Will face Laramie-Grief semifinal winner on Sunday

Published in the June 16, 2016 edition.

WAKEFIELD — The top two seeds survived the first weekend of the Hartshorne Cup at the Dobbins Courts at Wakefield Memorial High School.

Ten time champion Brian Robertson reached the Hartshorne Cup final by dropping only five games in six sets, downing Rob Imbriano 6-0, 6-1 in a Wednesday semifinal, and second seeded Jonathan Laramie is in a Saturday semifinal against tough Rich Greif, conqueror of third seed Jonathan Owen in a match that started Saturday and concluded Wednesday 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

In the top quarter Robertson, seeking an 11th consecutive town men’s singles title, won a pair of 6-2, 6-0 victories over Joe Flynn and Bill Conley. He was 29-14 and 24-7 for a total of 53-21 against Flynn, losing only one point in seven service games. Flynn, who served well, held the fifth and seventh games of the first set. Against Conley the points were 35-25 and 24-8 for 59-33 as Robertson wore Conley down with consistent ground strokes after the veteran took the first and sixth games of the first set but dropped a 10 point double deuced fifth game and 12 point triple deuced seventh game.

Conley earlier had cut down Al Allard 6-4, 6-0 after a bristling first set. Conley reached 3-0 by winning at 30 but Allard, taking the fourth and fifth games quickly at 15, got even at 3-3. Conley won a 14 point, four deuce eighth game for 5-3. But Allard grabbed the ninth to stay alive and battled through a 20 point, seven deuce 10th game before Conley got the first set. The second set was at love at 28-12 with Allard battling through a 14 point, four deuce third game but unable to crack Conley.

In the semifinal Robertson was in flowing form against Imbriano, after an opening break at 30 and four consecutive love games, Imbriano battled 12 points and three deuces before yielding the love set. But Imbriano battled all the way in the second set although winning serve only in the fifth game at 30. It took Robertson 14 points to win the first game break and 10 in both the third and sixth games. The points were 27-7 and 34-24 for a margin of 61-31.

Imbriano made the semifinals for the second time in the last three years. After downing Paul Normile 6-2, 6-2, yielding the fourth and seventh games of the first set in a 27-17 edge and the third and fifth games of the second set only to win deuced sixth and seventh games to go to the final game up 53-37 in points.

Imbriano then scored a key victory over fourth seeded Cliff (Kip) King 7-6 (8-6), 6-1, with point margins of 66-62 and 27-14 for a match total of 93-76 to earn the right to face Robertson. King, serving first, held after deuce, triple deuce, deuce and quadruple deuce, while Imbriano held after deuce, 15, deuce and 30. Imbriano broke through in the ninth game at 15, but King broke back in the 10 point game. Under heavy pressure, King went ahead 6-5 by holding a 24 point, nine deuce game but Imbriano held at 15 so at 6-6 he had a slight 58-56 edge. In the tiebreaker King had a 6-5 set point but Imbriano escaped and took three straight points for the set. With Imbriano serving first after the tiebreaker he won eight of 10  points to 2-0 only to be broken back at deuce.

King won the lone first round three setter over Elliott Miller 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, the points going 33-21, 43-44, 36-23 for 112-88. King went 12-2 to 3-0 quickly but then had to battle 18 points for the fourth game before Miller cut the lead to 4-2. After King took the first set by taking eight of 11 points, Miller shocked him with a love game break to open the second set. But King immediately broke back at 30 and held his next three service games to 4-3. Miller won a pair of 14 point, four deuced games only to have King break at 15 for 5-5. Miller won another 14 pointer and held at 15 to avoid a tiebreaker. Miller held at 30 for 1-1 in the third set but King held the third and fifth games after four deuces each and broke in the sixth after two deuces so a hold at 15 finished the match.

In the third quarter Greif began his climb to his first semifinal by checking Ray Wu 6-0, 6-3 with point totals of 26-9 and 31-22 for 57-31. The first set had deuced game bookends at the ends of a 16-3 surge, but Wu lifted his game in the second set, taking the first game at 30, winning the fourth at 15. and the sixth at 30 to stay even to 3-3 when Greif took a deuced seventh game to begin a closing 13-6 drive.

His quarterfinal against the returning Owen was the only one booked for Saturday but an early afternoon rain postponed its finish until Wednesday. Owen, a former finalist playing in his first Hartshorne after three years out with a lower back problem, had blanked Bud Keohan, yielding only one point, the 15th, when he netted a return of service at 0-3, 0-30.

In the quarterfinal Owen took the first set but went down 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. The points were 29-34, 39-33, and 34-27 for 102-94. In the first set Owen won all three games that lasted to double deuce, the third game hold, the fourth game break, and the seventh game hold. The middle three games were all breaks. In the second set Greif won a 12 point second game break, was broken back, but moved on to 4-1 when rain forced a suspension.

Four days later Owen closed to 4-3 with a double deuced break but then was broken in another 10 pointer. Again Owen broke at 30 but then lost the set at 30 in the seventh break of the set. The rubber set saw Owen win the only two 10 point games at 1-1 and 3-2. But he lost the last four games to a 16-7 Greif surge. In more than half of the 28 games, the server was broken but Greif finished at 7-7 while Owen was 6-8 after going 4-1 in the first set.

In the bottom quarter Laramie opened against Dick Jennings, blanking the veteran, who played so well the next day, 50-10 on set point totals of 24-4 and 26-6. Two of the four points in the first set came in the third game while the lone competitive clash in the second set was the opening game which lasted 10 points through two deuces.

The other first round match was a good one as Brett Jackson rallied from 2-5 in the first set to down Tom Flynn 7-5, 6-4. The points were 41-34 and 39-34 for 80-68. After Jackson held to start at 15, Flynn went on a 17-7 run to go two breaks up at 4-1. After being broken at deuce, Flynn broke at deuce for 5-2 only to have Jackson go on a 22-8 run that included two love games on serve and three breaks at deuce in the eighth and 10th games and at 30 to end the set. In contrast, serve dominated the second set, Jackson holding a double deuced third game and Flynn a triple deuced sixth game. But in the 10th game Jackson won a 12 point, triple deuced game.

Laramie then won the quarterfinal 6-1, 6-4 over Jackson after falling behind 0-4 in the second set. The points were 28-16 and 33-28 for 61-44. Starting with a deuced game, Laramie went to 3-0 on a 13-4 run before Jackson held at 15. Then Laramie finished the set off by winning two deuced games. Jackson went on a 16-7 streak to reach 4-0 before Laramie ended the match with a six game surge on 26-12 playing, starting with a love fifth game followed by three at 30 and the last two at deuce.

Consolation

With six in the consolation field, Miller needed just one win to reach the final, playing still another three setter to top  Wu, this year’s only Hartshorne newcomer, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The points were 8-25, 32-24, 29-20, a flat out tie at 69-69 and without a single deuced game. After only holding serve in the fourth game of the opening set, Miller started serving better but was broken in the fifth game of the second set. But Miller broke back immediately and then broke again in the 10th game to even the match. Wu broke at 15 and held at 30 for 2-0 but Miller took 16 of 20 points for a 4-2 edge before Wu broke again in the seventh game. Miller then won two games at 30.

To meet Miller, who has appeared in more consolation finals than anyone else (and won more), Allard won twice over the Flynn twins, downing Joe, now a lawyer, in his comeback year 6-3, 6-1 and Tom 7-6 (7-1), 6-4.

In the match against Joe, Flynn went up 2-0 and 3-2 before Allard took 16 of 20 points for the first set. Allard only lost the deuced fifth game of the second set, which came right after a 22 point game with eight deuces. The points were 27-18 and 37-27 for 64-45.

In the latter clash Tom scored the first break to go up 3-1 but Allard surged ahead both 4-3 and 5-4 only to be broken back each time. Tom held for 6-5 but Allard held at 30 to force the tiebreaker, which he totally dominated. With that momentum, Allard broke in the third game and was up 3-1, but Tom tied it at 3-3 and 4-4. But Flynn lost his serve each time and Allard held at 30 to clinch the match. The points were 43-43, 7-1, 35-30 for 85-74. Allard was 6-5, Tom Flynn 5-6 on serve.

Tom Flynn reached the consolation semifinals by holding off a fine effort by veteran Jennings 6-4, 7-5. Flynn took the first four games (18-9 in points) and five straight from 2-5 in the second set (20-6 in points); in between Jennings won nine of 13 games (54-43 in points) in an excellent performance against a much younger opponent. The points were 39-34 and 42-35 for 81-69.

On The Weekend

The other championship semifinal, Laramie-Greif, will be the lone match Saturday at 9 a.m. with the two title matches, championship and consolation, Sunday at 9 a.m.

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2016 HARTSHORNE CUP RESULTS

First Round

Top Quarter: Brian Robertson (1) def. Joe Flynn 6-2, 6-0; Bill Conley def. Al Allard 6-4, 6-0.

Second Quarter: Cliff King (4) def. Elliott Miller 6-2, 5-7, 6-1; Rob Imbriano def. Paul Normile 6-2, 6-2.

Third Quarter: Rich Greif def. Ray Wu 6-0, 6-3; Jonathan Owen (3) def. Bud Keohan 6-0, 6-0.

Bottom Quarter: Brett Jackson def. Tom Flynn 7-5, 6-4; Jonathan Laramie (2) def. Dick Jennings 6-0, 6-0.

Quarterfinals

Robertson (1) def. Conley 6-2, 6-0; Imbriano def. King (4) 7-6 (8-6), 6-1; Greif def. Owen (3) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Laramie (2) def. Jackson 6-1, 6-4.

Semifinals

Robertson (1) def. Imbriano 6-0, 6-1; Laramie (2) vs. Greif, Saturday, 9 a.m.

Title Match

Robertson vs. Laramie-Greif winner, Sunday, 9 a.m.

Consolation Tourney

Quarterfinals: T. Flynn def. Jennings 6-4, 7-5; Allard def. J. Flynn 6-3, 6-1.

Semifinals: Miller def. Wu 1-6, 6-4, 6-3; Allard def. T. Flynn 7-6 (7-1), 6-4.

Title Match: Miller vs. Allard, Sunday, 9 a.m.