Wednesday May 9, 2018
La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, La Jolla, CA
The National Women’s Hard Courts continued on Wednesday, which was quarterfinal day for the women’s 50 & 60s. There were lots of long matches, great matches and a few upsets too.
Betty Wachob won another grueling match today over Gwenda Ward, 61 57 76 (5)…the same score by which she beat Carolann Castell the day before. Luckily though her doubles was shorter…she combined with Brenda Carter to advance quickly to the semis.
Shannon Gordon-Carney also won a three+ hour singles, upsetting #4 seeded Colleen Clery Ferrell, a local tennis director and fan favorite, 46 62 64. Her doubles though was also long and grueling, lasting over three hours against Clery Ferrell and Beach Club member Una Davis. Colleen and Una won it 67 (6) 63 64, finishing around 8:30 pm under lights. Colleen/Una had multiple set points in the first set before succumbing in the tiebreak and fought hard to win the second…points were lasting 10, 20, 30 shots even though Una and Colleen were at the net more often than not. Cindy Abel, Shannon’s partner, was just returning to national play after a long absence but was lobbing and moving as well as ever and Shannon, who played at UCLA, is a fine doubles player. The match was played in great spirit before an engaged crowd on Court 1.
In the 50s, Michele Saunders caused her second upset in a row, beating #4 seeded Alicia Rowley 76 57 63. With such long matches, it’s understandable why matches were backed up so long today! Saunders takes on Andrea Rice next while Shelly Works will face Ros Nideffer. Rice beat another Beach Club member and fan favorite, Jenny Rens in an entertaining match 64 64. Rice teamed with Paulson to upset the #4 seeds, Works/Anna Zimmermann in three sets to advance to the semis.
Robin Harris and I beat Donna Drosner/Debbie Burgess 61 61 and take on Tina Karwasky/Carolyn Lane, who upset #4 seeds Andrea Barnes/Leslie Airola-Murveit 60 63. Colleen/Una face Tracey Thompson/Susan Wright on the other side of the draw.
In the 70s, Brenda Winstead upset Mary Alice Pisani, the 4th seed 75 36 64. In doubles Carol Gay/Sheila Johnson ousted Molly Hahn/Suella Steel, the #3 seeds.
- Court 1 matches are streamed here: https://www.ipcamlive.com/ljbtc
- Results can be found here: https://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=205807#&&s=7Draws21
- Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xE8s7qfPu3d6au33A
- Fans can tune-in to RadioTennis.com on Friday, May 11 at 9 a.m. to listen to live audio play-by-play of the day’s matches on Court No. 1. Tennis broadcaster Ken Thomas will provide the live web cast commentary at https://radiotennis.com/.