With the exception of one team in the top 10 (and Lennart Jonason), all the big boys were at the Weston Golf Club for the 2014 UBS & Viking Boston Open. Who won? Well, let’s see. Johan Du Randt and Mark Parsons were in the draw, so… do you want to guess? Yes, they won it again. This time they beat #2 seeds Drew Broderick and Chris Gambino 7-5, 6-1 to repeat their 2013 victory.
Saturday Play
The draw was crammed with great teams, making the 2014 UBS & Viking Boston Open the strongest field ever in the east coast. The first team to get to the semis and playing on the “show court” were Juan Arraya and Alex Bancila. A quick 6-2, 6-2 win in about an hour over Jon Lubow and Steve Derose put them in the semis. Fans in Boston and fans at home watching the live streaming saw Bancila playing one of his best matches of the season.
The second quarter finals match was also a two sets win but the length passed the 2-hour mark. Bodrerick-Gambino took care of business with a win over Anton Mavrin and Patricio Misitrano but not without a scare. 6-2, 7-5 was the final score that saw the 2012 National champs fight back from two set points down at 4-5 in the second. Points in the second set were soooo long that the third game of the match lasted over 30 minutes!
Next on court were the eventual champs versus Scott Falatek and Vlatko Nadjek. Du Randt-Parsons had an easy day until the quarters when at that point they were pushed by the Philly team to play their best. The first set went 6-2 for Johan and Mark but the second ended in a close 10-8 score in the breaker. Falatek-Nadjek had 5 set points in that second set but could not convert.
The last team to make it to the semis were Nathan LeFevre and Antonhy Cosimano. After a three set win over Max LePivert and Mike Stulac in the round of 16s the Uthah-Jersey team defeated red hot Marco Grangeiro and George Wilkinson by 7-6, 7-5. The match was played under a light snow and with the coldest temperatures of the day. Grangerio-Wilkinson were coming from a 3-hour battle versus Sebastian Bredberg and Martin Bostrom in the 16s. After going undergoing surgery, this was Bredberg’s first match since Indian Trail Nationals back in March of 2013.
Sunday Play
Mark Fischl and Max LePivert, an allstar commentating team @bostonopen pic.twitter.com/GUEIUY3l15
— PaddleTimes (@paddletimes) January 26, 2014
With the commentary of what it seemed to be an allstar professional team, Mark Fischl and Max LePivert saw how both semis were done in less than one hour. Du Randt-Parsons defeated Cosimano-LeFevre 6-1, 6-4 while Broderick-Gamino won their semis over Arraya-Bancila 6-3, 6-1 by taking 10 out of the last 11 games of the match.
The final showed Broderick-Gambino with a very strong start and a 4-1 lead. Du Randt made one too many mistakes at the net as he missed a few volleys, cut shots and even one overhead. Although it was not their best display of paddle, somehow they were able to stick around and tied the score at 5-5.
Broderick-Gamino made a couple of bad decisions with some off pace drives while Du Randt was on top of the net and missed drives off the deck, which is uncharacteristic from both of them. Parsons played a solid first set and seemed to be happy playing the role of a support player as Du Randt took control of the match. A change in gears towards the end of the set gave them a 7-5 win.
The second and final set was all Du Randt-Parsons. A convincing 6-1 score confirmed why they are the best team in the country. No more tournaments for them until Pittsburgh. The loss they suffered at the Chicago Charities looks like it was a wakeup call and they seem stronger than ever. Will anyone be able to take them down again?
Click HERE to access full scores.
Click HERE to access the live streaming coverage.
Parsons serving for the set at 6-5 @bostonopen pic.twitter.com/mJam0rr4Ql
— PaddleTimes (@paddletimes) January 26, 2014
