A usually composed Gregg Peck tries to hide his emotions/rom the cheering crowd after win ning racquetball's richest tournament.
the home-town-boy's Ektelon victory. But on Tuesday evening, facing rac quetball's smartest player for the first time, Swain's invincibility fell to pieces. Yellen's method is to use the first game to program the computer; he watches the patterns, identifies the weaknesses, and formulates the game plan. To the brief delight of the crowd Swain took the first game 11-6. But by game two Yellen's program was ready. Swain's only real weakness is his play from backcourt, and no one can lock an opponent there like Yellen . Return ing Swain's blistering serves to the ceil ing and then passing him until his knees turned blue, Yellen frustrated his younger foe into a chain of errors that quickly proved fatal. Turning back a strong last-minute challenge, Yellen
took three straight games to win, 11-7, 11-3, 11-9. It was a frustrating loss for " the kid". Nevertheless, Swain's semi-final finish atDP capped one of the most remark able season's in pro history. In the last seven tournament's of the year he notched two wins, two semi-finals, and victories over nine of the top 10 players. Unranked at the start of the season, Cliff ended it ranked fifth, a mere point behind #4 Hilecher. As prestigious as the DP crown is, the significance of Gregg Peck's consecu tive wins over Hogan and Yellen in the final two rounds at Boston goes far beyond a mere single-tournament triumph. Peck has attracted great atten tion over the last two years not just for his skill, but because he is the first
player to succeed with a game styleThat has been emerging for a decade, and is certain to become the standard within the sport for the forseeable future. It is the perfect blend of Hogan's massive offense and Yellen's methodical defense, built around a strategy of single pur pose: reducing errors to zero. Hogan, Yellen, Harnett, and Dave Peck are all capable of switching game styles in streaks. What makes Gregg Peck unique is his ability to alter styles from shot to shot. Although the shifts can be subtle to the spectator, the strategy is so potent that when it is im plemented correctly there is no effective counter-attack. Never has that principle been demon strated better than in Peck's masterful semi-final defeat of Hogan . After falling behind 0-5 in the first game, Gregg kicked on the jets forcing Hogan into four glaring mistakes and winning 11-6. Game two was the same story; four errors for Hogan, none for Peck, game to Gregg 11-2. Peck was forced to pitch in the towel to Marty's offensive streak in the third game, which ended 0-11. Hogan's hot streak nearly took the match into the tie breaker when he served four times at game point. But Peck was patient. Under the watchful eye and constant guidance of his older brother Dave, Gregg caught Hogan at IO-all, and finally ended the match with a passing shot to the left rear corner, 11-10. The telling statistic of the match was
September 1985 / National Racquetball /7