Today, Tuesday the women’s 60s continued play at PGA National Resort. It turns out that Tuesday was the last day of play at PGA at least for the main draw. Tomorrow we play at Mirasol Country Club.
We played the round of 16 today and I played France’s Betty Michel. I played her once before, in 2009 on red clay in Mallorca, Spain and lost. Today it was a tough match, well over two hours but I won 75 63. I was down 42 in the first but fought for every game and eked out the set. In the second set we had several very long games. I was up 5/1, Betty started going for broke and won two games (and held off several match points at 5/2, 3 or 4) before I won on my next one at 5/3. The courts were pretty dry by the time we finished and it was windy and gusty throughout the match…one ball I hit was calculated with the wind in mind but a gust (after the ball left my strings) carried it about 10 feet long! Tomorrow I play the top seed and defending world champion Helga Nauck in the quarters. It will be a challenge for sure! Vicky Buholz plays Gillian Brook; Fran Chandler takes on Erin Boynton and Lisa Prechtel plays Michelle Hill.
After an hour’s break Susan and I played doubles against Aussie Rosemary Everett and Canadian Cora Wills. It was a good match, but we won 63 63 to advance to the semis. We play the top seeds from Germany in the semis tomorrow afternoon at the Mirasol Country Club. We watched Helga Nauck and Katalin Boeroecz (1) play the USA 2022 National Clay champions Anne Frautschi and Stephanie Tharp which was a terrific match, won by the top seeds in a match tiebreak. Another really fun match to watch was Boynton (CAN)/Leanne Swaysland (AUS) against the top seeds, Buholz/Gayle Prejean (USA). The American pairing won 67 64 10-5 and the points were terrific, volleys, lobs, drops and great court coverage.
After we finished watching the 60s, we went by the BallenIsles CC to watch Isabelle Gemmel play in the 50s, since she’s staying at my house. She teamed up with an Italian player and was facing a good Swedish team. (We were confused at first thinking she was playing with a German player against a Brazilian team, but the husband of one of the Swedish players straightened us out!). Isabelle played great, rarely missing a shot, hitting crisp volley winners and mixing up the pace with slices and lobs. They won 75 64 to advance to the quarters.
In the W55s, Shelly Works won a long match and Jenny Klitch a short one to advance to the quarters. Klitch also won her mixed in a match tiebreaker. None of the 50s team members stayed for the individuals.
The mention of Klitch and Ricardo Mendivil winning mixed is too simple a mention. It was one of the most exciting matches not on television I have witnessed Even after a 61 romp in the first set it was obvious the Uruguayans were a formidable team They started to come alive down 52 winning the second in a tiebreak. The excitement came in the 10 pointer with the Uruguayans up 72 when the winners turned the tide and won 10 7 The hometown crowd of about 50 or more people were all out of their seats cheering great tennis Witnessed by Dorothy Wasser