ITF Masters 60/65/70 World Championships Day 4: Into the Singles Semis in Palm Beach Gardens

Day 4, Tuesday May 20th, Palm Beach Gardens, FL

I played Caroline Glaszmann, the #2 French player and #8 in the ITF Masters World 70s singles ranking. I played well and won in straight sets. I will face my doubles partner, Bunnie Jackson, a 64 63 winner over #4 seed Pauline Fisher, the top British 70s player (and #3 in the world). Tina Karwasky came back from 5-3 down in each set to advance to the semis 76 75 over #3 Sally Van Rensburg of Australia and faces Wendy McColskey who beat Andrea Barnes in a match tiebreak. So it’s a repeat of some of the matchups from the USTA Clay Nationals held here in March; the final round of that tournament is the top half of the draw and the 3/4 playoff at the nationals is the bottom half of the draw!

In the 65s women’s singles, Barbara Nowak of Germany upset #3 seeded Betty Michel of France (#1 on the French Cup team) 76 62. Nowak is from a small club about an hour from Dusseldorf. She just retired as the head teaching pro there and is a fine attacking player. I played her last year in my first German Club match, and she is a good singles and doubles player. Chris French (2), & Wanda Howes also advanced to the quarterfinals.

I ran into Pat Medrado at the Palm Beach Gardens Tennis Center today.

In the 60s, Jenny Klitch dropped only a game in advancing to the quarters; Jenny Rens had a tough match (won 10-8 in the match tiebreak) over Yoshiko Miyauchi of Japan..the second tiebreak she’s played against Miyauchi (the other was yesterday in doubles).

In the afternoon I went over to BallenIsles to watch the doubles there. Jenny Rens/Vicky Buholz won easily over the Dutch team; Jenny Klitch/Gayle Prejean had a topsy-turvy match vs the So African pair winning 11-9 in the match tiebreak, winning the first set and losing the second by a lopsided score and holding off a match point (Gayle hit a great volley) before Jenny hit 2 overhead winners to finish the match. Christina Kaus/Stina Mosvold beat Shelly Works/Rainy Miller 64 62 in a long match…long games, long points. Michelle Williams/Susan Love advanced to the semis with a straight set win.