Austin, Texas, USA
Click here to see draws, schedule and results.
I played the 65 singles final and 50 doubles final today and both went well. I beat Mary Morgan of Houston 62 61 and even served and volleyed and chipped and charged some! (1: Hard courts encourage that behavior; 2: Fast hard courts encourage it even more). Mary is one of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet (and very extroverted to boot). It was a pleasure to play the match.
Jenny Klitch beat Shelly Works in the 55 final 60 62 and played a terrific match, combining hard drives with superb drop shots all match long.
After our singles wins Jenny and I played 50 doubles against a good team from Kansas City (Victoria Marks and Theresa Lampe and Valerie Marks)…they beat Works/Rainy Miller yesterday. We won 64 76 (3) and it was a good, competitive match with many changes of strategy.
We play the 55 doubles final tomorrow against Miller/Works and Jenny plays the mixed final (which was rained out tonight) directly afterwards.
There were a lot of matches today…I saw a few since I was at the club from 7:30 am till 4pm. I also ran into some old friends…Hugh Thomson, Jerry and Marcia Thomas, Ellen and Tony Dawson, and others…it’s nice to see tournaments going again!
In men’s 50s, Eoin Collins (1), a former world champions, beat Todd Smith 62 62 to reach the final against Sean Staley, who took out #2 seed Garry Nadebaum. Collins used his impressive lefty groundstrokes to lead his march to victory.
In men’s 60s, Tim Klitch (2) (Jenny’s brother) beat David Luedtke (4) 63 61, using on the rise hitting and the apparently patented Klitch touch to advance. He faces Peter Markes who had an interesting match with Alex Behar. Alex injured his foot (plantar it seems) in the 2nd game and was hobbling around the court thereafter…but for a set he redlined his shots, limping to the ball and giving it a rip, and won the first set 62. It’s hard to play an injured player! The match was on serve at 2-3 in the second when there was a short rain delay…Peter didn’t drop a game thereafter, and took the second 62 at which point Alex retired.
The match of the day was the men’s 55 doubles final. Featuring the #1 (Scott Works/Kelly Ward) and #2 (Steve Schultz/Marc Weiner) seeds, the match had everything…tight score line (the top seeds winning the first set; the #2 seeds coming back from a break down to win the second, the third set culminating in a tiebreak), great serves/returns/volleys/touch, all played in front of an appreciative crowd on the center court. Schultz/Weiner won the match.
Works has a second chance for a title in the 50 doubles, with Nadebaum.
Kaysie Smashey won the 40s, Julie Thu the 45s and Nancy Hilliard the 50s…all are multiple time Cup members. Terri Thyssen took the 60s and Barbara Starnes took the 70s title.
In men’s tennis, many finals are still to be played, but Robert Barrie won the 65s, John Newman the 80s, and the remaining divisions either have finals tomorrow or the scores haven’t been reported.
In doubles, Mary Morgan/Terri Thyssen won the 60 doubles; Rush/Starnes took the 65s title.
Thu/Haggard won the mixed 40s; the remaining divisions were rained out Sunday night and will be played Monday.
Swenson/Foster won the men’s 65 doubles; Tommy Connell/Tony Dawson (on the comeback from a shoulder replacement!) took the 70 doubles; and the 75 and over doubles score was not reported yet.
