September 19, 2018
San Diego, California, USA
The USA reached the final of all four women’s events in the ITF Super Senior World Team Championships in Umag, Croatia for the second straight year. In 2017 the women went four for four in the finals. However, three of the four teams had to win the doubles to advance today.
On the men’s side, the men’s 65 and 75s have reached the semis while the 80s are in the final and the 85s have won the three matches they have played.
The Godfree (W65) team beat Great Britain 3/0 without any trouble. Wendy McColskey and Karwasky won the singles points and Judy Dixon/Vicky McEvoy won the doubles. The team is now in the final.
The women’s Althea Gibson (W70) team had a tough time with the German team today. Molly Hahn fell at #2 singles but Brenda Carter won in straight sets at #1 and Carter/Betty Wachob took the doubles point (with Liane Bryson coaching). The USA is now in the final.
The Queens (W75) beat France 2/1. Cathie Anderson at #2 singles was a wall; Suella Steel lost at #1 singles to Michelle Bichon (a former Olympian in javelin…her serve and movement are remarkable); but Charleen Hillebrand/Steel won the doubles convincingly 62 61. The team is in a 3-team round robin group and needs to win one more match to seal the gold.
The Doris Hart (W80) team also won 2/1, over #2 seeded Canada. Burnett Herrick won easily at #1; Roz King lost to 2017 World Champion Inge Weber, but Carol Wood/Dori DeVries point handily to advance the team to the final.
The Britannia (M65) team beat Netherlands 3/0 to advance to the semis. Tom Smith and Dave Sivertson again played the singles while Paul Wulf/Len Wofford won the doubles. Photos below courtesy of M65 spouses; collage made my me.
The Jack Crawford (M70) team, playing in the 9-16 group, beat So Africa 3/0 to advance to the 9-12 playoff group. Geoff Moore won in three sets at #2 singles; Brent Abel won at #1 singles and Don Clark/Laury Hammel scored their first win, taking the doubles point 10-6 in the match tiebreak. Photo courtesy of Don Clark.
The Bitsy Grant (M75) team beat Germany 3/0. Don Long at #2 won in three sets; Jimmy Parker at #1 and Fred Drilling/Michael Stewart in doubles dropped only four games in those two matches. They are now in the semis.
The Gardnar Mulloy (M80) team continued its domination, beating Argentina 3/0, with the loss of only nine games, only four of which were in singles! Lester Sack and Kaz Saito won the singles while Jerald Hayes/Lloyd Goldwater took the doubles point. The team has advanced to the final.
Matches on center court are being streamed here: http://Htsv.hr/live-stream. Matches start at 9am CET (GMT +2).
Please click on the following links below to view the draws and order of play for the 2018 ITF Super-Seniors World Team Championships.