I played my first matches today in Houston at the National Clays. I played Gloria Stevens from the Austin, TX area and won in straight sets as did most of the seeds…and a lot of seeds…all of them, were in action today (there were 16 out of 40 players seeded…). All seeds won, kudos to the seeding committee, most in straight sets though a few, Kathy Foulk, Ginny Beneke and and Vicki Schlappi, dropped sets before winning.
Susan beat Anne Lowry and Susan and I won our doubles over Emily Swenson and Anne Stuhler from TX and GA respectively.
Tomorrow it’s a Sally Smith day for me…I play Sally in singles and doubles (with Kim Dean). Susan plays Colleen Ferrell in singles. I play singles at 10:30, Susan plays at 11 and our doubles is a 3:30.
In 55 singles, there were two upsets of 9-16 seeds: Maria Hernandez Salas beat Cecilia Collins & Teresa Merklin fell in 3 sets to Valveta Jones. Shelly Works went 3 sets with Maria Nunez and the remaining seeds advanced in straight sets.
In 55 doubles there were a number of three setters but the seeds prevailed (there are again 16 seeds and a large, 40 team draw), except for Jacqueline McWilliams/Christy Galtney who lost 75 in the third to Tammy Giaimo and Kim Frilot.
In the 75s, there were no upsets but Barbara Hubbard, who beat #5 Castell yesterday continued her winning ways, scoring a hard fought three-set win over Molly Hahn to reach the quarters against top-seeded Gwenda Ward.
In 75 doubles, Deborah Larkin/Lois Harris upset #5 seeded Sheila Johnson/Andi Polisky in straight sets…they get #2 Brenda Carter/Betty Wachob next.
In the 85s, the seeds were not in action today but there were several round of 16 matches. Burnett Herrick hurt her shoulder and retired vs Chris Smith though. She gamely went on to play doubles with Jacqueline Van Heist but fell 60 64 to Lola O’Sullivan/Barbara Oldfield. There are only 8 teams in the 85s, so they play the semis tomorrow.
The 45s start tomorrow and the 35s on Thursday so it’ll be very busy at the Houston Racquet Club the next few days.
After doubles we hurried off to the annual NWTO (National Women’s Tennis Organization) which promotes age division tennis. It’s a great organization, check out the website (nwto.us), or better yet, join the organization to promote women’s tennis!
We have to practice tomorrow before the 8:30 matches start, so that’s a wrap on matches today…three photo collages as a slideshow below.
