Friday was an off day and for once I didn’t rise early to practice at 7am! I did run into Kathy Vick though and she hit indoors at 7am because it was raining in the morning. However, it cleared up by the afternoon and ended up being an lovely day.

We, Tina, Sherri, Wendy and I took a shuttle to the club for an 11am indoor clay practice and ended up playing for a couple of hours. The clay indoors is harder and faster but not vastly different from the outdoor variety here.

After practice we went to cheer on the USA Bueno Cup team, the 50s. When we went indoors, Fran Chandler had just won the first set against Sue Webb of Gr. Britain, so when we emerged from the indoor cocoon, we expected to see Ros Nideffer wrapping up the win. However…Sue came back from two match points down to beat Fran for the first time 16 76 60. Sue lives in Tennessee, same as Fran and they are good friends and have played on many teams, Senior Cup and Intersectionals, together in the USA.

As we finished practice,  Ros was warming up to keep the US hopes for a title alive. The conditions were heavy and Ros took a while to adjust, playing a bit impatiently at first, but finished strongly and never looked in doubt of pulling out the win. Nonetheless, her team rooted for her vociferously.  She won 46 63 61, winning nine of the last ten games to level the tie. Tracy Houk, the captain, went and changed the deciding doubles lineup from Tracy and Gretchen Rush to Gretchen and Ros and when I left they were up 61 3/0 behind impressive everything…serves, volleys, and especially overheads. Ros has won two French Open doubles titles and Gretchen is also superb in doubles and it showed.

USA advanced in the men’s 55, Austria Cup, to the final behind straight set wins by Mike Fedderly and Val Wilder.

USA is tied at 1/1 in the  Men’s 60s, Von Cramm Cup. Bill Ashley,playing at #1 singles just finished a grueling three set win 75 67 62 around 6pm, so Tom Smith and Paul Wulf will play the deciding doubles.

USA had the day off in the Men’s 50s and Women’s 55 & 60s.

In summary: USA to play for Cup on Saturday in Women’s 50s (Bueno Cup) and 60s (Alice Marble) and Men’s 55 (Austria) ; USA to play for bronze in Women’s 55 (Connolly) ; USA to play for Cup or bronze in Men’s 60 (Von Cramm).

I biked back to the hotel along the beach today, here’s the Pornichet beach.