Today, Wednesday, I played the round of 16 against an American from Southern California, Kim Zebot. I’d played her only a few weeks ago for the bronze ball at the National Clay Courts in Houston, so i was familiar with her game. We played at Mirasol, convenient, since I am staying there for the week, and I’d played on the courts at Mirasol several times and like them. The venue was terrific, very hospitable and well organized. I won 61 62. Kim played a great first game of the second set and the second game lasted about 15 minutes…lots of deuces and I eventually won it. There are five Americans into the quarters in my age division, but since the top four seeds are the four Connolly Cup team members, it’s not too surprising. Susan, Tina Karwasky and Diane Barker advanced easily and Ann Pellow from California advanced to play Tina in the quarters. I also caught up with Erin Boynton from Canada (the tall woman) and Mary Firek and Yolanda Therrien from the USA.
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After my singles, Pam Cooke, and I watched Jenny Klitch from Palm Beach Gardens play a Brazilian player. Jenny is a very smart player with lots of experience and lots of variety of shot. She pulled out the match 61 75 playing at her home club. She did a lot of running in that match but was fitter and more consistent than her opponent.
Our next stop (after lunch) was BallenIsles Country Club where we went to watch and all-American match between Fran Chandler, the 4th seed in the 50s, from Tennessee and Shelly Works, from Texas. Both played on Cup teams, Fran on the Bueno Cup team (50s) and Shelly on the Court Cup team (45s) where she was the captain. Both are exemplary sportswomen and also extremely consistent players. It was very windy with a north/south wind which was difficult to penetrate from one end. Fran won 63 63 but it was tough. The last game was 20 minutes long (yes, I timed it) and it took Fran five match points to finish off a determined Shelly. In the end Fran had more variety of shot and was more comfortable moving on clay than Shelly.
There were a lot of great matches today, including Oren Motevassel (NorCal) vs Carlos Gomez-Diaz (Ft Lauderdale); Motevassel won a close one 75 64; Tracy Houk (NorCal) vs an Italian; Tracy played for three hours, rallying from a set down to win 16 61 75…she’ll sleep well tonight. Boyer also played again, Andy Lake was in action and so was Matt Litsky in doubles.
I play Chris French, the #2 British player (she upset Susan Wright during the team event, and is a tenacious competitor) tomorrow at 1:30 and we have doubles against a French/Dutch pair at 5pm, so I’m off to rest up. .
To see the draws, click here (and make sure you click on “order of play” which brings up another menu; click on “draws” on this second menu.
