Successful Semis in Poertschach

June 13, 2019, Poertschach, Austria

The order of play here was posted pretty late yesterday (about 9:30pm), due to the thunderstorms which delayed play. I was scheduled for 9am which meant an early warm up. Fortunately Ellen Neumann and her friend Katy Boeroecz (who was in the 55 semis) allowed me to warm up with them!

I played Cornelia Keller from Germany. We played on Center Court (only women’s matches were scheduled for such an early hour!). I won 60 61 and then watched the other women’s 60s semis for a while. I knew for sure I’d play another lefty, since the other semifinalists were both lefties. In the end Karin Theeuwes of the Netherlands won 75 75 over the #2 seed, Sylvia Reigl.

I also watched a bit of Lucie Schwab’s final…she looked tired and her wrist was taped but she played very cleverly, using lots of spins and angles and drops and won 63 63 to take the 50s division over Karola Thumm. In the women’s 75s, Michelle Bichon beat Heide Orth again, in two close, tough sets. Laura DiVittori beat Katy in the 55s semis and Barbora Koutna took out Lisa Prechtl, so they face each other tomorrow. DiVittori played smart, mixing up the pace of her serve and ground strokes and holding off a determined opponent in the second set, winning 75 64. Koutna used her superior groundstrokes to power past Prechtl. In men’s 85’s, Aussie Adrian Alle lost but German Herbert Althaus won. Werner, the German 80s player I hit with the other day lost to an unseeded player who moved very well. Wayne Crowley of Australia won in men’s 65s. Heidi Eisterlehner, with whom I trained the second day I was here beat Carol Campling of Australia 61 61. Canada’s Taras Beyko was playing top seeded Alexander Lindholm when I left and the two were having a good, even battle in the first set. I ran into Danny Shaw, and American living in Europe. He was playing doubles with Keith Porter of Canada and mixed with an Austrian.

The weather today was great, no rain, sunny and warm. They had a nice display of trophies up today since some finals were already played.