Father/Daughter & Mother/Son Hard Courts

DRAWS: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=168951#&&s=7Draws4

The Father/Daughter, Mother/Son Hard Courts has a new site, new location and new date this year. The tournament director, Sheryl Herschman, with assistance from Steve Solomon and her husband Hersch. We are playing at The Springs Country Club in Rancho Mirage, conveniently located a golf cart drive away from where my parents live at an adjoining country club. The site is nice…and since the draws are small parking is only a small issue (no parking lot for the courts), the courts are nice and the volunteers are all super pleasant and happy to have the tournament. The player gift was a long sleeved performance shirt in fuchsia for women, and white for the men along with Tennis Channel hats and wristbands.

The weather was perfect, nice and cool in the morning with some clouds. I even saw a few rain drops. Last week it was in the high 90s, today the low 70s, though the 90s will be back by Sunday.

Dad and I had a tough draw. We played Kathy Settles and her dad Elliott Rose. Kathy played her college ball at UC Irvine and works in the tennis industry with her husband Paul. They’ve won gold balls in husband wife and she has excelled in age division tennis too. And she’s in the 45s and fit and fast. it’s hard to believe she has four children! We were the only competitive match in the 80s; we won 57 64 63. No lead seemed safe; I served for the first set and was broken; we led 3-0 in the second set only to lose the next four games…then won the next seven games to lead 4-0 in the third…then they rallied again. We finally broke Kathy to win the match after almost three hours.

Here’s the court where we spent most of the morning:

Susan Wright and Enver Mehmedbasich won 60 61 against the other Settles, Kathy’s father in law and sister in law; Alissa and Ralph Finerman won 60 60 against the oldest team here; WT Mathes is 95 I think; and Fenasci/Bienvenue dropped 2 games in their win over Gurbach/Trueblood.

The seeders overall did a great job as all seeds advanced to the semis; in the open, the Disbergens, the top seeds, and the Changs, the #2 seeds advanced in very different ways; the Disbergens didn’t drop a game, while the Changs went 64 in the third with the McBrides.

In the 60s, Hannah and John Holladay from La Jolla advanced as did Becky & Jerry Morse Karzen. The Rettenmaiers played the Kelloggs the first round in a match between what would have been the 4th and 5th seeds had there been more than two seeds. The match lived up to it’s billing; the Rettenmaiers won 75 in the third with Tom Rettenmaier commenting that in that match it was better to be playing from behind, as no one played well with a lead. The Martins, who proabably would have been the 3 seeds, also had to go three sets to advance, winning over Texans Hugh and Liz Burris.

In the super seniors, 70+, Herm Ahlers/Krista O’Connor advanced comfortably; there were only 7 teams in this division so the top seeds, Bill and Stephanie White didn’t have to play today.

There’s a mother/son event here too and the two top seeds, Namu/Seeman and the McBrides are the two seeds; both advanced to the semis with straight set wins today.

Tomorrow we play at 8:30 am again. It’s supposed to be 84 tomorrow, nice for this time of year in the Desert

Here’s what a rain storm looks like in Palm Springs normally: the clouds are stopped by the mountains and drop their precipitation there.