The USA Maureen Connolly Cup team beat Sweden today 3/0. I beat Maria Laftman, their #2 player and captain 60 60; Tina beat their #1 player, Gunilla Berg, who had a big serve and a nice backhand, 62 75 and Sherri and Kerry beat Gunilla and Edith Nordin 60 61. Sherri and Kerry are playing impeccable doubles. Tina and I practiced some after the singles till Tina fell changing directions, skinning her knees and elbows and her white skirt will never be the same. She was game to continue, but the 3pm bus beckoned. Sherri, Kerry and I stayed on, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the Reforma Club and rooting for the men’s 55s team.
We had lunch on the porch overlooking the pool, then went to watch Tom Smith and Chris Bennett play the deciding doubles match against Spain. Chris played and won his singles match in three sets. Fred Robinson was impressive early against Camina, the reigning 60s world champion from Spain, winning the first set and playing even in the second when he became ill, abdominal spasms. He nonetheless earned a pair of match points, but was unable to convert. Spent, he went down 61 in the third. Tom and Chris played solid doubles to beat the Spanish pair in straight sets to clinch a spot in the semis against Australia. They play the semis tomorrow.
We play the quarters of the Connolly Cup tomorrow against Spain, who finished second to the Netherlands in the round robin portion of the competition. We also stayed late to see who would win between Switzerland and Great Britain, since the winner would end up in our half of the draw. Great Britain came from behind to win the tie, losing at #2 singles, then coming back from a set down at both #1 singles and in doubles.
Tomorrow we hope to take an earlier bus back and do a bit of silver shopping before the Gala dinner.
In other USA play today:
The women’s 35s lost badly to Great Britain, who had a couple of ex touring pros on their roster.
The women’s 40s beat Mexico 3/0 and take on Spain next.
The women’s 45s won 3/0
The women’s 50s beat Spain 2/1, but won easily at #2 singles and in the doubles, dropping only a handful of games in those 2 matches. The #1 Spanish player obviously was not going to see many balls in that doubles match.
The men’s 35s, Italia Cup, won 3/0
The men’s 40s, Trabert Cup,beat Canada 3/0
The men’s 45s, Dubler Cup, won 3/0 over Turkey (losing only one game in the process), with Rick Leach playing #2 singles, Andy Stoner #1 singles and Thomas Kong/Kelly Ward cleaning up in doubles.
The men’s 50s won 3/0 over Germany but had tough singles wins, both involving tiebreaks and won the doubles in three sets. Tomorrow in the quarters they play the #2 seeds (US is the #1 seed), Austria, who lost today due to illness.
Link to the ITF article from Tuesday with results.
