The 2017 ITF Super Senior World Team Championships begins tomorrow, September 12th, in Umag, Croatia and finishes on September 17th. The USA has eight teams participating in age divisions 65-80. Below is a photo of the USA teams which medaled in 2016 in Umag.

The USA is the top seed in the women’s 65, 75 & 80 Cups and is the defending champion in all three divisions. The Kitty Godfree Cup team (W65) is a completely new team from last year but all four players have been on Cup teams in the recent past. The USA Queens Cup team dominated the competition last year and benefits from the additions of Charleen Hillebrand, Suella Steel and Sheila Weinstock, all of whom aged up from the 70s. They join Donna Fales to form a formidable team this year. The defending Doris Hart Cup team has more depth with the addition of Carol Wood, but Canada has added 2014 World Champion Inge Weber to the mix and will be tough to beat.

The USA is also the top seed in the Gardnar Mully Cup, in which they finished third last year. However, they have a completely new and much stronger team this year, led by King Van Nostrand, who was recently honored with a seniors lifetime achievement award, only the third such senior player to ever receive this and the first American to achieve this honor, after Canadian Lorne Main and Germany’s Heide Orth.

The USA Althea Gibson Cup team, which finished fifth in 2015 in Umag, is unseeded and faces #3 seeded (and last year’s finalist), Great Britain, in the first match. The USA team has added last year’s #1 Kitty Godfree Cup player, Brenda Carter, so they have a stronger team and may score the upset, though Great Britain is really tough too with Frances MacClennan at #1 and their always strong doubles.

The USA Britannia (M65) and Bitsy Grant Cup (M75) teams finished second last year but are in Group D (with Great Britain) and Group C respectively. In the Britannia Cup, Australia, with Andrew Rae coming into the division is the second seed. In the Grant Cup, Italy comes in with a strong team and last year’s champion, Germany, was bumped to the #2 seed.

The draws can be found  for the USA teams here and more draws on the ITF Seniors website here.

There’s an article about the draws and interesting opening day matches (from ITF Seniors) here.

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