Today, Wednesday was super busy at the Houston Racquet Club. Matches began at 8am and it was barely light then. Susan Wright and I got to the club at 7:30 for warm up and the lights were still on while we warmed up. It was overcast and muggy and breezy but not raining…a normal Houston day I suppose.
I played Leslie Murveit from Portola Valley, CA. We’ve played a number of times and always have tough battles. Today wasn’t different. I won 61 61 but the match lasted over 90 minutes and the latter part of the second set we really battled, long long points, mostly won eventually on a winner or forced error.
Susan won 63 64 against Ann Pellow, another NorCal player, from Davis, near Sacramento and new to the 55s. The other successful 55 quarterfinalists were Kim Zebot of SoCal who beat Alcira Sisca (the vanquisher of #4 seeded Erin Boynton) 75 63 and of course Diane Barker who beat Sally Smith 61 61. I play Diane tomorrow at 10:30.
In doubles, Susan and I played two San Diego players, Sue Sprague and Lyn Ellis. The wind was really tricky and swirly but we won 60 63 to advance to the semis against Rita Rector and Julie David.
In other action, the top 4 seeds advanced comfortably to the semis in the 45s. Of note was Jenny Klitch’s 63 62 win over Andrea Rice. The top 4 seeds in doubles advanced, though both Erika Smith/Alissa Finerman and Vesna McKenna/Julie Cass, the #1 and #2 seeds respectively, needed 3 sets to win, both against tough Houston teams.
In the 65s, the top 8 seeds advanced to the quarters, all in straight sets (great job seeding Joan!). There was one doubles upset: Carol Clay/Ellen Goodman ousted Vicky McEvoy/Molly Hahn, with the Floridians handling the windy conditions very well. They were so happy they were going home to wash their new “lucky” outfits so they could wear them again tomorrow.
In the 75s, Ria Graham scored her second straight upset, beating Kathy Langer in three sets, to advance to the semis. Lyn Little, Roz King and Dori deVries also advanced, though Dori had to play three tough sets to overcome Burnett Herrick. Herrick and Dorothy Wasser though easily took out Langer/Lyn Tietz to reach the semis along with deVries/King, Little/Dorothy Matthiessen and Graham/Carol Wood.
The 85s seeds, Louise Russ and Jane Lutz reached the semis.