June 2, 2013

Champions! Dad and I won the 80+ Father/Daughter Hard Court Nationals today in San Diego. We beat the top seeds, Jodi Neuman Rae and Don Neuman 63 63 but it was tougher than the score would indicate…the first game of the second set alone lasted about 10 minutes (I was serving). We were up 51 in the 2nd, 30-0 on Dad’s serve when the Neumans came alive and Jodi started covering 80% of the court very well. They broke and held and Dad finished it out on our 2nd match point with a winning volley. He volleyed really well and hit good groundstrokes today and I think only double faulted once the entire tournament. Not bad for 88…maybe 88 is the new 78.

In other action, Diane Barker and Matt Hane won the mother/son over the Sahs 63 62; Tiffany and Bill Kellogg retained their 2012 senior father/daughter title, winning in three sets over the Martins, in a repeat of last year’s final, complete to a three set win. It was their second gold ball. Herm Ahlers and Krista O’Connor retained their title with a hard fought three set win over the Bairds in super senior father/daughter. The Brocks scored a come from behind three set win over the Man Son Hings to win the open father/daughter.

June 1, 2013, San Diego, CA: There is a whole circuit of family national championships in the USA, how great is that? The events offered in the Father/Daughter, Mother/Son Nationals are: Open Father/Daughter, Senior Father/Daughter (father must be 60 by December 31); Super Senior Father/Daughter (father must be 70 by December 31) and Father/Daughter 80+ (also referred to as Ultra Senior Father/Daughter). The Mother/Son has only one division, open.

At other sites and times during the year the USTA also offers Father/Son in open, Senior, Super Senior and 80+; Mother/Daughter in open, Senior and Super Senior; Husband Wife Open, and combined age of 100+, 120+, and 140+. Most are offered on four surfaces, hard, grass, indoor and clay.

This week the Hard Courts are taking place at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, CA. There is also a pilot grandfather/granddaughter going on, though most of the teams entered are playing in other events as well, in some division of father/daughter.

My dad and I are playing the father/daughter 80+. My dad is the oldest person in this draw and I suspect in the tournament this year (I didn’t check the age of the grandfathers), at 88 and a half. He’s still volleying well though and made more winners today than I did in the semis (maybe because he was at net as one should be in doubles!).

We played a tough team yesterday, Gene Fisher and Kelly Pacheco. Kelly introduced her dad as being a phenomenal golfer and a professional gambler! He wasn’t bad at tennis either, but we managed the win 63 61, though it lasted well over 90 minutes and was tougher than the score would indicate. Today we played a team we were familiar with, Dick Phelps and Ann Jacobs from the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston. We had played them in the final in years past. We started slowly, going down 3-0 and then rallied to win the set 76 (5). A crucial game was a hold of serve from 0-40 down at 1-3. In the second set they tired and Dad started hitting lots of volley winners and we won it 61. Our opponents tomorrow, Jodi Rea and Don Neuman won the indoors with the loss of only 2 games in three matches and they beat the Settles 60 60 in the semis here, so we have our work cut out for us tomorrow.

I watched some other matches today; Diane Barker and Matt Hane played Lisa Namu and Miles Seeman. All are really good players and Diane and Matt got the critical break of Lisa at 43 in the third and Matt with his tough lefty serve held to seal the win and decided that the three sets meant he wasn’t going to the gym afterwards! I also watched Bill & Tiffany Kellogg play Bill and Stephanie White. Bill White was instrumental in starting the Father/Daughter circuit over 10 years ago. Bill Kellogg played lights out tennis in that match…I watched the 2nd set and Bill made on error and the White’s couldn’t believe how much he hurt them with his shots all match long. Tiffany, suffering from a cold or flu hit nice groundstrokes and volleys.

It’s fun to see all the ages playing, from 11 year olds (Dina McBride’s daughter) to my dad, 88+. The atmosphere is competitive but friendly.

Here’s the link to the results: http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=125307

Here’s a link to all the family events held this year: http://www.carolynnichols.com/13Schedule/page3.html