from when Pierrepont and Carrie Hastings captured the biennial World Doubles title on the same suburban-Chicago court, and just three weeks after Pierrepont and James Stout had won the U. S. National Mixed Doubles title in Philadelphia. Pierrepont, a former world top-30 on the pro singles circuit who with Narelle Krizek has formed the No. 1 pro doubles team several times during the past half-dozen years, has had heel problems in the past --- she tore the plantar fascia in her right foot during the 2006 World Open in Belfast and has played through bouts with tendinitis in recent years --- but her mishap this past weekend occurred out of the blue and she later reported that she “didn’t see this coming!”

   The MetroSquash event, one of the most popular on the schedule for how well it is run by Co-Chairs Danny Dolan and Peter Dunne along with the host club’s head pro Aidan Harrison, is the last on the 2015-16 WSDA schedule, and Pierrepont/Rocha had advanced to the final with a win over Amy Milanek and Tina Rix. In the top half of the four-team draw, No. 1 seeds Betts and Stoker had trailed Latasha Khan and Tehani Guruge two games to one before rallying to a five-game victory. They similarly were faced with a two-games-to-one deficit in the final but stormed through the fourth game 15-8, leading to a fifth game that was evenly contested before Pierrepont’s fateful misstep left her writhing on the floor and ended the game, and the WSDA season, in abrupt and most regrettable fashion.