Donna Fales, W85, won four medals at the ITF World Championships: In week one she led the USA Women’s 85 Team to victory, playing singles and doubles in each match and in week two, she won the 85 singles & doubles (with Roz King, USA) and the 80 mixed (with Fred Drilling, USA). She only dropped three games in singles all week. King was a bronze medalist in 85 singles and mixed doubles (with Nick Ourusoff, USA).
Fred Drilling, in addition to the 80 mixed, won the men’s 80 doubles with Jimmy Parker (USA); Jimmy was a finalist in the men’s 80 division, falling in a match tiebreaker in the final to Antonio Claudi of Italy. Parker was the only American man to medal in singles. David Dollins/Jody Rush earned bronze medals in 80 doubles.
Brian Cheney/David Fish won the 75 doubles, beating top-seeded Canadians Tim Griffin/Chris Burr in the final.
Chuck Nelson, USA was a silver medalist in 90 men’s doubles.
In women’s 75s, Gwenda Ward upheld her #2 seed, reaching the final before falling to defending champion Marjorie Love of Great Britain. She was a bronze medalist in 75 doubles (with Tuija Hannukainen) and a gold medalist in 75 mixed (with France’s Bruno Renault, the men’s 75 singles champion). Liane Bryson and Ann Stanley, USA, were women’s 75 doubles finalists and Bryson was the mixed doubles finalist (with Petr Kolacek). Stanley was a 75 mixed bronze medalist (with Niall Sweeney).
Roz King commented that Liane and her competitive smiling spirit and smart was the talk in the stands. Gwenda got lots of respect about how she constructed and competed against other top quality players especially in mixed..”a force to be reckoned with”
In the women’s 80s, Sue Kimball/Betty Wachob were the gold medalists, beating Carolann Castell (USA) and Telsche Andree of Germany) in the final. Kimball lost a heartbreaker in the semis of the singles to Gail Benedetti, 12-10 in the match tiebreak but finished with a singles bronze medal.
Roz King: “Sue and Betty quietly and beautifully crafted their doubles.”
