The USA Women’s 45s team won another indoor match, this one over host Japan. Japan upset top seeded France in the quarters while the USA beat a tough So Korea team.
The match was live streamed and I watched a bit of Hiromi Sasano’s match at #2 and Julie Thu’s match at #1 singles.
Hiromi started a bit slowly, going down 3-1 but only dropped one more game in winning the #2 singles point 64 60. Hiromi plays with an unusual racquet, which has two handles. She teaches at the Balboa Tennis Club in San Diego, and has three children, two boys who play tennis and a younger daughter who is just learning. She’s a native of Japan.
Julie Thu won 62 61 at #1 singles. I watched a lot of that match. The match was a bit closer than the score would indicate, with several deuce games at the start of the second set. Julie’s opponent had patterns she liked, particularly hitting deep then using a short angle or dropshot. However Julie is super fast (and fit) and won every dropshot point I saw…but that didn’t stop the Japanese #1 Hashimoto from continuing to try and earn points from drops. The points were often long but Julie makes very few mistakes, using two hands on both sides (but serving lefty).
The USA now plays Germany, a 2/0 winner over Great Britain (the #1 singles match appears to have been a long battle, 75 in the third to Germany).
Since the matches are being played indoors where I assume court space is limited, the doubles was not played, but Francesca La O and Julia Dimitrov were cheering (and various team members were coaching) during the tie.
The Men’s 45 team, playing in the 15-17 group, beat Estonia 2/0 today. Trent Miller at #2 and Ross Duncan at #1 won in straight sets.