Zac Alexander & Robin Clarke earned their partnership’s second career title and first of the season, however the accolades came in unfortunate circumstances after the withdrawal of Manek Mathur due to injury ahead of the Westchester Country Club Pro Doubles final Monday, November 4, in New York.
Alexander & Clarke continued to build on their positive momentum from their first two events of the season leading into Westchester. After a second round exit in the season-opening Maryland Club Open, Alexander & Clarke improved by reaching the Big Apple Open final, where they narrowly lost as a result of third and fourth games dropped at 14-all.
In Westchester, the three seeds decisively reached the semifinals with a 3-0 win over Canadians Will Mariani & Thomas Brinkman to set up an encounter with two seeds John Russell & Scott Arnold.
In a match up that could have been a final in any other draw, Clarke & Alexander pulled off a remarkable five-game comeback that included two 14-all points in the fourth and fifth games to win 13-15, 13-15, 15-5, 15-14, 15-14.
“Coming from 2-0 down doesn’t really surprise robin and I anymore I don’t think,” Alexander said. “More often than not we’re grinding for 90+ minutes so when it gets long, we back ourselves in. Super proud of how we fought and dug deep.”
Meanwhile in the top half of the draw, top seeds Manek Mathur & Chris Callis eased their way though to the final with three swift games over Ryan Cuskelly & James Bamber in the quarterfinals and John Roberts & Hameed Ahmed in the semifinals. Things took a turn for the worse towards the end of their third game in the semis, however, when Mathur’s sustained a rolled ankle. The injury was enough to keep Mathur off court in Monday’s final, resulting in a withdrawal.
Alexander & Clarke add their Westchester title to their inaugural North American Open title last season.
“It’s never good for the club to not have a final,” Alexander said. “Unfortunately for Manek he’s been unlucky with his body lately, but he’s such a diligent athlete he’ll be back very soon. Great to get a win this early in the season and kind of makes up for missing out last week at the Big Apple Open where this time we we’re on the losing end of two sudden death games against Stout and Swiss.”