Germantown Cricket Club’s Lauren West and the Cynwyd Club’s Georgina Stoker brought their partnership’s first National Doubles title back to the host clubs, while men’s top seeds Will Hartigan & Mike Ferreira lifted their first title together, Sunday, March 12, at Germantown Cricket Club, the Cynwyd Club and Philadelphia Country Club.
Ninety-one teams competed in the eighty-seventh edition of the National Doubles across fourteen divisions. View all results on the National Doubles tournament page. Watch match replays on the US Squash Youtube channel. Tournament photography will be available on the US Squash Smugmug Page.
The Open divisions saw both finals come down to the top two seeds. In the women’s draw, West & Stoker put together a perfect title run without dropping a game all tournament. West & Stoker defeated four seeds Celia Pashely & Alexia Echeverria 15-6, 15-14, 15-13 in the semis. West & Stoker then went on to defeat Canadian veterans Stephanie Hewitt & Seanna Keating in n the final 15-6, 15-8, 15-14. Stoker celebrates her third National Doubles open title, adding to her wins in 2018 and 2019, while West marks her first.
“Gina and I are really good friends and enjoy being on court together, so winning my first title with her was a great feeling!” West said. “I was also fortunate to do it at my home club, GCC, so to have a lot of our members there supporting made it even sweeter. Gina hit an outrageous number of winners, showing why I followed the number one rule in doubles… choose the best partner!There was a great energy at all clubs throughout the weekend, with lots of fellow players, local doubles enthusiasts and host club members filling the stands. A huge thank you to Charlotte, Preston and the rest of the doubles committee for pulling off a great event, enjoyed by everyone.”
The men’s draw proved to be nearly as dominant as Ferreira & Hartigan progressed to the final without dropping a game. The closest match of the draw came in the bottom half semifinal where two seeds and 2022 finalists Lockie Munro & Lyell Fuller came back from 2-1 down to overcome three seeds Chris Longman & Lyall Paterson 15-12, 12-15, 12-15, 15-6, 15-13. In the final, the top seeds dropped their only game of the tournament to lift the national doubles trophy 15-12, 15-13, 14-15, 15-4. Ferreira adds to his 2019 National Doubles title, while Hartigan celebrates his first.
“Mikey is a great friend and extremely fun to compete with so it was a thrill to win my first with him,” Hartigan said. “Mikey hit approximately 500 winners this weekend so I think I’ll give him the look to play again next year! There was a great energy from the fellow players and from the local squash community in Philly and the members of the various host clubs. It’s always fun to play in front of crowds! Charlotte Knaggs, Preston Quick and the US Squash team did an amazing job coordinating a huge tournament and rolling out an awesome experience for everyone involved.”
Ferreira added: “It was a ton of fun playing the Nationals in Philly with Will, we were happy to win a tough final and want to thank everyone involved in making the event such a success!”
The age divisions saw five 2022 champions successfully defend their titles.
In the men’s 40+, former Open champions John Russell & Preston Quick extended their National Doubles title records by topping the round robin with Tim Brennan & Charlie Humber placing second.
Mark Price & Shane Coleman won their third National Doubles title together and first in the 45+ division, edging runners up Nathan Dugan & Steve Scharff 15-12, 11-15, 11-15, 15-14, 15-13 in the deciding match.
Top seeds Mike Puertas & Chris Walker won their third consecutive 50+ title together without dropping a game. Puertas marks his sixth National Doubles title while Walker celebrates his fifth.
Will Ullman & Jeff Stanley defended their 55+ title, dropping just one game to win the round robin with Ed Chilton & Andrew Slater finishing second.
60+ top seeds Richard Sheppard & Dominic Hughes won their second straight title in dramatic fashion, overcoming a 2-1 deficit in the finals against three seeds Rob Hill & Bart Sambrook to win 15-11, 12-15, 11-15, 15-9, 15-7.
Pete Bostwick & Robert Bolling pulled off a perfect tournament without dropping a game to win their second straight 65+ title, including a final win over two seeds Sandy Tierney & Sean McDonough.
John Brazilian & Tim Griffin also pulled off a perfect title run in the 70+ division to win back to back tittles, with Habib Rahman & Walter Burke placing second in the round robin.
The largest Women’s 60+ in National Doubles history fielding six teams saw Tracy Greer & V. Vaughan Schmidt and Sara Luther & Beth Fedorowich advance to the finals from their round robins. Luther 7 Fedorowich then took the title 15-5, 15-9, 13-15, 15-5. Luther celebrates her fifteenth National Doubles title and second in the 60+ age division.
First-time partners R. Clark Amos & David Potter came back from 2-0 down in the 75+ final to defeat James Zug, Sr. & Richard Rice 6-15, 6-15, 15-11, 15-12, 15-7.
Lenny Bernheimer & Bartlett McGuire won their third National Doubles title together and first in the 80+ division without dropping a game. Bernheimer collects his sixteenth National Doubles title in his sixth different age division.
The men’s A final was a marathon decided in two hours and 15-14 in the fifth game with Jesse Lane & Peter McIntire coming out on top over Anas Ghazanfar & Aaron Zenner.