World Championships Day 5: I Played (and Won) a Singles Match

Wednesday August 14

Lisbon, Portugal

9pm update: Diane/Jack Barker upset the top seeds, Mark Pepin/Julie Fiedler in straight sets to advance to the quarters; Vicki Buholz won her mixed; Danny Waldman/Norbert Henn lost in doubles. (Danny played 12 sets in the last two days of the team competition!). Ross Persons won his doubles; Polo Cowan/Dan Grossman won their 55 doubles match. Alumbaugh/Scott Works advanced in 55 doubles as well.

It was a warm, sunny, breezy day in Lisbon. I got to the courts early to warm up with Jenny Klitch and Tracey Thompson joined us too. It was a great warm up. I was scheduled for not before noon on Center Court. The first match of the day took nearly three hours though, but Mark Vines of the USA played the second match and won in about an hour. We got on court around 1:45 or so. The court played well, though they wind swirled a bit and the sun on one end was pretty brutal for serving. I played Great Britain’s Hazel Lindfield, a nice player with an all court game and excellent, consistent first and second serve. I won 60 62 but the second set was closer than the score would indicate. I’m in the quarterfinals and play Leanne Scott from Australia.

Carolyn & Hazel

Action photos from Jenny Cerff’s IPad

Susan Wright beat another Australian, Rosemary Everett handily. Then she went to scout her next opponent…the only problem being that her next opponent had played at 9am and finished before Susan began her match. She inadvertently scouted my next opponent and Diane Barker’s though. Diane played at 9am and was done before 10, beating Jenny Chin from Gr. Britain. Diane plays Fiona Walker from Australia and Susan play Poliakova from Russia. The top three seeds are Diane, Susan and me; Betty Michel of France is the 4th seed and played the other American in the draw, #12 seeded Tracey Thompson. Thompson, who has played sparingly the last two years (but watch out, she’s retired now and ready to compete more), got out of the gates quickly (maybe it was the good warm up?), surprising Michel with her power and won it 64. Michel though fought back and won the last two sets 62 61 to reach the quarters.

Mark Vines, M60 is into the quarters. Danny Waldman though fell to Glenn Busby. The first set took nearly two hours and featured momentum shifts galore. Danny was down 3/0; leveled and eventually served for the set at 65 and was broken; Glenn led 63 in the breaker only to have Danny level and get a set point of his own before Glenn prevailed 76 and then won the second set 61. It was a high quality match for much of it, those guys really smack the ball. Mark Vines also advanced to the doubles quarters with Busby.

Busby v Waldman

Jenny Klitch, W50, is into the semis beating Spaniard Leticia Almirall in straight sets.

Vicki Buholz, W55, lost to top seeded Van Baarle 60 62. It’s no mean feat getting two games off of Van Baarle on clay!

A day after Willie Alumbaugh upset the #2 seed, he fell to Italian Raffaello Putti 63 63. It’s never good to play a Rafa on clay.

Robin Harris and Ross Persons won their mixed match by default. We were sorry for the injury one of their opponents had but happy that we didn’t have to stay for Robin’s 7pm mixed match!

Jenny Cerff left her cell phone in an Uber and we have not yet retrieved it. The driver’s name was Gabriella and she answered the first time we called and said she found it…but has ghosted us ever since. Uber, find our phone! We’ve messaged you many times but so far no traction on that. We now take a screen shot of the license plates of all Ubers which pick us up. I lost my metal water bottle in one, but that’s nothing compared to a cell phone.