Again working against a lock on the season’s top spot for tour leader Cheryl Gudinas [see sidebar], the rest of the field were jockeying for ranking position that would determine their seeding for the last stop of the season in McLean, Virginia. For U.S. and Canadian athletes in the draw, the tournament could also be used as a tune-up for their respective National Championships, which were right around the corner.

One of the biggest upsets in the round of 16 was Denise Mock’s comeback victory over No.6 seeded Kristen Walsh, who had won the first two games of the match 15-12, 15-10 and looked like she was on her way to a three game sweep. Somehow, Mock turned her game around and won the second and third games 15-12, 15-13, then followed-up with the longest game of the tournament. Neither player backed off, and the rally scoring system used by the LPRA made the game that much more intense. Mock was finally able to scrape out the victory to complete the tiebreaker upset 19-17.

Lori-Jane Powell, seeded ninth, moved closer to bumping Kim Russell out of the eighth spot in the rankings when she defeated her in four games, 15-12, 15-11, 8-15, 15-12. Tenth-seed Susy Acosta got past No.7 Claudine Garcia after an injury forfeit. “I was running to get a ball up towards the front wall,” Susy explained after the match. “I turned around and she was laying there on the ground.” Garcia took the full fifteen minutes allotted for an injury timeout but it wasn’t long enough. When she came back onto the court to give the match another try, her knee couldn’t bear weight and she was forced to forfeit. Although at press time she is seeking a second opinion; the preliminary diagnosis was a torn ACL.

Quarters
Even though Susy advanced into the quarters by way of a forfeit, she had been playing well before it happened — tied with Claudine at a game apiece and 5-5 in the third. Susy was ready to prove that it wasn’t a fluke and that she had regained some of her old form. In order to make her point, she would have to advance past U.S. OPEN champion Kerri Wachtel. 

In that playoff, Kerri won the first game 15-7, before Susy began to play much better, edging out the next two 15-13, 17-15. Wachtel, who is able to stay on an even keel during her matches, didn’t let the close losses bother her and tied the match up at two games apiece, with a fourth game win, 15-12. In the fifth, Acosta took advantage of mistakes to earn a berth in the semifinals by winning the decisive game 15-11. “I felt good playing against Kerri. It was actually the first time that I have ever beat her,” Susy remarked. “I think she missed some shots that she usually doesn’t, but I have to recognize that I played well against her.”

Rhonda Rajsich and Kersten Hallander have been battling back and forth in the rankings all year, shifting between the No.4 and No.5 spots. At it again, they treated the crowd to another grueling five-game battle, after trading wins in the first four, until Kersten was able to close out the match in the fifth, 11-7, to advance.

Semifinals
The semifinals pitted tour star Cheryl Gudinas against Kersten and frequent finalist Jackie Rice against the renewed Acosta. Cheryl, who had won her earlier match in straight games over Lori-Jane Powell, split the first two games against Hallander, but seemed to get stronger as the match went on. She went on to win the third and fourth games 15-11, 15-8 to advance to her fourth straight finals appearance. She’d been successful in all of them, to date.

Jackie, who had also advanced in straight games over Denise Mock, would face an upset-minded Susy Acosta. Jackie won the first 15-8, but Susy again surprised the crowd by taking the second 15-13. But that was when Susy’s magic ran out, and Jackie was able to overtake the match, winning the next two games easily, 15-4, 15-7. “I felt like I played OK at this tournament,” Susy said. “After playing bad for so long it was about time for me to do well.”

The Finals
A final between Gudinas and Rice is something that fans have grown accustomed to. In fact, it was the fourth time this season that they had faced each other for a title; only one other final hadn’t featured at least one of them.

Jackie stated that she felt better than she had in some time (since breaking her ankle last summer), and she showed it in the first two games of the match with 15-6, 15-10 wins. “I was serving well and moving well,” Jackie said of the first two games. “I noticed that when I was able to set my feet right, I was hitting my shots crisp and where I wanted them.”

Cheryl suddenly found herself in a deep hole that didn’t know how to get out of it. She knew it would be hard to win three straight against an opponent like Jackie, especially with the LPRA scoring system. That is when Chris Wachtel, on hand to support wife Kerri, offered some sideline advice and encouragement. “Chris reminded me between the second and third games, that I win three-straight games all of the time,” Cheryl explained. “He also told me not to forget about the sissy serve … “ (a backhand half-lob that Kerri used effectively in her win over Jackie at the U.S. OPEN).

Cheryl used Chris’s advice and took the third game 15-11. The fourth game was a different story as Jackie’s play edged back up to where it had been in the first two games. With the advantage at 16-15, Cheryl thought she hit the game winner but the call was overturned on appeal and Jackie tied things up at 16-16. Cheryl, known for her mental toughness, came back to win the next two points to force a decisive fifth game. “I knew she had to have it in her mind that she blew a 2-0 lead and now found herself in a fifth game” Cheryl thought, going into the tiebreak.

“It was tough losing the fourth game and I was a little bummed,” Jackie said. “But I knew that I had to go out there and give it a shot in the fifth even though my ankle began to get a little tired on me.”

Cheryl brought momentum into the fifth and went on to win 15-10 for her fourth straight tournament title. “The more the match went on the better my serves got and the more my confidence grew,” said Cheryl. “I would have to say that this is one of the best matches that I have played because of the difference in how I felt between the first two games and how I felt in the last game.”