Mike Ferreira won his second SDA title in just as many weeks at the Graham Company Cup, but with a different partner this weekend—Chris Callis—who celebrated his maiden SDA title on the court where he first played doubles at Germantown Cricket Club.
Ferreira & Callis have enjoyed a successful season together, reaching the Maryland and Baltimore semifinals, Johnson final and now claiming their maiden title together in Philadelphia.
The Graham Company Cup enjoyed elevated prize money offering $20,000 to a draw with plenty of Philadelphia flavor.
Two qualifying draws saw Philly sides Ed Garno & Alex Stait and Matt Domenick & Gilly Lane move to the main draw, as well as Trinity grads Johan Detter & Parth Sharma—another Philly local—who moved to the main draw as lucky losers due to an injury to top seed John Russell.
After defeating Detter & Sharma in a five-game qualifying final, Garno & Stait drew them again in the first round, this time advancing in three games.
Finalists James Stout & Jacques Swanepoel survived a difficult first round, coming back from 2-0 down in games to defeat Graham Bassett & Fred Reid. Stout & Swanepoel then advanced to the final in three games over Garno & Stait.
In the bottom half of the draw, two seeds Ferreira & Callis advanced to the final with two, three-game victories over Randy Lim & Antionio Diaz in the quarterfinals and Andres Vargas & John Roberts in the semifinals.
The final pitted last weekend’s Hashim Khan champions, Ferreira & Swanepoel, against one another. A marathon five-gamer ensued with Ferreira & Callis coming back from 2-1 down to win 13-15, 15-12, 10-15, 15-11, 15-11.
“It was a really tough final,” Ferreira said. “The court was hot so the ball was moving around and they are a strong team and played well.”
“Chris and I had a couple of close 15-14 in the fifth losses in Wilmington and the Briggs earlier this season, which was tough, so it feels great to finish our season on a strong note.”
Watch the Graham Company Cup final replay here.
The 2015-2016 SDA season has just three stops left with the inaugural $20,000 Ridley Windows and Doors Cricket Club Open in Toronto up next, April 8-10.