USA won the Perry (men’s 50), Connolly (women’s 55) and Court (women’s 45) Cups.
The USA finished 3rd in the women’s 40’s (Young Cup) and 2nd in the women’s 50’s (Bueno Cup)
In the Perry Cup, the USA team had to play the deciding doubles match today because the tie was halted yesterday due to darkness. The USA won that match against Austria, then won both singles against Germany to win the Fred Perry Cup behind the singles play today of Peter Markes and Val Wilder.
In the Court Cup, Mariana Hollman beat Barbora Koutna at #2 singles in three sets, 60 in the third, and Gretchen Magers cleaned up at #1 singles, beating Eva Zalabska 60 61.
The Connolly Cup: From captain Martha Downing: "Today we beat Spain for the Maureen Connolly Cup victory. Joanne won easily
again at #2…the only exciting thing was the wind…was so strong (more than
36 k {over 20 mph} at times), that one of Joanne’s opponent’s serves bounced 2 times before
Joanne could get to it . Joanne’s game is so solid…deep groundies, attacking
volleys, etc…just a shame she was not seeded at the Individuals, as I think
she will win the whole thing. Tina also had her "A" game today & won easily.
Mary & I won 6-2, 6-0." Also, check out Joanne’s blog on USTA.com and USTAflorida.com.
The Bueno Cup: We lost a tough one today 2-1. It was sooooo windy. Chairs were flying around when Marianne and I hit at 7:45 am…and the wind only got worse, seemed a lot stronger than the 36kmh that Martha mentions, seemed more like gusts to 36 MPH! It was difficult to get a good strike at the ball and Anthea Stewart, Susan’s opponent, moved well, kept the ball really deep and counterpunched well, lofting balls that on a less windy day would be easier to hit out of the air, or that on a faster court would not be lofted back at all. Anthea did a good job of controlling the play by using the wind and keeping the ball deep and forcing errors or waiting for errors. Susan played a lot of long points patiently waiting for her chance to attack, only to have the wind play havoc with the ball.
Diane followed Susan and it was still super windy. She played last year’s world championship singles finalist from the 45s, Christine French and again, it was punch vs counter punch. Chris showed off an excellent dropshot and and excellent follow up to the dropshot (one of those pesky lobs). She also moved very well. When Chris got behind in the 2nd set she started serving better and didn’t miss more than a smattering of balls. She played a very good clay court wind match and Diane played a courageous 2nd set, hitting a lot of balls on or close to the line, going for her shots and making a lot of them in a pressure situation.
Marianne and I played the #3 and #4 Brittish players, Sue Bartlett (from Tennessee!) and Leona. We won 61 36 64. We were up 3-0 in the 3rd, played a sloppy game, the Brits were reenergized, tied us at 3-3, whereupon Marianne played a superb game, and that changed the momentum back to us. It was the first time I ever played a match in dark glasses…it was very sunny and windy, and I had clear and dark glasses…had to wear one or the other since my eyes otherwise would bother me too much (clay court dust plus hard contacts = disaster). Anyway, they worked and we earned our consolation point.
The men’s 55, Austria Cup and men’s 40, Trabert Cup, finished 5th. Hunter Galloway and Richard Schmidt played singles the last 2 days for the Trabert Cup team and doubles went unplayed both days.
USA beat Argentina today in the Italia Cup to finish 7th out of 24 teams.
The USA Dubler Cup team beat the #4 seeds, Gr Britain today to finish 7th out of 24 teams.
The USA Lenglen Cup team finished 11th, beating Austria today 2-0; Amy Alcini and Julie Cass won their singles matches. There were 16 teams.
I will post photos soon time permitting. Tomorrow I go to Font de sa Cala…don’t know what the internet access will be there but it should be available near the courts.