Ferreira/Callis Capture Sleepy Hollow Open

Going into this year’s event tournament organizer, Greg McArthur elected to utilize 11 scoring and with the withdrawal of top seeds James Stout/Scott Arnold and 5th seeds Kyle Martino/Sam Khalifa, the draw was wide open with all teams eyeing a win. From the first round the matches were close fought. Last minute additions to the draw, Andrew Muran and Alex Schwartz pushed a sluggish John Roberts and Greg McArthur to 5 games while Mohsin Khan and Nku Patrick used their unconventional style to its full advantage against NYAC duo Clinton Leeuw and Jaymie Haycocks.

 

The first semi final was an all-court battle between Callis/Ferreira and Cameron Pilley/Ryan Cuskelly. Four very close games saw Ferreira/Callis edge out the Aussie duo by a slim margin, the increased intensity of the 11 scoring seeming to suit both teams in this match. The second semi final saw Alexander/Bamber perfectly execute a well thought out game plan.  After watching Lucas Rousselett and Josh Hughes take out 3rd seeds Adam Bews and Matt Henderson in the quarterfinals, Alexander/Bamber were keen not to let the young pair get started in their semi final match and succeeded in stopping them in their tracks for a 3-0 win.

 

There were high hopes for a long battle of a final but Bamber/Alexander were unable to prevent Ferreira’s relentless attack from the left wall or rattle Callis’s trademark consistency on the right, ultimately going down in 3 games. Ferreira/Callis had last partnered up at the R&TC Open at the end of last season where they lost in the final to Stout/Arnold but with this win and plenty more events to play in the season we may well see another pairing soon.

“Great to play with Chris this weekend so thank you for partnering up! I think we played some good doubles which always makes it fun. I liked the 11 point scoring system which I think made for some exciting points and there is simply no relaxing in a shorter game format. Thank you to everyone involved and particularly the Sleepy Hollow membership for making this tournament such a success and one of the favorite stops for the players on tour!” – Mike Ferreira

“Great tournament all around. We had to play our best to win the semi and final, and luckily we did just that. Always going to be a tough match when you play Zac and Bamber, but with Mikey playing as well as he did this weekend I knew we’d have a great shot. Sleepy Hollow is always an amazing event and this year was no different. Many thanks to all the sponsors for supporting and bringing so much enthusiasm, and last but not least a big shoutout to Greg for running such an excellent event.” – Chris Callis