The Men’s 75-90 Hard Courts started auspiciously on Monday May 16th with good weather conditions at the Morgan Run Country Club in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, north of San Diego. However, Tuesday, a rare late May storm came in, with rain, wind and cold weather, and play was cancelled for the day, though it turned out to be a nice late afternoon. There was more rain on Tuesday night, but Wednesday, though it was windy, was a good day for playing and there were a lot of interesting matches.

In the men’s 75 doubles, John Mangan and Lenny Lindborg faced off against the #2 seeds, Dick Doss/John Powless. The first set was very long and very close…lots of great points, big forehands by Mangan, drop angles by Doss and good serving overall.There were only two breaks of serve en route to the tiebreak, which was a set in itself. Both teams had multiple set points, some saved by great winners, before Doss/Powless won it 16-14. They won the second set 63. The other interesting match-up was #3 seeded Saul Snyder/Don Neuman vs Chuck Nelson/Jim Perley, won by the the seeded team. The top 4 seeds advanced to the semis.

The top 8 seeds advanced to the quarters in the men’s 75s (good job by the 75s seeder!).

In the 80s, Chuck McCabe, the 2nd seed and Russell Seymour, the top seed, both advanced easily. Seymour in fact got a default. John  Bradshaw lost to Mike Claffey after leading 5-2 in the third set. They were playing on a very windy court, and the conditions, with gusts in the 20mph range, were tough for both competitors. Don Eisenberg advanced over Clem Hopp when Hopp was late to the match.

In the 80 doubles, McCabe/Olson, winners last week at the Indoors, but unseeded here, advanced in 3 sets over Bradshaw/Thomas as did Seymour/Chang, finalists at the Indoors last week (also unseeded here). The semis are tomorrow.

In the 85s, the draw unfortunately pitted top seeded Graydon Nichols, the defending champion, against last week’s indoor winner, Roald Flater. Nichols overcame a slow start to win 36 62 61. The 2nd seed, Norm Walters, lost first round to Bob Seymour, 63 64. He faces last week’s finalist, Lewis Stephenson in the semis. The doubles has only 2 teams…

In the 90s, Bob Sherman avenged his loss from last week to Ed Tyler, beating him 75 64, then taking out Dyle Anderson to reach the singles final against WT Mathes. Alex Swetka, the top seed, had to go 3 sets to beat Marvin Henderson, 63 in the third, then lost to Mathes, in a rematch of the bronze ball match last week. This week Mathes won the marathon, 67 75 75.

For all results: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/tournamenthome/results.aspx?T=96330