Special to Senior Tennis Blog by Alissa Finerman

Team USA women’s 45 showed up ready to play against France for the Margaret Court Cup Finals at the Polo Club in Boca Raton. We were assigned to center court and we had a good crowd watching for each match. The weather all week was hot and humid and today was no different. Jenny Klitch from Florida played #2 singles against Marie-Dominique Larras from France. Although it was a hard fought and long first set France won the match 7-5 6-2 in just over 2 hours.

Our #1 singles player Jolene Watanabe, from South Carolina, played a very tough match and executed her shots incredibly well against Virginie Buisson. Jolene needed almost 2 1/2 hours to win the match in two very close sets 7-5 7-5 and even the overall match score at 1-1.

It was time for a doubles showdown to add even more excitement to an already great day of tennis. Jolene was feeling strong after her singles win and teamed up with doubles specialist Alissa Finerman, from California, to win the doubles point for team USA. Alissa and Jolene started off strong and broke France’s serve to take an early lead 1-0. They never looked back and won the first set 6-0. They closed out the match by breaking serve again and winning the second set 6-3.

Shelly Works, Texas,  was a supportive, wonderful captain all day, sitting on the court in the sun for both long singles matches before Jenny Klitch relieved her for the doubles match and was extremely helpful to us in the doubles, both with strategy and with helping to keep our intensity up.

The USA last won the Court Cup in 2010 in Mexico City.

The medal ceremony is today at the conclusion of the men’s 45 (Dubler Cup final, featuring the USA) final.

It was a very special day and we are incredibly grateful for all the support during the week. Go USA!