Friday October 15, 2021
Yesterday, Thursday was a rest day from tennis..I watched a bit of Spain vs France in the 65 Women’s division ( France won but only in the deciding doubles).
Today it was back to practicing. First I checked in for the individual world championships where everyone received a polo shirt and player badge.
Next I watched the Women’s 65 final between France and Germany. I thought the singles would be close…the French #1 Glaszmann lost to the Spanish #1 Chillida Belzunce, who in turn lost to the German #1 Dippner. And the German #2, Schmitz beat the Spanish #2, Togores Colom 2,0 while Le Grande beat her in three sets. But style matchups matter.
In the final, France came out relaxed and ready and moving beautifully while Germany looked tense. The French women played nearly perfect tennis. Their #2, Benedicte Le Grand had never won a gold team medal.
In the afternoon Americans Michael Beautyman and Les Buck then hit a bit with Suella Steel. We hit at a different venue, son Besso and the courts were different, slower, softer.
This evening the ITF had its medal ceremony for the Cups. It was a little sad to watch, but also nice to see the joy on the winners’ faces…
The medal ceremony was very nice, with a big screen, the team and players’ names announced. The national anthems of the gold medal winning teams were played..so basically Germany and France, which won eight of the nine the team events.
France and Germany won all but one of the nine cups contested; the medal ceremony concluded with the men’s 65 cup (ironically called the Britannia Cup, ironic since Great Britain fielded no teams)…which was won by Spain. The only non-European team to medal was Chile which finished fourth in the women’s 70s. Not shown below is the Women’s 80’s, won narrowly by France over Germany. Germany dominated the men’s events, winning four of five cups while France dominated the women’s divisions, winning all but the 70s (won by Germany), or three out of four cups. A women’s 85 cup was offered but there were no teams entered at the end.
