Miami Women Take Doubles Title at USTA 50 & Over NTRP National Tennis Championships

From left: Miami’s Raegan Hanson and Jennifer Quinton

A pair of Florida women raised the doubles championship trophy, while a men’s team finished runner-up and two singles players were also runners-up at the inaugural USTA NTRP 50 & Over National Championships, held at the Academia Sanchez Casal on April 20-22, 2018, in Naples, Fla.

The new national tournament leverages the NTRP rating system as a way to create level-based competition at the 50 & Over 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5 levels. For more information on the NTRP rating system click here.

Miami’s Jennifer Quinton and Raegan Hanson won the Women’s 50 & Over 3.5 doubles division, in the 1st-4th playoff rounds defeating USTA Mid-Atlantic’s Norma Mendelson/Laleh Mosavat 4-1, 3-4, 4-2, USTA Southern California’s Char Geary/Terri Norman 4-2, 4-0, and USTA Mid-Atlantic’s Andrea Motley/Mia Piansay 4-2, 4-1 in the tournament’s FAST4 scoring format.

Finishing runner-up were Juno Beach’s Jeff Rossi, who fell to USTA Intermountain’s Tony Beaujon 4-1, 4-2 in the Men’s 50 & Over 4.0 singles final, and Naples’ Ellen Hermannson who lost to USTA Middle States’ Hilary Noden 4-1, 4-0 in the Women’s 50 & Over 3.5 singles final.

Also runner-up were the Fort Myers/Estero tandem of Gary Schaum/Ralph Oswald in the Men’s 50 & Over 3.5 doubles final. They won their first two matches in the 1st-4th round robin playoff, defeating USTA Texas’ James Polkinghorn/Danny Walker 4-0, 4-0, and USTA Southern’s James Edwards/Jack Jernigan 4-2, 4-1, but were tripped up in the final round by USTA Mid-Atlantic’s Donald Crawley/Emad Nekoo after winning the first set, 0-4, 4-2, 4-2.

Division draws featured 32 singles or 32 teams for doubles. Order of finish in four-player round robin draws determined where players were placed in compass draws. The scoring format was best-of-three FAST4 sets with no-ad scoring and a tiebreak at 3-all (first to 5 points, win by 1 point).

For full results from the NTRP 50 & Over National Championships go to https://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=212074#&&s=0.