On October 26, the Rochester Open took place at the Shadow Lake Golf and Racquet Club. This year, the 1st time pairing of Drew Broderick and George Wilkinson took home the title. For Wilkinson it was his 1st NRT victory.
The lone upset of the day came early on, as the Pittsburgh duo of John Mah and Casey Watt took out tournament host Fritz Odenbach and former national champion Mike Stulac 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Watt, who played tennis at Notre Dame in college, was introduced to the game by Mah only last year.
The semifinals saw the 4 top seeds come through the draw unscathed. The top seeds from Pittsburgh, Scott Kahler and Matt Riva beat Cleveland’s Eric Miller and Fayaz Bhanji in the quarters. Also from Pittsburgh were the #4 seed, Brett Engelsberg and Jeff McMaster, who took out Mah/Watt on their way to the semis. In the bottom half of the draw Broderick-Wilkinson beat Pittsburgh’s Ajay Khurana and Mike Wagner… While the 2nd seeds from Philadelphia, Scott Falatek and Vlatko Najdek, beat Pittsburgh’s Scott McFaden and Matt Rogers in 3 sets.
Both semifinal matches went 3 sets. The 1st to finish was Broderick-Wilkinson, who adjusted well after losing the 1st set 7-5, to come back and win 6-1, 6-2. In the other semi, it was Engelsberg-McMaster who overcame a 1st set 7-5 loss, to win 6-4, 6-3 in a match that took nearly 3 hours.
In the finals, Broderick-Wilkinson came out hot and never looked back. Engelsberg-McMaster were hoping to regain the title they had won back in 2011. With a rock-solid backcourt game and cut-overheads that kept their opponents off balance, Broderick-Wilkinson were able to roll to victory 6-0, 6-1.
The backdraws were dominated by teams from Pittsburgh, as the consolation winner was Pittsburgh’s David Creswell and Trevor Heck. The 16s reprieve was won by Dan Hersh and Tyler Noland. Lastly, Khurana-Wagner won the quarter reprieve.
Full results will be updated soon.
