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The Men’s 60s Team: Never in doubt (ha!) in their 2/1 win over Spain. The doubles report is taken mostly from Bill Moss’s (M60 team member)account of the action. Because the scores do not tell the whole story! Peter Smith won at #2 singles and Tom Coulton lost at #1 singles, both in unremarkable straight set matches. Then it was time for the decisive doubles. According to Bill, the American team (Polo Cowan and Smith) had two set points at 6-4 in the first set tiebreaker but lost the set 76; in the second set, the USA rallied from 2-4 down, forcing another tiebreaker..which USA won on a let cord which bounced twice on the net before rolling over. A match tiebreaker ensued and the USA rallied from 5-9 down to win 11-9…the Spanish team made no errors, Smith and Cowan hit winners and unreturnable serves to seal the win. According to Bill the match took three hours. USA takes on France today.
The Women’s 60s team beat Italy 3/0 yesterday; Fran Chandler won at #2 in three sets; Vicki Buholz won in straight sets at #1 to clinch to win and Christine Paulson/Gayle Prejean won the doubles point in a match tiebreak. They play a very tough German team in the final. Germany is the two-time defending champion, having beaten USA in the last two finals.
The Women’s 55 team won 3/0 over Spain in the semis. Julie Cass won 60 in the third and Debbie Nasim won 64 64. Ros Nideffer and Judy Newman clinched the sweep. They play Italy in the final.
The Men’s 55 team fell to Spain in as dramatic a tie as the one which took place in the 60s tie between the same countries. Dana Gill won a dramatic match at #2 singles 76(6) in the third. Oren Motevassel narrowly lost at #1 singles, 63 in the third. So it was down to the doubles, with Motevassel/Eoin Collins playing the match. Just as in the 60s, the first two sets were decided by tiebreaks, with the USA winning the first set and then dropping the second 8-6 in the tiebreak. The match tiebreak was won 10-7 by the Spaniards. The USA plays France in the 3/4 playoff today.
The Women’s 50s team had a late night marathon against Italy. They started not before 1pm and the deciding doubles match began at 9:15pm! Heather Waters lost at #2; Amanda Parson-Siegel won a marathon at #1 75 in the third and Parson-Siegel/Isabela Iantosca played doubles late into the night, split sets and lost the match tiebreak…Amanda must be in great shape because every match is a marathon and they are playing in high altitude! They play France for the bronze today.
The Men’s 50s team lost to France (Corrected, ITF has/hadthe wrong winner of the tie.) Sean Straley made a return to singles but fell short, Willie Dann won a tough 2-setter and France won the doubles point. USA play Argentina for fifth place Friday vs Portugal.