The Maryland Club Open returned this weekend, with equal $15,000 prize purses for the men’s and women’s draws at one of the Tour’s favorite stops. Hosted at the Maryland Club’s spectacular three-court facility, the weekend delivered a strong start-to-finish event, with Kayley Leonard and Maria Elena Ubina taking the women’s title and Nathan Lake and Khamal Cumberbatch emerging from an upset-filled men’s draw.
For the women, Maryland marked the second Super Series event of the 2026–27 season, giving players another opportunity to accumulate points toward qualification for the inaugural SDA Super Series Finals. The new season-ending event will bring together the top eight men and top eight women in St. Louis in April, with qualification based on cumulative ranking points earned through the end of February.
World No. 1 pairing Leonard and Ubina entered Maryland as the top seeds and were tested early by the new partnership of Meredeth Quick and Haley Mendez. Mendez, back on court as a new mom following a long career on the PSA singles tour, showed how much her doubles game has developed. Alongside the experienced Quick, she put the top seeds under pressure before Leonard and Ubina were able to work their way through.
On the other side of the draw, defending champions Georgina Stoker and Nikki Todd made quick work of Line Hansen and Katie Tutrone, coming through in straight games to set up another meeting with Leonard and Ubina. The two teams developed a compelling rivalry last season, making their first final of the new campaign a highly anticipated one.
The final was largely decided down the right wall, with Todd seeing the majority of the ball as Leonard and Ubina worked to limit Stoker’s involvement. Leonard moved particularly well, repeatedly applying pressure to Todd and controlling the pace alongside Ubina while keeping Stoker out of the match for long stretches.
Stoker and Todd were able to take a game, but Leonard and Ubina maintained control for much of the contest, closing out a 3–1 victory to claim their first title together of the new season and add another valuable haul of Super Series points.
The men’s draw, the second stop on this season’s cache_seven Challenger Tour, proved far less predictable, with upsets reshaping both halves of the draw.
Top seeds Adham Madi and Jaymie Haycocks were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Merritt Wurts and Anderson Good after a contentious five-game battle. Wurts and Good carried that momentum into the semifinals, where they produced another highly entertaining match against Nathan Lake and Khamal Cumberbatch. They narrowly missed out on a place in the final, with Lake and Cumberbatch eventually coming through 3–1.
The other half of the draw produced another upset as second seeds Andrew Muran and Kush Kumar were beaten in a one-sided 3–0 semifinal by the long-established partnership of Sam Fenwick and Chris Longman.
That left Lake and Cumberbatch facing Fenwick and Longman for the title. The newer pairing completed their impressive run through the draw with a 3–1 victory, securing the Maryland Club Open championship.
For Lake, the result continues an impressive introduction to the SDA. In his first season on Tour, he has now reached the final at both of the opening Challenger events, having made the championship match at the R&TC Challenger alongside TJ Dembinski before going one better in Maryland.
The victory also marked a milestone for both players, with Lake and Cumberbatch each securing their first SDA title. Cumberbatch, based at Westchester Country Club, joins Lake as another emerging player making an early impact on this season’s Challenger Tour.
With the world No. 1 pairing taking the women’s title and two first-time champions emerging from an unpredictable men’s draw, the Maryland Club Open once again delivered a competitive weekend of doubles and an early indication of the depth developing across both tours this season.