All nine American teams in Turkey won today, but for the men’s 75s, it was not easy. Gordon Hammes won at #2 singles against the Netherlands, then King Van Nostrand took on Dutch #1 Michael Van Berckel and lost in three sets, after leading a set and 31. This caused consternation amongst the team as to the lineup for the deciding doubles. After a discussion, Van Nostrand/Powless lined up for the doubles, and after winning a tense first set 76 (13), they won the 2nd comfortably to advance to the final rounds of the competition.

The remaining US teams advanced without worry.

In the men’s 65s, the Zimbabwe team members all live in the USA, and they too advanced to the knockout portion with a 2/1 win over Sweden. They won the doubles convincingly over Sweden after European indoor champion Henrik Andren won the #1 singles point over Hank Irvine.

I also watched Heide Orth play for a while. She was playing Sofia Garaguly, Austria in the Godfree Cup. Garaguly lost a couple of points in one game, blamed the court for bad bounces and proceeded to “sweep” the court before continuing! Meanwhile, Heide rested in the shade, as it was quite warm today. Heide won the match.