It was another long day on the court. Fortunately, the weather has been ideal for tennis.

Julie Cass won the 45 singles and doubles for the third time this year, her only loss for the year coming at the Clay (to Jolene Watanabe). Julie and Beverly Bowes-Hackney won the doubles over defending champions Anne Kerwin-Payne and Kristen Hillebrand. In singles, Julie beat Anna Zimmermann. Erika Smith/Alissa Finerman took bronze over Judy Newman/Vesna McKenna 16 60 61.

The longest match of the day was, to absolutely no one’s surprise, the 3/4 playoff match between Manola Colter and Shelly Works. Manola won the first and led 53 in the second, had a match point at 54, Shelly won the point and then the set 76. She was up 2/0 in the third when Manola had to retire, with a hand injury (she couldn’t hold the racquet…maybe a stress fracture). So the match was four hours long and didn’t finish! We decided that mean that Shelly could spend an extra hour on the bike or elliptical trainer today.

In the 35s, doubles partners Yulia Bolotova and Amanda Parsons cruised into the final which will be held tomorrow.

In the 55s, Susan Wright, playing with Tina Karwasky, won her 2nd 55s doubles Gold Slam. In the 3/4 playoff, Pam Cooke and I edged Erin Boynton/Kim Lackey 63 46 75. The scores don’t really describe the match…we were up 63 41 when Erin and Kim stopped missing and became more aggressive; then we lost 10 of 11 games to go down 63 46 15…and then we won six straight games by being more aggressive ourselves. It was a 3 hour match and fun but lots of running and serving and volleying..quite tiring.

In singles Diane Barker beat Tina Karwasky 61 61 and I rallied from 04 down to beat Susan 76 61. Then, like the friends we all are, Manola, Pam, Susan, Eileen and I had dinner together at the club.

My sister Eileen Christin won her consolation singles today 64 64 over Mary Firek. She plays Boynton tomorrow.