The weather the final three days at BallenIsles was Friday; all day rain; Saturday: all day wind; Sunday; at very cold morning followed by a beautiful afternoon and a lot of great tennis as a result. Alls well that ends well as some English writer once wrote.
I played Kathy Foulk in the 60s singles final and won in a repeat of the final of the ITF Regional last November. After struggling with the wind, the sunny, calm day was a pleasure to play in and Kathy is always a pleasure to play as well. We had some good points and a few long games, but I had a good day.
Betsy Savitt/Kathy Zanon won the 60 doubles over Foulk/Frances O’Sullivan 62 36 1/0 (5).
In the 40s, Paula Myslivecek beat Kim Jones (who was playing down…she’s in the 55s) 62 61 to win the singles, and then combined with Christina Sirianni to win the doubles 62 61.
In the 50s, Erin Boynton’s dream run to the final ran into Shelly Works and abruptly ended. Shelly is an unbelievable mover and makes errors you can count using the fingers on one hand. Shelly admitted that Erin might also have been a bit tired from playing two three setters yesterday and a doubles match, but Erin said she felt good, that Shelly was just too good. Mariana Hollman though did admit she was tired (she lost a long one to Works on Saturday) and fell 64 75 to Rene Tharpe. Rene was up 42 in the second set and when Mariana rallied to win three straight games. With memories of the lead she’d leg go the day before fresh in her mind, she kept attacking and moving Hollman around to win 64 75. Tharpe was in (happy) tears at the end as it was her first win over the tenacious Hollman.
Terri Gaskill/Jones won the 50 doubles by default over Works/Hollman. Works tried for two days to change her flight but due to the snowstorm Jonas was unable to even reach someone on the phone to discuss the possibilities.
Brenda Carter scooped up the (figurative) hardware in the 70s, beating her doubles partner, Betty Wachob (the Gold Slam champion from 2015 in the 70 singles) and then joining Betty in beating Lee Delfausse/Sue Kimball in the 70 doubles final. Kimball placed third in singles after beating Ellen Goodman in the 3/4 playoff.
Inge Weber of Canada, who just aged up to the 80s, beat Judith Smith (who upset current world 80s champion Burnett Herrick) 61 75. Smith and Herrick had to go the distance to beat Mimi Donegan/Libby Keenan in the doubles final, winning 16 62 1-0 (9). Herrick edged Carol Wood 64 in the third to place third in singles.
All consolation matches played after Thursday were played using short sets (first to 4, tiebreak at 4-4), no-ad and a match tiebreak in cases of split sets, regardless of the way the scores were reported.
Here’s a link to the draws: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=171480#&&s=8Results0
Link to photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/111133686884013323699/BallenIsles2016?authuser=0&feat=directlink