Martin Bostrom and Lennart Jonason played pretty good paddle over the weekend and won one of the most prestigious paddle tournaments in the country. Martin is currently ranked 83rd with Mark Fischl and, before Short Hills, had never won two matches in the main draw of any National Ranking Tournament. This was his first tournament together with fellow swede Lennart Jonason and it was quite the debut! After the level showed in New Jersey, don’t be surprised if Martin ends up the year in the top 10 in the Nation.
Lennart has established himself as one of the best players in the country. He is currently number 3 in the lastest APTA Men’s National Ranking. How many guys can say that they played with someone for the first time, beat three top 10 teams and took care of business versus two former National runner-ups? Lennart can.
Short Hills was arguably the only tournament this season were the round of 16s could have gone either way in at least 7 out of the 8 matches. The field was loaded with top 10 players. Fourteen in total, and that is not counting two-time Nationals runner-up Matt Porter. This year, was definitely the strongest field in almost a decade.
In the round of 16s the #1 seed deRose-Lubow beat Mavrin-Misitrano in a close 6-4, 6-4 match and were waiting for the winner of Bostrom-Jonason vs Falatek-Nadjek. A 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 win by the Swedes gave the New Jersey idols a preview of what was to come.
Sebastian Bredberg and George Wilkinson defeated Cosimano-LeFevre 6-2, 7-6 and showed everybody that they are no longer a team to watch. Pretty much everyone has already seen how good these two guys are. Coached by Peter Dampf, this top 10 team has been playing great paddle for the last two seasons and gets better tournament after tournament.
A team of old timers, Scott Estes and Mike Stulac, had two back-to-back three setters to get to the quarters. They beat Gillespie-LePivert 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the 16s and were ready to take on Bredberg-Wilkinson after lunch. The remaining round of 16s featured two upsets, Grangeiro-Moore defeated #3 seed Kahler-Riva 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a big upset and former Short Hills champs Drew Broderick and Denny English going down to the hands of Caldwell-Cordish by 6-4, 7-6 in a minor upset.
The remaning 16s matches were Arraya-Easterbrook defeating Rothschild-Schmitt 6-3, 6-1 and Bancila-Porter defeating Dave Broderick and Chris Ucko 6-2, 6-2. The quartes were played after lunch and the crowd was ready to watch more paddle.
The top quarters featured Bostrom-Jonason defeating deRose-Lubow 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Estes-Stulac winning versus Bredberg-Wilkinson 7-6, 6-3. The bottom half showcased Caldwell-Cordish winning versus Grangeiro-Moore and Bancila-Porter beating two of Alex’s former partners (Arraya-Easterbrook) by 7-6, 6-4.
Unfortunately, the semifinals were played at the end of the day on Saturday and almost no one was present. Four big time paddle fans stayed outside to watch Bostrom-Jonason pull another upset with their win over Estes-Stulac 7-5, 6-1. For the second semis only two guys watched. That did not bother Bancila-Porter a bit. Although they waited for more than three hours between quarters and semis they crushed Caldwell-Cordish by 6-0, 6-2.
The final, played this morning, had three top players and a future top 10, Martin Bostrom. What would Vegas odds been beforehand? And how about after if the match had to be replayed? We will never know but what we know is that Martin and Lennart came out swinging and took the first set by an easy 6-1. Bancila-Porter came right back taking the second by identical score. The third showed that Bostrom practically improved with every point, every game, every set and every match. They won 6-3 and then to celebrate. Well, Martin didn’t have much time to celebrate. He got into his car, drove back to Connecticut and back to work to teach tennis.
Although back draw matches sometimes seem to be optional for some players, after multiple default matches most of the scores and draws can be accessed by clicking
HERE.
