Link to tournament results and draws.

Austin, Monday May 27

Memorial Day was finally a day with no rain in Austin, I played my 50 and 55 doubles finals back to back with no delay, and both matches were competitive and fun. Teal’s foot and ankle which she sprained playing me yesterday bothered her but she played really well. Our opponents tried targeting her at net which did not work and as the match went on we got the upper hand with her volleys and my lobs.

Heidi and I had a close first set but wore down our opponents in the second set, with Heidi’s great low cross court forehands setting me up often, and I got some good lobs and a few poaches in too.

In other divisions, Val Wilder won the 50s in a comeback from an Achilles injury, Peter Makes won the 55 singles, and Jerry Thomas upset Hugh Burris to take the 65 singles title. Anna Zimmermann and Shelly Works won the 45 doubles, Kathy Langer won the 75 singes and Margaret Canby won the 80 singles and doubles (with Cofer). Julie Cass fell to Nancy Hilliard but won the 40 doubles (I think..it was a three way tie but Cass/Bowes lost the fewest number of sets). Barbara Hubbard from Hawaii, edged her doubles partner, Janet Watanabe in a match tiebreak 12-10 to win the 65s.

Many thanks to the Westwood members, And to Frank Kelly and Larry Eichenbaum for rallowing us to use the beautiful club and for running a nice tournament.

Austin, TX, May 26, 2013, Sunday

The Super Cat II here in Austin started on the 23rd of May, Thursday and concludes tomorrow. This annual event is huge for Texas players and drew players from Hawaii to South Carolina too. I arrived on Thursday in Austin and practiced on Friday morning with Nora Zainal from Colorado. She thought our hitting session was a bit long but after it started raining mid-afternoon on Friday and kept going pretty much till after 2pm on Saturday. On Friday, lightning struck some transformers and we saw a big arc and then the lights went out. I was scheduled to play 50 doubles on Friday with Heidi Gerger from Houston but that didn’t happen. Play was cancelled around 4pm for the day. Saturday it started raining again, hard, early, and I finally got on court for my 9:30 am singles match at 5pm. I won and was told that I definitely wouldn’t play 55 doubles, with Teal Lang before 10pm; (Heidi and I received a default in 50 doubles, normally not something to cheer about, but we weren’t unhappy given the weather). I went and had a little dinner…fortunately not too much as we were called to court at 8:30, minutes after I’d finished eating! We played under the lights…which were decent but not the same as daylight. Teal and I won our doubles and Teal then had mixed…she later told me they finished mixed at 1am!

Today there was a rain delay too but it was relatively brief. I beat Teal in singles; actually at 1-0 in the 2nd I hit a dropshot (I know, shocking shot selection), and Teal ran for it, missed it or tipped it and then stepped on the ball she was running for and sprained her ankle. She continued (but didn’t run for drop shots) and after the match (I won), had it treated…lots of ice and it was taped before our doubles. I had barely finished reporting scores when Heidi and I were called for our doubles. We weren’t quite alert early on and lost the first 3 games, but recovered to win 64 61 and I poached a lot too. Heidi is solid in the back court and has a nice volley too. We play the final tomorrow. I had a break after doubles before Teal and I were to play but we still got on early (we were scheduled for 6:30) and beat two very nice ladies from St. Louis. We play the final tomorrow.

This is a nice tournament…there is a barbecue on Saturday and today there were snacks and more importantly to many, a keg of beer on ice available to players. Larry Eichenbaum is the referee and Frank Kelly the TD and they stayed very calm under the pressure of rescheduling the matches and updated the website frequently. The only thing missing is scorecards on the courts to monitor the progress of multiple matches.

Doubles tomorrow is at 9am (55) and 10:30 (50), then a plane to catch.

Photos below of the rain and of Kathy Langer with the tournament t-shirt.