2020 US Open
Final Day by Paul Bennett
Sorry not to provide on the court ... moment by moment commentary.
Both final matches were spectacular.
They were on par with being one of the best.
After 33 years of the US Open, there have been many spectacular players, tactics and moments.
Yet, we saw one of the best final best of three matches ... ever.
Brian Lozano, a relatively new player (3 years), has advanced to the final game in the A Flight by defeating Donna Dixon, one of our long-time favorites to win the division, with steady and defensive play. Brian is new to Association play and has taken on the role as Mission Hills croquet pro for the 2021 season.
Brian had to go up against Cameron Evans, another one of our long-time members and favorites to win, in the finals of the A Flight. Cam quickly went to the peg against Brian and the game teetered back and forth until the end.
In the Open Flight, Blake Fields met Steve Scalpone for a best of three match. All three games were spectacular and interesting ones to watch.
Steve won the first game 26 STP 24, the first straight triple for Steve.
Blake managed a great comeback in game two - 26-23.
And in the third game, Blake was forced to face not only Steve, but a clock that was running out of time. (The match was supposed to be setup as a 7 hour cumulative total match; but with only about 20 minutes left in the match, the tournament director discovered that their clock was showing 2 hours and 20 minutes. The players were informed by the director that the clock would be reset down to 20 minutes.) At this point, Blake had staked out Steve's front ball after hitting in with Steve on penult and peg and himself now on hoop 4 and peg.
Steve took contact and did not manage to make progress and Blake joined partner in corner 4.
Steve missed the shot at the balls in the fourth corner and Blake managed a beautiful 3-ball break to end the match with 15 seconds remaining on the clock.
As sun was setting behind the mountains of Palm Spring, trophies were handed out quickly to the players. Photos taken and another US Open concluded.
p.s. Others feel free to post comments to this commentary as I have missed much of the good stuff.
05 Dec 2020 5:25PM (Tournament); 1 Readers
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