The forecast for today was for rain and the prediction was correct…it poured most of the morning in Fort Lauderdale. An hour north it also rained hard but stopped an hour or two earlier. All the rain meant no matches started till 3:30pm.
I warmed up in Palm Beach Gardens and then drove down, arriving just as the tournament decided to postpone the 65 singles till tomorrow, which, given that we were in the semis and the tournament ends on Friday was a good decision. It did mean I drove about 2.5 hours unnecessarily, but it wasn’t rush hour either way, it happens. The 85s final was also postponed, as were (I believe) the 55 semis.
But there was tennis. The 55 singles quarters were all played and in a “Groundhog Day” match, Jenny Klitch beat Susan Love 64 62 in a match that was very similar to their second round encounter from last week. Same opponents, same score. All four seeds advanced, Klitch to play Yvette Kruger and Shelly Works to play Simone Vasconcellas of Brazil.
The 75s did play their semis, with Betty Wachob beating Sheila Weinstock and Carolann Castell upsetting #2 seeded Sue Kimball.
In 2020 the USTA scheduled the Palm Beach Gardens (for even age divisions) and Fort Lauderdale (for odd age divisions) back to back. The Fort Lauderdale tournament began today at the Lauderdale Tennis Club, an old fashioned, tennis-centric club surrounded by condominium buildings named for historic tennis players (Lenglen, Tildon etc.).
This week I’m playing my first 65s tournament. Last year I played the 55s, so I keep looking for my name in the 55s…it’s not there this year, though Shelly Works, the woman I played in the final is the second seed again this year. (Jenny Klitch is the top seed.)
I played Miriam Morey from North Carolina. She’s a professor at Duke in NC ( From the Duke website: “The general focus of Dr. Morey’s work is exercise and aging. All of her research examines how physical activity, exercise training, or physical fitness influence”). Miram plays at the same club where Wendy McColskey, the #2 seed here is a member. She’s a quick counterpuncher, and after adjusting to the wind we had some good rallies but I came out ahead. I play Helga Immerfall next in the quarters.
There were no close matches in the 65s and all the seeds won. The seeds in other singles divisions had byes and in doubles, the seeds are playing tomorrow for the most part.
The 85s draw, though only 6 players, is quite strong with Burnett Herrick, Judy Smith, Lucille Kyvallos, Margaret Canby, Esther Williams and Laurie Leach all playing. Smith beat Canby and Williams beat Leach today. All are enthusiastic about the thought of the ITF holding the Women’s 85 Cup in Mallorca this fall.
The ITF Seniors World Team Championships begins on Sunday morning. Yesterday I met Jenny Cerff from So Africa and Susan Wright, one of my Alice Marble Cup teammates, at the Lisbon Airport. I took the metro to the airport, easy without luggage, then waited for them to arrive. I’d messaged both a photo of a meeting spot, because it was chaotic as passengers emerged from baggage claim. It was very busy as all flights emerge from one exit, regardless of the airline.
Jenny’s flight landed early and she was coming from Turkey so passed Customs quickly. Susan’s flight from JFK was late and she went left and we waited right at exit. We sorted things out quickly, ubered to our AirBnb (the Uber pickup at Lisbon is a bit confusing, but I’d done it the day before so we successfully found our driver first time). We left our bags and went in search of water and food. The hotel I stayed in last night as it turns out (ok, I did plan it) was just around the corner, so we went to the same grocery store I’d visited the day before. And I took them up to the rooftop bar for a look over Lisbon.
Jenny, Carolyn & Susan, from the rooftop bar (there’s a nice view behind us…)
View from the rooftop bar
After lunch we practiced at one of the clubs used for the World Championships, with Luisa Guivia, returned to our flat, got some dinner and crashed.
Luisa, Jenny, Carolyn & Susan
Today we have a practice in the afternoon, with Diane Barker our top player, and then pick up our final team member, Robin Harris at the airport. Tomorrow practice begins early, Saturday we have practice and captains’ meetings and the opening ceremonies, then our first matches on Sunday.
It was another lovely day in Bordeaux. Sue Bartlett and I were rescheduled to the 6th match after 8:30 (not before 2pm)…we got on around 5pm. We played two Spaniards, Encarnacion Gomiz and Carmen Lang and won 60 60, (and there were 3 no-ad games we played). We played on Court 7, which is basically concrete with a bit of red clay on top, painted lines, dangerously slippery.
Sue and I play the singles final tomorrow 4th match after 9am, not before 1:30pm but on Court 1, the first time either of us has played a match on the main bank of courts. It’s unlikely I’ll see much if anything of Bordeaux this trip but I’ve seen a lot of Villa Primrose, which is a lovely old club.
Don’t forget to sweep the court after play!
Ross Persons finds himself in three finals; he won the mixed 55 with Luisa Gouveia of Portugal; and he’s in the 60 men’s final vs Belgian Pierre Godfroid and the men’s doubles final with Fritz from the Netherlands.
Darren Price from USA and Andrew Moraghan GBR are into the QF of the men’s 45 doubles, beating two Brits to reach the semis.
And that’s a wrap on today’s action. Final tomorrow then on to the next stop Sunday morning.
Today was a pretty relaxing one since I only had one doubles match, 2nd match on court 9 after 2pm. We started around 3:30 or so I think and played Sylvia Shipley and Fiona Walker, whom we’d played in singles yesterday. We won 60 61. Here the format is no ad and a match tiebreak in lieu of a third set. We forgot about the no ad on our first deuce and won the point (and game; we asked the referee and he said points played in good faith stood); we remembered it the second time and lost the point.
Sue won her round robin group today while I still have to play my second round robin match tomorrow. I play fourth match on court 7, 2nd match after 11am. So maybe around 1, 2 or3pm. It depends on the length of matches earlier in the day.
Here’s a photo of Sue Bartlett and me. She’s playing the deuce side and when she comes to net for some reason our opponents lobbed me. Hmmmmm. We don’t have doubles tomorrow so she has an off day to tour a bit. My touring day will be on Saturday.
Bordeaux, France, Wednesday (WiFi was down Tuesday….)
After a long weekend watching my nephew getting married (The Carmel Mission Church is beautiful as was the wedding), I drove to SFO. I had a stop in Scott’s Valley (bear Santa Cruz) for a tennis match. We interrupted the match several times to listen to Wimbledon Radio as the men’s final kept going…
I flew Tap Airlines to Lisbon. It arrived late but I made my connection. Neither flight left from a gate. We were bused to the terminal a long way. There were only stairs, not ramps.
I cleared passport control and security and made my flight where we waited for quite a while, 20-30 minutes outside on steps for a bus, then once again were driven to the plane.
The flight to Bordeaux was smooth and my bags came pretty quickly. I arrived at my lodgings on time. After a walk to the market I went to the club, only 10 minutes away by foot and hit some balls with Sue Bartlett, with whom I am playing doubles this week. The courts, red clay of course, are very very dry and quite fast for red clay.
I won my first round on Tuesday over Sylvia Shipley from Great Britain. Sue had a tough match with Fiona Walker, winning 75 64. The second set was pretty topsy-turvy. Sue led 30- 40-15, Fiona leveled at 4-4, redlining her ground strokes. Sue was up 5-4 but down 40-0 with Fiona serving and won five points on the trot to finish the match. Sylvia is shown below.
I play the #1 Spanish player tomorrow, Thursday, but we play Fiona and Shirley today in doubles.
Ross Persons from the USA, a member of the men’s 60 Cup team is here, one of the few Americans in the draw.
Today I had a chance to hit with King Van Nostrand. King is aptly named…he’s a king of senior tennis, and is true tennis royalty. From Vero Beach, Florida, he’s been honored by the ITF with a seniors lifetime achievement award, having won more than 10 Individual World Championships and more than 10 team championships.
King is playing in the 85s, but his ball is so heavy and his dropshot so short and spinny. There are several good players in the 85s, but I can’t see King and his titanium knees having too much of a problem winning this event.
There are a few San Diego area players here, and I watched a bit of Dave Van Den Berg. He was playing an Italian player with two pretty hefty knee braces and cruised to a win. He now however has to play Peter Pokorny of Austria, the top seed and like King, a legend whose won more than 10 individual ITF titles and team events. A couple of other Americans, Karl Placek (seeded 7) and Robert Anderman (faces the #4 seed) are playing 75 singles here.
I just practiced a couple of hours today, hit the grocery store and drug store and watched more French Open tennis (and listened to it on Radio Roland Garros which is excellent).
Photos aren’t loading right now….wifi in Europe tends to be dreadfully slow at least in hotels.
Jane Lutz, 90, played six sets of tennis today to win the USTA 90 hard court singles & doubles titles. Rita Price also played six sets of tennis today and came away with a singles silver and doubles gold for her efforts.
Jane won the singles 26 75 64 over Price and Jane and Rita won the doubles 75 46 63 over Janet Hubbard/Pat Wiedenmann.
I repeat…Jane is 90, Rita is 92 and they played for over four hours on hard courts no less.
The 40-80 Clay Courts continued at the Palm Beach Gardens Tennis Center Thursday. It was warm, breezy and SUNNY…no clouds at all for the afternoon matches, which made serving a challenge at times.
In the 60s, the seeds all prevailed. I played Sally Smith from Charleston and won 62 62, but the second set in particular was much closer, just a couple of points and in the last game, just a couple of shots out and in by inches, in my favor. The sun was tough on one side for serving too. Diane Barker, Susan Wright and Kathy Vick all won in straight sets. I play Susan, my doubles partner, tomorrow and Diane plays Kathy.
There were only consolation doubles matches today in all but the 80s (which is a round robin).
In the 50s, the top four seeds all advanced to the semis in straight sets; Vesna McKenna will face Jenny Klitch while Julie Cass takes on Andrea Rice.
Gwenda Ward continued her fine play in the 70s, upsetting another seed, Sue Kimball, in a tightly contested three-setter. She faces Toni Novack who bested Betty Wachob; Wachob commented that Toni played great and had improved her play…and of course, that dropshot… Judy Dixon faces Brenda Winstead in the other semi.
In the 80s, Dori DeVries blew past Burnett Herrick and Inge Weber also won easily; Lola O’Sullivan won by default over Roz King (leg injury); the match of the day was between Carol Wood and Dorothy Wasser. Carol is from Maryland and Wasser from Palm Beach Gardens…which may have been the difference, because it was hot! Carol won the first set and had a match point or two according to O’Sullivan; once Wasser fended those off, Carol wilted, Wasser didn’t and she won in three sets; she takes on her doubles partner Weber in the semis while DeVries plays O’Sullivan.
Saturday afternoon and Sunday there was still quite a bit of tennis to play in Miami Beach at the ITF Regional Championship. I’m relying on the scores from the website, so if there’s an error as to who won, let me know, and please contact the tournament director to correct it online.
Men’s 40: (1) Michael Halperin d. (4) Ry Tarpley (3 sets)
Men’s 45: renee busch d. (1) Philippe Leblanc
Men’s 50: (1) Eoin Collins d. (2) Gabriel Keymer (64 64)
Men’s 55: Vincent Horcasitas d. (2) Denis Dumas 62 61 (Horcasitas also beat the top seed 61 61 in the quarters)
Men’s 60: (1) joakim berner d. (5) Ross Persons (3 sets)
Men’s 75: 1) Jimmy Parker d. (2) Fred Drilling (61 63)
Men’s 35 and 70 finished yesterday.
Note again, that Heather Nobler won the women’s 35s. It was incorrectly recorded into the tournament software program initially.
Nobler, Smashey
Doubles:
Men’s 45: Keymer/Mehech d. (1) Engel/Sack (63 63)
Men’s 55: (1) Persons/berner d. Blanno/Garman
Men’s 65: 1) Raijmakers/Shaw d. (2) Barrett/Beautyman (62 60)
Men’s 75 & 35 were played yesterday…reported in yesterday’s blog.
Women’s 45: Vasconcellos/Yanagi d. Chase/Williams (64 63)
Women’s 55: Rainy Miller/Shelly Works won a 3 team RR
Mixed 35: Rawlings/Turner d. (2) Beaudoin/Demer (by default); however Rawlings/Turner beat top seeded Choi/OLEJNIK in three sets in the semis, reported as 76 in the third.
Mixed 45: Chase/Craft d. Maheu/Martinez (75 61; no seeds in this division)
Mixed 55: Miller/Persons d. (1) Dumas/Stobbe 46 75 1-0 (6); photo below courtesy of Rainy Miller
Friday in Miami Beach…is noisy! Bands tuning up, motorcycles racing, rush hour traffic, high season energy. I played Dagmar Sperneder from Austria in the de facto 60s final and won. We played one court removed from a busy street, and across the street from a park where a band sounded like it was making sure its instruments worked (they did, believe me). It was noisy and windy and basically a normal high season Friday afternoon in Miami.
There were a lot of players onsite yesterday, unlike the sleepy atmosphere of Wednesday afternoon. The matches ran an hour late…we barely finished before dark. Our 3:30 match was scheduled for 2:45 on Thursday night, 3pm by Friday morning and by Friday afternoon the time had changed to 3:30, with the only notifications appearing on the website.
Shelly Works was soooo happy to finally play a match. She arrived Monday and didn’t get to play till Friday (she did receive a default on Thursday). Shelly actually got to play twice…she and Rainy Miller won their 6:30 pm doubles match and Shelly looked like she wanted to run around and play singles on the doubles court. Both played well and won. Saturday update: Shelly won the final in three sets, despite losing the first set 60 and facing three consecutive match points at 4-5 in the third, taking the tiebreak 7-3 against top seeded Simone Vasconcellos. Rainy as tweeting a group of players first on changeovers, then game by game and finally point by point in the TB.
Fran, Rainy, Carolyn, Kaysie, Shelly
Jenny Klitch blitzed the opposition in the 50s, winning the final against Julie Dybendahl of Australia without losing a game. Dybendahl though upset the 2nd seed in the semis, and had a good tournament herself. Donna Fales (W70) and Jenny are shown below; Donna finished 3rd in the women’s 70s and Toni Novack, USA finished 2nd. Leila Musalem won the event.
Nancy Hilliard (45) and Kaysie Smashey (35) added to the trophy haul for Texas, winning their singles events. Smashey beat Heather Nobler 63 63 in the final. CORRECTION: Nobler BEAT Smashey 63 63. Hilliard beat unseeded Tangerine Manning who fought her way to the final with consecutive 3-set wins, upsetting Kristen Kepler in the semis.
In men’s divisions, winners are: M35: Henry Choi; M40: Ry Tarpley UPDATE: I omitted Tarpley’s opponent, he plays vs Michael Halperin in the final. M45: Renee Busch vs Philippe LeBlanc in the final tomorrow; M50: Eoin Collins vs Gabriel Keymer; M55: Denis Dumas vs Vincent Horcasitas; M60: Ross Persons (seeded #5; #2 seeded Stu Saiki retired due to a bum leg in the quarters to Eric Friedman; Persons beat Friedman); M65: Fritz Raijmakers (Netherlands) vs Galba Couto; M70: Michael Beautyman, seeded 2, beat top seeded Bruce Barrett (also his doubles partner) in three sets; M75: Jimmy Parker and Fred Drilling play the final tomorrow; M80 had only 2 players.
Bruce Barrett
In doubles: M35: Choi/Nick Rainey won; M45: Keymer/Mehech d. (1) Engel/Sack; M55: Persons/berner d. Blanno/Garman; M65:(1)Raijmakers/Danny Shaw d. (2) Barrett/Beautyman; M75: Jonsson/Parker won; unfortunately they had to play Drilling/Tibbits in the semis and won that in three sets…
In women’s doubles: 35s: Heather Nobler/Smashey won the 35s (only two teams); 45s: Chase/Williams will face Vasconcellos/Yanagi who beat the #2 and #1 seeds respectively. Michelle Willams is Rhyne Williams mom… 55s is a round robin and finishes tomorrow.
The final of the 75 doubles and the singles semis were held today at the Fort Lauderdale Cat II/ITF Grade 1. Carolann Castell/Lee Delfausse, seeded 2, upset top seeded Cathie Anderson/Donna Fales in a topsy-turvy match 6136 62. Castell avenged the singles loss she suffered to Anderson earlier in the day. Anderson won a tightly contested singles match 75 (after leading 51) 64 (after trailing 3/0). Fales beat Susanne Clark 62 63 in the other semi. The final is tomorrow.
The 65s went strictly according to the seeds today, with Wendy McColskey beating Becky Timmis 64 60 and Lil Peltz-Petow playing flawlessly to beat Sue Bramlette. Pelt-Petow continued her flawless play in doubles, combining with Jan Kirkland-Cochran to beat Cindy LePrevost/Ann Stanley in straight sets. McColskey and her sister Dale overpowered Bramlette/Kerry Young to reach the final.
In the 55s, I beat Terri Thompson 61 60…she hit four winners in the first game but luckily for me cooled off a bit after that, and Shelly Works beat Jeannie MacEachern 60 61. We are scheduled to play tomorrow at 11am. I’m bringing my lunch with me!
In 55 doubles, Kris McDonald/Kathy Zanon were solid against Frances O’Sullivan/Abbi Neuthaler and Cheryl Hicks/Sheri Adler overpowered Rainy Miller/Shelly Works, or at least Adler did. She has a seriously good forehand! And her volleys weren’t bad either.
There was an exhibition 85 singles match too, Lucille Kyvallos vs a Brazilian lady. Lucille won convincingly…she’s playing very well, perhaps motivated by thoughts of a women’s 85 cup this year.
It was another sunny 70s day in Palm Beach Gardens today, pretty much perfect for tennis.
I played Kim Dean, whom I’d not played before. She’s originally from California, now from Atlanta and is a tough player. The 62 61 score was not indicative of how many close games and points we had.
In the 60s, the only upset was Kathy Vick, new to the 60s, edging Bunny Allare in three tough sets. Diane Barker and Wendy McColskey advanced convincingly to the semis where they play each other; I play Kathy.
The 50s final is set, between top seeded Jenny Klitch, who has yet to lose a game, and Yvette Kruger, the 2nd seed.
In the 70s, the two top seeds advanced by very different scores. Toni Novack drove and dropped her way to victory against Brenda Winstead 63 63 while Molly Hahn edged her doubles partner in a spirited match 67 64 75.
In the 80s, Inge Weber beat Lucille Kyvallos, and Dorothy Wasser upset #2 seeded Burnett Herrick in three sets. They face off in singles, then will combine to play the doubles final against Herrick/Carol Wood.
In 60 doubles, Vick/Kim Jones took out the #2 seeds, Frances O’Sullivan/Dean in three sets. Ann Jacobs/Betsy Savitt upset the #4 seeds, McColskey and her sister Dale McColskey.
In 50 doubles, top seeded Mariana Hollman/Stacy Williams edged Daniela Esswein/Susie Brown to advance to the final while the unseeded team of Susan Harris/Patricia Randolph advanced to the final from the bottom half.
Hollman/Williams made it 2 for 2 by advancing to the final in the 40s to face Klitch/Andrea Piski in the final.
In 70 doubles, Hahn/Kimaball didn’t have any negative hangover from their long singles; they advanced to the doubles final and will face the #2 seeds, Ellen Goodman/Winstead.
Finals in all but the 60s will take place tomorrow.
SoCal won both the 75s and 80s in Phoenix after narrowly going down to Southern in the 65s earlier in the week. Intersectionals is the biggest women’s senior tournament each year and pits players from up to 17 USTA sections against each other annually in a staggered seven day competition (each age division competes for four days). Players compete in singles and doubles.
The SoCal 80s featured the most recent two ITF world singles champions in Roz King and Dori DeVries (who boomerangs between NorCal and SoCal yearly).
Cathie Anderson and Suella Steel anchored the 75s team and were half of the silver medal winning Queens Cup team in Umag in September.
Thanks to the Sandiegotennis instagram account for the photos. The 75s are on the left below.
The Barcelona tournament came to an end yesterday, with finals played in most divisions followed by an awards ceremony.
I won my singles over Carmen Chilleda from Madrid and was successful. The tournament had pretty glass trophies to go with prize money for the winners and losing finalists. For doubles three was a trophy.
I watched Heide Orth play Michelle Bichon (Bichon won) with Ellen and Lutz Neumann, then packed to get ready for an early flight to Bordeaux where I play Monday.
Today was a mellow day. I warmed up, practiced with Heide Orth for an hour at 11:30, iced, stretched, washed clothes in the sink (I am going to hug my washing machine when I get home), and took the subway to El Cortez Inges for some fruit and chocolate. Then after a late lunch it was time to warm up again and play my 6pm semifinal, which I won 61 60 over Mireia De Gispert Talavera (she said to call her Mary). Not an exciting day but a nice one.
After my match, I scouted my potential opponents who ended up playing three sets, and saw the end of my doubles partner’s match. Kerry Ballard won 61 61 but the rallies were tough. My opponent is the woman at the far end in this photo.
There are a few Americans here…I spotted Polo Cowan and Daniel Grossman, who play in the 50s and Grossman also plays in the 65s with Andrew Rae at times.
Julie Dybendahl, an Aussie who lives in the USA is here too.
One thing nice about this tournament is that people come out in the evenings to watch matches and have a bite to eat from one of the food truck’s in the courtyard area outside the tournament office. So it’s a good chance to see other players and have a chat.
Kerry and I play two Austrians tomorrow for the doubles title and we play our respective singles finals Saturday.
Today was another warm, sunny day in Essen, and I finally played my first match. I played Eldeltraut Horstmann from Germany, a steady, quick lefty. However, she didn’t take any volleys or overheads in warm up…and approached the net only to retrieve drop shots. We had some good rallies, but I managed to win most of them, and after dropping the opening game won 61 60. We played on Center Court before one fan (hundreds of empty seats…must have been roaming the grounds instead of watching us!).
Jenny Cerff had the match of the day. She played Jutta Boekmann who is a member of the German Marble Cup team this year. She has a nice drop shot and a very good backhand. Jenny said she made too many errors in the first set but was on track in the second, on serve and finally broke to go up 65…then she started cramping. That was just as I finished my match (we started about 40 minutes later than Jenny). I could see she was having some issues but she still managed to win the 2nd set 76 (5). The third set was tough to watch since Jenny kept cramping, but she didn’t stop, fought till the end and lost 62 in the third. She plays consolation now at 9am…fast turnaround after a long match.
In the women’s 65s, Heide Eisterlehner plays Nora Blom in the final in a battle of two former world champions. Heide Orth is in the 75 semis in singles and doubles. I had a nice visit with all of them…Heide and Heidi are shown below.
And below are some words for the day, courtesy of the wall of the Mercure Hotel (which has one of these pairs on each floor in the stairwell).
Jenny Cerff and I had a good practice this morning at the ETUF club. The weather has been quite nice, with highs in the low 80s and lows in the upper 50s-low 60s, and a slight breezes, perfect for tennis. Sabine, the TD took a few photos of us from the club balcony overlooking the courts.
The draws are out and I play a good German player on Tuesday afternoon. The draw is below.
After about a two hour workout, I had a massage and Jenny had lunch, then we hit the Edeka to get ice (no ice at the club at all that we could find), and got back to the hotel. We went out wandering on foot to and Aldi market and then to a DM (something like a small Walgreen’s with organic snacks and no Snickers bars) where I got Saptil, my favorite travel laundry soap…though I did just find out there are laundromats nearby, so finding and using one may be another day’s adventure. We passed a lot of bakeries, which had some really tasty looking treats, but managed to resist. We figured out what this parking sign meant…pay parking.
Most of the stores we’ve been frequenting don’t take Visa, MasterCard or AmEx. They do accept some cards, but not those. So be prepared to use cash at Penny Market or Edeka.
This pretty church is next to our hotel, wedged between two modern buildings.
We are practicing very early tomorrow before going to Dusseldorf for the day to watch a German league match. More on that tomorrow (or more likely on Sunday).
The National Women’s Hard Courts continued on Wednesday, which was quarterfinal day for the women’s 50 & 60s. There were lots of long matches, great matches and a few upsets too.
Betty Wachob won another grueling match today over Gwenda Ward, 61 57 76 (5)…the same score by which she beat Carolann Castell the day before. Luckily though her doubles was shorter…she combined with Brenda Carter to advance quickly to the semis.
Shannon Gordon-Carney also won a three+ hour singles, upsetting #4 seeded Colleen Clery Ferrell, a local tennis director and fan favorite, 46 62 64. Her doubles though was also long and grueling, lasting over three hours against Clery Ferrell and Beach Club member Una Davis. Colleen and Una won it 67 (6) 63 64, finishing around 8:30 pm under lights. Colleen/Una had multiple set points in the first set before succumbing in the tiebreak and fought hard to win the second…points were lasting 10, 20, 30 shots even though Una and Colleen were at the net more often than not. Cindy Abel, Shannon’s partner, was just returning to national play after a long absence but was lobbing and moving as well as ever and Shannon, who played at UCLA, is a fine doubles player. The match was played in great spirit before an engaged crowd on Court 1.
