Day 8: USA v Germany…Final matches
Today’s recap will be short and sweet!
Our final match turned out to be our easiest. (Especially for me, since I didn’t play.) Tom started us off and cruised through his singles with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.
His win was followed by Bill’s solid win over his opponent 6-2, 6-2 at #1 singles.
While it wasn’t necessary to play, since we had already clinched our victory, Tom & Ken wanted to play the doubles to get one more match in. They clinched the sweep for USA: Doubles 6-1, 6-1.
In other team news, our now “arch-nemesis” Italy won the Fred Perry Cup Championship this year (dang Italians!!!) If you’d like to read the ITF article, here is the link: http://www.itftennis.com/seniors/news/articles/italians-take-late-victory-in-fred-perry-cup.aspx
We spent the remainder of the day rooting on the rest of the US teams that were still battling for the title. Women’s 55’s team won easily…they are nearly unbeatable. Men’s 55’s lost the final match to Great Britain under the lights. The Dubler Cup team played their final match on center court, it was an amazing match to see. There were two match points for Mario Tabares in his singles match, he ended up losing his second set in an intense tie-break and then lost the 3rd set. Jeff Tarango was also defeated in his match. France wins the gold, USA takes the silver. The only other US team to bring home the gold was our Women’s 50s, who beat France in a dramatic third match win in the final. Congratulations, USA – well played! Hopefully the success will be a bit more wide spread next year. For all results, you can go here: http://itfseniors.tournamentsoftware.com/
Great team effort all around, I’m proud of all our players, this has been one of the most fun teams I’ve been on to date. We were all a bit disappointed, but it truly came down to just a few points. Like I tell everybody, you win some, you lose some!
Individuals start tomorrow…I have a bye today, so after watching my (now former) teammates matches and my opponents for tomorrow’s match, we will take in a few sites this afternoon. Stay tuned for a whole new tournament which starts now!
