All-star team Damien Mudge and Ben Gould have added another trophy to their impressive collection following the 2013 World Doubles men’s final on Monday night.
The Australian pair, who have dominated the pro doubles scene since they teamed up in 2010, defeated England’s Jonny P. Smith and Clive I. Leach in three breathtaking games to take out the Kellner Men’s Open division of the World Doubles tournament 15-8, 15-9, 15-9.
Brett Erasmus, a squash fan and player who lives in New York City and writes about squash on his blog, Brett’s Squash Blog, gives his account of the final…
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This weekend Adam Scott became the first Australian to ever win the Green Jacket at the Masters Golf in Augusta, Georgia. There are two other Australian sportsmen who play a highly competitive, yet not entirely dissimilar ball sport who are no strangers to major success. During this same four-day period over which the Masters was contested, Australians Damien Mudge and Ben Gould were playing together as partners in their second consecutive finals of the NetJets World Squash Doubles Championships in New York.
On the evening of Monday April 15th at the Racquet and Tennis Club of NYC, this Australian duo won their second world title. Their opponents were the pairing of Johnny Smith and Clive Leach who were representing England. The field comprised sixty four players from seventeen different countries around the world, most of whom are ex singles squash professionals that are now based as coaches in either the US or Canada. Ben Gould is the head pro at the Racquet and Tennis Club and Damien Mudge is the head pro at the University Club of New York, two of the oldest and most established squash clubs in the country. The Aussies are only the third pairing to be repeat winners in the history of this biennual world championships. Mudge won the world doubles squash title in 2002 and in 2004 with his mentor, Canadian Gary Waite. In 2009 Gould won the title with another Australian, Paul Price. Then Gould and Mudge won this biennual tournament together in 2011. So Damien Mudge just won his fourth world title and Ben Gould his third. They are the number one pairing on the pro tour and were seeded to do so.
It was not all plain sailing throughout this April 15, 2013 match for the number one seeds. Even though Gould was playing in front of his home crowd at the Racquet Club and the Aussies had the majority of the spectators’ support, their opponent on the left wall, Johnny Smith, is a local pro at the Union Club just a few minutes away on Park Avenue and had lots of vocal supporters there. Smith is also an ex Trinity College player. In fact, he is the first player from Trinity to play for the World Doubles title. He must have felt very proud to play for his country again today on the biggest stage and in front of many of his ex Bantam teammates. After the master of ceremonies had introduced the players the head referee Graham Bassett called the start. The game started with a high lob serve from Gould over to Smith in the backhand corner, but this belied the power match that was about to ensue.
Smith immediately returned the ball cross-court with the ferocity and intensity for which has become well known. Gould reciprocated and smashed it back at him again seemingly with all his power. Wow, were we in for a match. The first rally goes on for a while with neither team taking any chances. The Aussies win it off a Leach error. Mudge made Leach play off his body and he miscued it. Second and third rallies saw Gould’s raw power finish them off. In the fourth rally the Englishmen lose on a tight rail by Mudge that Smith cannot squeeze off the left wall. Leach comes over to have a quiet word with his younger and less experienced countryman. The other three have been on this stage before. The Aussies are dominating this match so far. They go 7-0 up with Gould hitting a cross-court volley nick from about three feet off the ground. The crowd goes crazy. The Englishmen then settle and start to find their rhythm. They get a few hard earned points back. A Gould drop shot off the back wall and a Mudge cross court power shot see the favorites reach double figures. Gould keeps going for his jumping volley cross-court nick. He cannot seem to bury another one though. The racquet head speed he generates on these shots is ridiculous. At 12-4 Mudge hits a sublime reverse winner from a high position on his backhand. The crowd oohs and aahs. There are not many squash players in the world that can hit the ball from there with the power and accuracy the way he just had. The Englishmen don’t give up that game and get a few points back on mostly a few deft touch shots from Leach and one or two tins from Gould. Finally Gould hits the winning shot of the first game – appropriately, the shot he had been gunning for the whole game – another incredibly hard cross court volley winner into the nick. First blood to the Australian duo. The Aussies work purposely off the court leaving the Englishman standing on court not facing each other, each no doubt wondering how it all slipped away so quickly.
The second game starts off where the first left off. The initial rally seemed to go on forever with none of these players giving the other anything. It eventually ends on a Mudge reverse. In the second rally Leach hits his partners racquet off the back wall. The crowd has no idea what happened. It was just too fast. Two points later Leach hits a cross court as hard as he can and beats Mudge with the angle on the sidewall. That hardly ever happens. The crowd is very appreciative and Leach is energized. He serves a little faster than usual and really steps into it this time. In the fifth rally Leach comes over to cover a shot in the front, which Smith could easily hit and their racquets touch. They offer a weak return and Gould beats Leach on the right wall given he was out of position after the move. Leach needs to trust his partner and is getting frustrated at being a game and now five points down. Two rallies later a Mudge lob comes off the side and back wall on the full and Leach is able to take up space in the middle and back Gould up. He raises his arm and shows the hard shot but then quickly drops his arm and cuts it into the front right corner for an outright winner and probably the best of the match so far. The English pair gain some momentum from that and visibly start to grow in confidence.
At five all Smith does a full-on superman dive for a Mudge reverse, to no avail. Smith is a phenomenal athlete and does this routinely under pressure. The day before in the semis in front of his home crowd he did numerous dives and they paid off in the end. Smith and Leach overcame the odds and showed incredible character to come from behind to beat the number two seeds to get into the finals. A brutal rally commences at 7-7 in this second game. It ends in a let and an even more brutal rally follows. At the end of it Gould crashes the ball into the tin and the Englishmen take the lead in the game for the first time. It is short lived. The Aussies soon recover through some Mudge imagination. He is swinging vigorously now whenever he is in the frontcourt and has some time on the ball. His exaggerated arm movements really seem to put his opponents on the back foot.
At 10-7 a rally occurs which is ridiculous. Mudge ups the tempo and starts to crush the ball. The other players reciprocate and now the ball is flying around the court at an unnatural speed. Someone in the crowd shouts ‘wooo’ in the middle of the rally, probably not even consciously. The pace is truly phenomenal. Smith makes many good gets to the front left. At one point Mudge hits a straight volley drop while he is airborne and someone in the crowd laughs. That person clearly does not realize that Mudge simply chose not to touch the ground before hitting that shot, or even adjust his body position in the air for that matter. He was on his way down from a jump and the ball was there within his reach so he just sliced it whilst airborne. Nobody else would do this but it really was the smart thing to do, rather than let the ball go by and lose court position and momentum by taking it off the back wall. For the first time in the match Gould is now walking around during the rally quite nonchalantly. This is very disconcerting to an opponent. believe me. It messes with your head. How can this guy be walking to hit the ball with no knee bend or anything during what is easily the most intense and most viscous rally of the match. Mudge gets in on the mind games after Smith attempts to also hit a shot whilst airborne. ‘That was a jump?’ he seems to say in his heavy Australian brawl. The psychological effect of what is happening on court right now cannot be underestimated and the Aussies go on to close out the game in short order. Leach made a bunch of uncharacteristic forehand volley drop errors and Mudge was reading the game like the champion that he is, moving very early before shots are hit and counterattacking at will. The Englishmen only got one more point in that game. It ended on a Gould forehand volley smash, just like the first game did.
The third game starts differently than the prior too. The pace of play is faster. The English pair have come out firing now. This makes sense as they have nothing to lose and need to just let it fly if they want to win. Smith starts hitting a lot of big reverse three walls and even an inside out forehand boast to the near wall like Mudge often hits (all four players on court are right handed). This is a different mindset from the two Englishmen. Smith and Leach take Gould short every good chance they get. Smith is hitting almost every deep shot he faces quite firmly into the sidewall next to him for a boast in order to move Gould forward in the court. Leach tries a few touch shots that go straight and short. No doubt the English pair have decided that if they want to win this match they need to lengthen the court for the Australians. But this strategy can be counterproductive if your shots to the front are not accurate and your opponents get to the ball early. At 3-2 to Australia the longest rally of the match ends with Mudge moving forward to retrieve one of these big three wall boasts – a shot which was purposely meant to get the Aussies higher up on the court. Mudge shows a huge backswing which sends Smith backtracking and then decelerates his swing and plays a neat drop that neither of his opponents had any chance of getting to. The entire crowd shouts ‘waah’ in unison. Mudge and Gould are now taking firm control of this match.
At 5-7 with Smith serving the rally ends when Leach turns late on a shot from Mudge that reaches the backwall and Gould does not expect this and is stuck in no man’s land. Mudge shouts out loudly for Leach not to take the shot. Leach has been playing this game for a while and has the presence of mind to stop his swing at the last second and save the danger for Gould. Leach is a gentleman about it. He could have taken the advantage that the surprise of a turn on the backwall had afforded him, but he did not. These players all like and respect each other and it shows on court. Soon the Aussies capitalize on their lead in this third game and they start to relax and show the true extent of their talents. At 10-6 the best rally of the match ends on another Gould hard kill shot. During that rally Mudge had kept the ball in play by virtue of his athleticism on the left wall. He dived off the wall to clear a Smith shot, and then pounced back onto the wall again to hit the ball for a quick reaction flick and spun around off the shot (like only he does) to face the front wall again. The crowd goes wild at the end of this point, practically giving the players a standing ovation. This rally seems to have sealed the fate of the Englishmen. A few more points ensue where the Aussies exercise patience and good judgment and eventually close in on match ball. To their credit, the Englishmen never give up trying and never allow themselves to look despondent in any way. They keep on pushing to the very end, saving the fist match ball and keeping the final rally of the match going on for some time. Some of the crowd switches allegiance and gets behind the underdogs in the interests of seeing a longer match, but it was not to be. Mudge and Gould win the match 15-8, 15-9, 15-9.
Immediately after the match each of the players addressed the crowd and were extremely gracious in their praise of each other as professionals and also of the event sponsors and organizers. Mudge in particular expressed the sentiment that much respect for the sport exists right now and he also said that he feels the game has never been so popular or in such a good place as it is today. The sport has evolved over the years to become the great spectacle of professionalism and athleticism witnessed today.
In the end I guess it is not surprising to see Australian sportsmen fair well on the world stage. Masters Golf winner Adam Scott grew up in Adelaide then honed his skills at an Australian golf school for years. Squash players are also put through their paces too. Damien Mudge himself attended the South Australian Sports Institute in Adelaide. Mudge trained twice a day for years with the ambition of being a professional squash player. After much hard work he eventually achieved his dream and was ranked in the top 100 in the world on the PSA singles tour. After a few years on the international tour he settled in the United States and switched focus to the hardball doubles game, a game that more suited his natural abilities and strengths, and he quickly rose to the top of the rankings. Ben Gould too worked hard and sacrificed much to get to where he is. He put his career in architecture on hold to focus on squash and played briefly on the PSA tour before moving to the US and taking up the hardball doubles game. Gould and Mudge are both talented sportsmen and would have been good at any sport they focused on. Fortunately, they both chose squash and not golf. One can now only look forward to the next World Doubles Squash Champs and see if these Wizards of Australia can make history and win it three times in a row.