Monday update from Belek: The USA men’s 55 (Austria) Cup team won; the USA men’s 45 (Dubler) Cup team won and the women’s 45 (Court) Cup team did not play.
Tuesday update from Manavgat:
Men’s 35, Italia Cup: USA beat Romania 3-0, dropping only the first game played during the day and winning a golden set in doubles.
The men’s 40, Trabert Cup, beat Australia, with Martin Barba winning at #1 singles and Rick Leach at #2 singles and Rick Kepler/Gil Schluerholz taking the doubles point.
The men’s 50, Perry Cup, also played Turkey and won 3-0. Tom Smith played #2 singles; Chris Bennett played #1 singles and Ross Persons/Sal Castillo played doubles.
The women’s 35s, Suzanne Lenglen Cup, won 2-1 over Netherlands. Carolyn Wei played #2 singles and lost; Jessica Schlotterback played #1 singles and Julie Cass/Michelle King won the doubles point. The latter 2 matches were won in straight sets. They are off today, then play Spain and Germany to complete their round robin. Both matches will be tough.
The women’s 40, Young Cup, won 3-0 against Turkey. Rhona Kaczmarczyk and Mariana Hollman played singles and Ellen Markowitz/Gretchen Magers played doubles. The team they lost to yesterday, So Africa, lost to Spain 3-0 today. USA plays Spain tomorrow to determine which of So Africa, Spain and USA advances to the semis. Spain lost one set, at #1 singles.
The women’s 50, Bueno Cup, won 3-0 against Slovenia and didn’t drop a game in 3 matches. Susan Wright played #2 singles, Diane Fishburne played #1 singles and Robin Harris/Carolyn Nichols played doubles. Tomorrow we play Netherlands, then have an off day Thursday.
The women’s 55, Connolly Cup, won 3-0 against…you guess it, Turkey. Mary Ginnard played #2 singles, Tina Karwasky played #1 singles and Kathy Barnes/Kathy Bennett played doubles. Tomorrow they play Ireland, then have an off day on Thursday.
The weather today was great, much better than yesterday, which was too windy. I’ll try and upload some photos tomorrow of play…not much time here to do that. Our team, Bueno Cup, plays starting at 9, the 55s start at 10; the 40s at 11 and the 35s at 1:30, so there’s a team to watch play all day long. The 35s didin’t finish till after 6pm…and we started our practice at 7am!
The courts here are red clay and every morning, starting at dawn, there are workers out rolling the courts by hand, then after warm up before matches, they are swept and the lines done. There are over 60 courts here and a lot of activity…this event plus juniors training, and tourists taking lessons and playing. They are building more courts too, for next year’s event and they also host events such as zonal Fed Cup.
More tomorrow, if you have questions, email me.