Susan Wright won the 50 doubles final today and with it a "Gold Slam", which means she won the hard, grass, indoor and clay court 50 doubles titles in the same calendar year. She won two titles with Kathy May Fritz, one each with Marianne Robertson and Sherri Bronson. For Marianne, her doubles partner at the clay courts, it was her first ever USTA ball and she was extremely excited about the win as were Susan, Susan’s husband and Susan’s dad (about the Gold Slam). Susan and Marianne beat last year’s winners, Chris Ramsower-Pearlstein/Robin Harris 64 62. Sherri Bronson/Frances O’Sullivan took the bronze with a 76 62 win over Janet Bez/Mary Morgan.
In the 50 singles, Diane Fishburne won her third 50s national title in as many tries, and her victim today, as it was in the hard court and indoor finals was Susan Wright. Wright won a "silver slam" of sorts…she reached the final of all four 50 national singles titles this year (losing at the grass to Kathy May). The score was 76 60. Susan said she played a great first set and that Diane made some errors and that in the 2nd set Diane made no errrors. Diane said that the first set was streaky. (The second set was streaky too, all upwards by Fishburne apparently.). Carolyn Nichols beat a tired Robin Harris 60 63.
In the 40 singles, Renata Marcinkowska, who won this event 2 years ago, and playing in her first national since 2005, won the singles against a tenacious Robin Keener. It was a battle of the dropshotters for much of the match. Marcinkowska won the first set 62, but trailed 53 in the 2nd before rallying to take it 75. Keener had a set point at 54, and barely missed a backhand wide which would have given her the set. After dodging that bullet, Marcinkowska seemed to raise her game and won the title on her 2nd match point. Kathy Vick, the fitness award winner of this tournament, played her 2nd marathon match, rallying from 0-3 in the third to beat Judy Van Raalte 60 67 76. Her doubles partner, not wanting to be left out of the marathon match experience, also played to a third set tiebreaker in the semis of the backdraw, but fell to Renee Tharpe in the breaker. Kathy said she was going to eat a gallon of ice cream tonight and Renee said she was going to eat 2 pizzas. They’ve earned it this week for sure (Renee gets the finalist award, fitness dept….lost points for cramping in the third against Vick in the quarters.)
Diane Fishburne came away with 2 gold balls, winning the 40 doubles for the 2nd straight year with Mary Dailey. They beat Brigandi/Vick in the final. Both teams looked sharp in their matching outfits. Tharpe/Waldon took the bronze.
For all results click here: http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Results.aspx?T=49504