Stout & Partner Compete In US National Doubles
On Sunday afternoon in Rye, New York, James Stout and Eric Bedell of the Racquet and Tennis Club, Manhattan [R&T], were runners-up to Mike Ferreira and Whitten Morris, also of the R&T, in the final of U.S. Squash’s National Men’s Open Doubles championships, losing 3-0 [12-15, 12-15, 11-15].
The three games followed a pattern: the pairs would be closely matched until the score was about 8-7. Ferreira and Morris would then string together a run of points and once the score was around 13-10, Stout and Bedell would regain service. At this stage of the game the initiative was with their opponents and Stout and Bedell would win a couple more points before Ferreira and Morris would win the game.
The previous Sunday, Stout and his regular partner, Greg McArthur, were runners-up to Commonwealth gold medallist, Australia’s Zac Alexander, and Chris Callis of the U.S.A., losing 3-1 [7-15,15-14,7-15,14-15] in a little over an hour and a half, in the $40,000 2019 David C. Johnson, Jr. Memorial tournament at the Heights Casino Club in Brooklyn, New York.
On the way to the final, Alexander and Callis, 3/4 seeds, defeated the top seeds Yvain Badan and Bernado Samper 3-1 in the semi-finals. Second seeds Stout and McArthur similarly dropped a game in their victory over the other 3/4 seeds, John Russell and Greg Park in the second semi-final.
A victory in the final would have given Stout top place in the Squash Doubles Association March rankings. That position goes to Chris Callis instead, while Stout is in a career-high second place and McArthur is third.
