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Susan Wright combined with Catherine Suire of France to win the ITF Women’s 45 doubles title in Durban on April 29th. They beat the #2 seeds from Australia, Ros Balodis and Leanne Swaysland 62 61 to win the title. Wright also reached the semis of the singles, falling to Suire.

Val Wilder beat Danie Visser to win the men’s 45 title, and combined with Mike Fedderly to win the men’s 45 doubles title as well. Fedderly fell to Visser in the semis, and Egan Adams lost in 3 sets in the semis to Wilder.

Wendel Pierce took out 2 seeds to reach the 50 quarters before falling to Trevor Allan in that round. Allan finished 2nd.  Sal Castillo also reached the quarters.

Sherri Bronson reached the women’s 50 singles final where she lost to Brazilian Patricia Medrado. Medrado lost 4 games in the entire tournament (4 matches).

Sherri Bronson upset the 2nd seed, Yvonne Vermaak to reach the final of the 50 singles at the world championships for the 3rd straight year. Yesterday she rallied to beat Claudia Thomalla-Adam 16 63 76, coming back from 1-5 down in the third set and holding off 2 match points at 3-5 in the third. Today she was down 1-4 in the first set before getting going. Sherri said serving and volleying mixed up with drop shots proved effective, as she then won 3 games on the trot and was up 30-15 when Vermaak popped her calf muscle and had to be carried off the court. She faces Patricia Medrado in the final.

Susan Wright is in the 45 women’s doubles semis as well.

For all results go to http://www.92computing.com.

The USA won three of the four women’s cups awarded today, the women’s 40 (Young), 45 (Court) and 50 (Bueno). They were also finalists in the women’s 55’s (Connolly).

Gretchen Magers led the Young Cup team to victory, winning her singles 64 76 and then combining with Renata Marcinkowska to win the deciding doubles match 60 61 to retain the Young Cup. Hy Yorke and Marianna Hollman rounded out the Young Cup quartet. According to her teammates, Gretchen played brilliantly all day, especially in the doubles.

Susan Wright and Fran Chandler had closed Friday tied at 2-2 in the third set of the deciding doubles match  with the Ros Balodis-led Australian team. They then had to wait till Australia played France today before they could finish the match, which if won by the Americans, would assure them a Cup win. They did win that set and regained the Court Cup, which they last won in 2004, from Australia. Tracy Houk had won the #2 singles match while Susan Wright was narrowly defeated by Ros Balodis 76 in the third. Kathy Vick was also a member of the team.

USA also beat Australia in the Bueno Cup, 3-0. Carolyn Nichols won the #2 singles match against Kerry Young, fending off a barrage of huge serves in the 2nd set. Tina Karwasky played a flawless match to beat Lyn Mortimer, the #1 Aussie 63 60, hitting winners from the back court and at net and moving beautifully and also serving big. She was never pressed hard this week. Sherri Bronson and Mary Ginnard completed the sweep with a straight set win over Young and Sue Walter.

USA lost in the finals of the Connolly Cup, 55s, to Australia, 2-1, winning at #2 singles, dropping the #1 singles match in 3 sets, then losing the doubles to the defending world champs, Liz Allen/Kerry Ballard.  

USA came in 4th in the Italia Cup, narrowly losing to the Netherlands 2-1, with the match going down to the third set of the doubles, which Netherlands won 7-5.

USA won the playoff in the Trabert Cup, 40s, and so finished 3rd.

USA played the semis of the 45s and won today and play the finals tomorrow.

USA came in 2nd in the 55s.

I don’t know what happened in the men’s 50s in PietersMaritzburg today.

We finally got to play a match in the Bueno Cup competition, though were getting nervous when Spain showed up late for practice. I won at #2 singles; Tina Karwasky dispatched Spain’s #1 player quickly and Mary Ginnard/Sherri Bronson bageled the Spanish team in doubles. Tomorrow we play Turkey, who lost 3-0 to Spain on Monday.

Click here for all the Bueno Cup results.

Click here to read about the Day 1 results for all teams.

The Margaret Court Cup team has not dropped a match in reaching the semis of their competition. They beat So Africa, Canada and Great Britain this week, with Susan Wright playing #1 singles, Tracy Houk playing #2 and various combinations playing doubles.

The Young Cup team also has not dropped a set in reaching the knockout portion of the event.

The Connolly Cup team played 4 singles and 1 doubles today, beating Netherlands and Ireland. They played 2 ties today due to the rain out yesterday…but still have a day off tomorrow.

The Lenglen Cup team played Portugal and I assume won.

The men’s 55 and 35 teams won handily, and I haven’t heard from the other teams yet.

More news as I get it.

Hello from rainy Durban. I guess the rain followed me from California to South Africa.

Play on Tuesday was postponed till Wednesday due to rain all day in Durban and apparently also in Pietermaritzburg.

Monday all the US teams who played won.

The 35s won both singles, though Jessica Schlotterback who played first at #2 went 3 sets. They beat Netherlands. The doubles was to have been completed today , on the 18th, Tuesday, but it rained all day so…

The 40s and 50s women and 45 men all had the day off and practiced at the Durban Country Club.

In the 50s though, 2 of the seeded teams split their singles and didn’t finish their deciding doubles match before rain came down. So Africa really gave Australia a scare. Australia won 76 76 at #2 singles and RSA then won a long match at #1 singles, but Australia, who has the defending world championship team in doubles was up 6-3 when play was suspended.The 4th seeds, Great Britain, also split their singles with France, losing at #1 singles after having taken the #2 singles, at which point play was suspended for the day.

The 45s, playing in Pietermaritzburg, won both singles and were to have played the doubles today, but it apparently rained there also.

The men’s 35, 40, 50 and 55 teams all won yesterday. The 35s and 55s were particularly dominating in their wins.

Please hope for good weather the rest of the week here.

Hello again from Durban. The Captains’ meeting was held today. The USA Bueno Cup (women’s 50s) is seeded #1 and has a day off tomorrow, Monday. We are in a round robin group with Spain and Turkey.

The other seeds are #2 Australia, #3 Great Britain and #4 Netherlands. Austria is #5. We play Spain on Tuesday and Turkey on Wednesday.

The top teams from each group will go into a knockout draw later in the week, (semis and final) to play for the Bueno Cup.

The 35s team, Lenglen Cup, is seeded #3 behind France. They do play tomorrow, against I believe the Netherlands. They have 11 teams, 2 groups of 4 teams and one group of 3 teams. the top team in each group will play in a 3 team round robin to determine the Cup on Thurs-Sat.

The 40s team, the Young Cup, has the day off on Monday. I believe they are seeded #1.

The 45s team, the Margaret Court Cup team, is seeded #3 behind Australia and France.  They are in a round robin group with 4th seeded Great Britain. They are in a group of 4 teams, and there is a group of 3 teams and another with 4 teams. The top team in each group will play in a round robin later in the week to determine their Cup. The Court Cup is being played in Pietermaritzburg, about an hour or so from Durban.

The 55s team, the Maureen Connolly Cup team is seeded #2 behind Australia and the 3rd seed is Great Britain and the 4th is France. The USA is in the same round robin group as France I believe. They are in a round robin group of 5 teams, and Australia is in a RR group of 4 teams, there are 9 overall in this Cup. The USA must win its round robin group in order to vie for the Cup on Saturday.

Men’s Austria Cup are seeded 3rd behind #1 Australia #2 Spain,  then #4 Great Britain, #5 France. There are 14 teams. USA plays Turkey tomorrow.

Hello from Durban, South Africa. The opening ceremonies are tomorrow and the draws will be made for the team events as well.

It was a bit rainy all day but we managed to get in a practice, at the Durban Country Club. The highlight of the practice actually was seeing the monkeys running along the top of the fences during our practice. We really are in Africa! They apparently are quite a nuisance and not well liked here, but it was quite an unusual site.

I will write more once the draws have been made.

Carolyn

There are 15 teams entered in the Maria Bueno Cup competition this year. The entrants can be found by clicking here. (Adobe acrobat needed to view).

The teams are from everywhere from Argentina to Canada to Turkey to the USA to So Africa.

I’ll be updating the seeding and results as much as possible and you can also find the information on the ITF website, www.itftennis.com/seniors.