March 9, 2019
Friday in Miami Beach…is noisy! Bands tuning up, motorcycles racing, rush hour traffic, high season energy. I played Dagmar Sperneder from Austria in the de facto 60s final and won. We played one court removed from a busy street, and across the street from a park where a band sounded like it was making sure its instruments worked (they did, believe me). It was noisy and windy and basically a normal high season Friday afternoon in Miami.
There were a lot of players onsite yesterday, unlike the sleepy atmosphere of Wednesday afternoon. The matches ran an hour late…we barely finished before dark. Our 3:30 match was scheduled for 2:45 on Thursday night, 3pm by Friday morning and by Friday afternoon the time had changed to 3:30, with the only notifications appearing on the website.
Shelly Works was soooo happy to finally play a match. She arrived Monday and didn’t get to play till Friday (she did receive a default on Thursday). Shelly actually got to play twice…she and Rainy Miller won their 6:30 pm doubles match and Shelly looked like she wanted to run around and play singles on the doubles court. Both played well and won. Saturday update: Shelly won the final in three sets, despite losing the first set 60 and facing three consecutive match points at 4-5 in the third, taking the tiebreak 7-3 against top seeded Simone Vasconcellos. Rainy as tweeting a group of players first on changeovers, then game by game and finally point by point in the TB.
Fran, Rainy, Carolyn, Kaysie, Shelly
Jenny Klitch blitzed the opposition in the 50s, winning the final against Julie Dybendahl of Australia without losing a game. Dybendahl though upset the 2nd seed in the semis, and had a good tournament herself. Donna Fales (W70) and Jenny are shown below; Donna finished 3rd in the women’s 70s and Toni Novack, USA finished 2nd. Leila Musalem won the event.
Nancy Hilliard (45) and Kaysie Smashey (35) added to the trophy haul for Texas, winning their singles events. Smashey beat Heather Nobler 63 63 in the final. CORRECTION: Nobler BEAT Smashey 63 63. Hilliard beat unseeded Tangerine Manning who fought her way to the final with consecutive 3-set wins, upsetting Kristen Kepler in the semis.
In men’s divisions, winners are: M35: Henry Choi; M40: Ry Tarpley UPDATE: I omitted Tarpley’s opponent, he plays vs Michael Halperin in the final. M45: Renee Busch vs Philippe LeBlanc in the final tomorrow; M50: Eoin Collins vs Gabriel Keymer; M55: Denis Dumas vs Vincent Horcasitas; M60: Ross Persons (seeded #5; #2 seeded Stu Saiki retired due to a bum leg in the quarters to Eric Friedman; Persons beat Friedman); M65: Fritz Raijmakers (Netherlands) vs Galba Couto; M70: Michael Beautyman, seeded 2, beat top seeded Bruce Barrett (also his doubles partner) in three sets; M75: Jimmy Parker and Fred Drilling play the final tomorrow; M80 had only 2 players.
Bruce Barrett
In doubles: M35: Choi/Nick Rainey won; M45: Keymer/Mehech d. (1) Engel/Sack; M55: Persons/berner d. Blanno/Garman; M65:(1)Raijmakers/Danny Shaw d. (2) Barrett/Beautyman; M75: Jonsson/Parker won; unfortunately they had to play Drilling/Tibbits in the semis and won that in three sets…
In women’s doubles: 35s: Heather Nobler/Smashey won the 35s (only two teams); 45s: Chase/Williams will face Vasconcellos/Yanagi who beat the #2 and #1 seeds respectively. Michelle Willams is Rhyne Williams mom… 55s is a round robin and finishes tomorrow.
Draws are here: https://m.tennislink.usta.com/TournamentHome/tournament.aspx?t=232508
Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/C8xN2wqwfJTUXM1X7
I am pretty sure Heather nobler won the women’s 35s and mike halperin is playing in the final of the men’s 40s tomorrow.
I already updated the women’s 35 results. The tournament director initially posted the wrong winner. Halperin is in the final of the 40s.
Note that Michael Halperin is also in the final of the men’s 40s (I initially only posted the name of his opponent).
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