I am writing this after 11pm and it’s starting to get dark…dawn will happen before 3am! Hard to figure out when to sleep, fortunately our practice tomorrow is late in the day.

Today the Alice Marble Cup was playing the semis; the USA played Germany and Great Britain played France. I decided to take the public bus to the club because we had the “early” warm up at 1:30 and wanted to get there earlier than 1:20pm when the official bus arrived. Plus it was semifinal day and I was antsy to play! So I got to the bus stop and voila! the bus arrived. After making sure it was the right bus I hopped on. However I really wasn’t sure of the stop..it was the 18th or 19th stop and I lost track. I finally decided it was long enough on the bus and asked the driver if I was near the tennis center. Fortunately I was only 1km away, about 1/2 mile and successfully found the club, even though I got off at the wrong stop. Whew! Hopefully I’ll do better tomorrow.

My team, the USA Alice Marble Cup team advanced to the final with a 3/0 win over Germany today. I played Margaret Beyer, a friend of mine…we’ve played in tournaments, practiced together and played doubles together, but have never played each other in a Cup match till today. I played  well and won 60 60 but we had many long points and I ran a lot. I’m getting used to the indoor conditions I think. Tina then took the court for the #1 singles match against Katrin Dippner and won 64 60 to put the USA into the final against France. France upset Great Britain, winning both singles matches. Last year France nearly upset GBR, splitting the singles and leading 41 in the third before GBR turned the doubles match around and won the tie. This year GBR dropped the #2 singles match 63 64 and Frances Candy was trailing at #1 singles 61 50 when she had to retire with an injury. Then GBR won the doubles point in straight sets. The final is Friday; we have the day off and are practicing late in the day.

The men’s 60s had a tougher road to the final, dropping the #2 singles against France before Danny Waldman won at #1 singles and combined with Paul Wulf to win the doubles point. All the matches were won or lost in straight sets. Paul and Danny were down 2/0 in the second set though, but rallied to win it 64.

In the 50s, the USA dropped the #2 singles match for the second time but Mitch Perkins won at #1 singles when Chris Hearn retired down 63 52. Ken White and Doug Elly won the doubles point in straight sets to advance to the semis. USA plays top seeded Italy tomorrow at 9am.

The USA women’s 55 team, the Connolly Cup team, fell 2/1 today to Australia. Susan Wright won at #2 over Leanne Swaysland in straight sets. Then the #1 singles match between Diane Barker and Ros Balodis took center stage. Ros is the current world champion; Diane won in 2013 and 2012 (six times in all). Susan said even though the score was 61 in the first it was only a couple of points that separated the winner from the loser and that it was the best women’s senior match she’d seen. She said Diane had to hit seven winners in one point to actually win it! Ros won 62 76 (5). That put it down to the doubles. Ros and Leanne beat Cindy Johnson/Vicki Buholz 61 76 (5). Cindy commented that Ros was amazing and did not let her do what she wanted to do on the court.

Tomorrow the USA men’s and women’s 50 & 55s teams are in action in the semis (W50, M50, 55) and the women’s 55 plays for third.

For more information click here: https://seniortennisblog.com/2016/02/03/usa-2016-senior-teams-finland/