The Greater Portland Tennis Association puts on open, and men’s senior and women’s senior tournaments the second week of July. The women’s event is held at West Hills Tennis Club and the men’s event at the Mountain Park Tennis Club in Lake Oswego, OR. The two clubs are sister clubs and make the players feel welcome, allowing them full use of the club, down to free wifi and fitness. Both clubs have extensive indoor facilities, which makes sense in a climate which really has only three months of outdoor tennis, July, August and September. The weather was pretty much lovely during this tournament, dry, mostly warm and sunny.

The men’s event starts with the older divisions, 60-85 on Tuesday and finishes with the 35-55 on Sunday. There were a number of good local and out of town players in the men’s divisions, including Paul Wulf from Salem, OR, who is excited about playing on his first international Cup team in October. He won the 60 singles and doubles, and beat my cousin, Don Beer in the singles final and doubles semis. He teamed up with Len Wofford, who limited himself to doubles since he’s had some injuries. His doubles looked fine.

Dougal Williams won the 35s; Sal Castillo beat Paul Moss in the 55s. Moss gave him a scare at the start of the match, going out to a 5/2 lead in the first set, but Sal figured something out…he won the next 11 games. Charlie Hoeveler won the 65s, Herm Ahlers took the 75s and Louis Stephenson rallied from a set down to beat Norm Walters in the 85s. There was a barbecue going every day and players could cook their own beef or veggie burgers with all the trimmings each day…a really nice amenity.  There was a good deal of interest among the 35-55 players about the world championships which will be held in San Diego next year. The individual world championships are open to everyone who is the appropriate age and who signs up for an IPIN (free till October 31st, www.itftennis.com/IPIN).

The women’s divisions had some good draws in the 35-60s. The older players are missing out on a great tournament! Also, if you contact the tournament in advance, you can sign up to go shop at the Nike Factory store one day. Dana Barnes was the tournament director again, but was training Linda Temple since she has moved down to Tucson. Linda will be an able successor.

The 40s final pitted Becky Stapp of Washington and Manola Coulter of Albuquerque in the final. Manola was too quick and steady for Becky, but the second set was a good one. Becky attacked more and got to the net, but Manola countered well to win in straight sets. Leona Matzenauer was the class of the field in the 45s, and had no problem winning that division. The 50s final was a really good one. Texans and doubles partners, Vicky Bueholz and Kathy Vick  played each other. Vicky got off to a quick start with her aggressive all court play and won the first set before Kathy was warmed up. Kathy kept the ball deep, attacked more and kept the ball deeper in the 2nd set to force a third. The third set was nip and tuck, never more than a game separating the two till Kathy served to force a tiebreak at 5/6. Vicky attacked well, forced Kathy and won the game and the match 75. The two formed a formidable doubles team with Kathy setting and Vicky finishing (though Kathy was at net a lot herself) to win both the 45 and 50 doubles titles. They never took more than 30 minutes between matches…now they are off windsurfing on the Hood River!  I won the 55s over the improving Mary Firek, who took out #2 seeded Chieko Holt in three sets first round. Firek is a latecomer, like my doubles partner this week, Bonnie Tetrick, to senior women’s tennis, but both are great examples of tennis as the sport of a lifetime…and great examples of how much a player can improve by playing tournaments! Carmen Almodovar won the 60s over Marie Allman and Carolann Castell won the three player round robin to take the 65s. Margaret Anderson won the 80s over Elizabeth Harrison. In the 35s, Lisa Grant edged Lynn Jones to win the title.

         Bonnie Tetrick and I won the 55 doubles; the dedicated team of Darice Carneje/Monica Sweet played 35 and 40 doubles and won both, taking out the top seeds in both finals (Aman/Jones, Chrissie Costamagna/Becky Stapp in the 40s). Annette/Decherd won the 60 doubles.

For all women’s results, click here: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Results.aspx?T=101860

For all men’s results, click here: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=101470