Palm Beach Gardens, FL; 1/30/22
There were only a few matches on Saturday (yesterday) at the Grandes Dames Level 2/ITF 700 tournament which was lucky for anyone NOT playing yesterday…because conditions were really challenging. It was cold…in the upper 40s with 20 miles per hour winds, so it flet like 42 or so (that’s about 5 degrees Celsius).
Vicki Buholz faced Fran Chandler in a rematch of the National Level 1 Clay Courts held here last October. Chandler won that battle and it was a battle, a come from behind 3-set win. This time though Buholz steam-rolled Chandler, allowing her only a game. Trish Faulkner the tournament director here (and or the ITF Seniors World Championships in May) said that Vicki played really well and that Fran said the extremely windy conditions really affected her. Fabulous win for Vicki.
I played Terri Thyssen in the 3/4 playoff. Although I won 62 64, it was the last match of the day and of the tournament by at least an hour…many thanks to the umpire who bravely stood and watched most of the match! It was a very tough second set…the wind died down some and when that happened, Terri’s errors diminished accordingly. The best point of the match was the last match point I think (I’d had 3 or 4 up till then) when I just managed to get to a drop shot hit into the wind and hit a winner past Terri (who while petite, covers a lot of ground). After the first two matches when I played 5/11” and 6’ tall players respectively, I played Fran, 5’5” and Terri who is about 5’2”…the only adversary shorter than I this week.
Erin Boynton played another Canadian (though one who lives most of the time in Florida), Jeanne McEarchen and won 63 61. Erin said it took a while to figure out the wind, which Jeanne adapted to quickly.
Thanks to Trish, Bill McDermott, Wendy and Andi and everyone at the Palm Beach Gardens Tennis Center who helped make this tournament happen!