Panhandle Tennis Blog: Local, International Tournament Results, More

Weaver Wins Girls’ 16s at Delray Beach Level 4

Elena Weaver (right), Nina Gulbransen

Pace’s Elena Weaver, the #1 seed, defeated #8 seed Nina Gulbransen of Boca Raton 6-3, 7-5 to win the Girls’ 16 singles at the USTA Florida Level 4 Summer Smash Championships held Sept. 3-5, 2016 at several sites in the Delray Beach area.

Most of Weaver’s matches were played at the Broken Sound Country Club. Weaver didn’t lose a set in her five matches over the rainy weekend.

Other area players that participated at Delray Beach included Gulf Breeze’s Caraline Scheufler in the Girls’ 16s and Pensacola’s Patrick Ling and Justin Lyons in the Boys’ 12s.

Lyons reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-3 upset of 8^th seeded Robert Acosta of Miami. Lyon’s lost his quarterfinal match 6-3, 6-1 to #2 seed Yannik Rahman of Miami.

Ling also won a match in the Boys 12.

Dog Harmony Fundraiser at Hidden Dunes

The Hidden Dunes Tennis Center hosted Racquets and Rescues benefiting Dog Harmony on Sept. 17, 2016 at their beautiful clay courts.

Players were supposed to participate in clinics and a round robin but instead enjoyed food and spirits from the clubhouse and watched it rain. A silent auction provided attendees more opportunities to donate to Dog Harmony. All in all it was a good day as the event raised nearly $4,000 for Dog Harmony.

The sponsors for this event included Resort Quest, Grayton Beer, Hooters and Hidden Beach & Tennis Resort.

For more information Dog Harmony go to http://dog-harmony.org.

Wachob Represents the Panhandle and the USA on World Super-Senior Cup Team for Women’s 70s

Panama City’s Betty Wachob joined Charleston, S.C.’s Brenda Carter; Del Mar, Calif.’s Cathy Anderson; and Oak Bluffs, Mass.’ Susan Kimball on the USA’s Althea Gibson Cup at the World Super-Senior Team Championships, held Sept. 12-17, 2016 in Umag, Croatia.

Twelve teams from around the world were divided into four Groups for round robin play. The USA was put in Group D along with Great Britain and Canada.

Top seeded Britain for Group D defeated the USA 2-1 with Wachob dropping two very close matches 7-6, 6-3 and with Brenda Carter 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in doubles. The USA’s second match in the Group D round robin was a 3-0 defeat of Canada. Wachob and partner Susan Kimball won their match 6-1, 6-0.

The USA’s 1-1 record put them into the 5^th to 8^th play-off bracket. The USA’s next opponent was a very tough French team led by Gail Benedetti, #1 on France’s team.  During Gail’s professional career she won the French Open in doubles four times. She also reached the semifinals in doubles two times each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open as well as reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open in singles. France downed the USA 2-1. Wachob lost 6-4, 6-2 in singles.

Finally, the USA played Austria for 7^th and 8^th place. Wachob won her match in straight sets on a blustery day before the rain postponed the rest of the matches for a day. The team finished off Austria 3-0 on the next day.

The quality of players at these world championships is really remarkable. Players in the Super-Senior team competition participated in Men’s 65, 70 and 75 while the women fielded 65, 70, 75 and 80 teams.

Following the team competition, the World Individual Championships were held in Umag on Sept. 18-25, 2016. Wachob, however, returned to the U.S. to play in the USTA National Women’s 70 Indoor Championships held Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2016 in Vancouver, Wash.

Congratulations Betty for earning a spot on the USA team again and representing the USA and Florida’s Panhandle so well.

126 Participate in 2016 Rosemary Beach NTRP Classic

The Rosemary Beach NTRP Classic was held Sept. 23-25, 2016 at the Rosemary Beach Racquet Club in Rosemary Beach, Fla. The largest NTRP tournament west of Tallahassee drew 126 players to 16 events this year. And it seems that with the number of three set matches, no one was cheating on their rating!

Despite a little rain action on Sunday afternoon the tourney was completed on time.

Rosemary Beach’s Summer Kitchen Cafe and Restaurant provide great food all weekend. Plenty of soft drinks, water and beverages were also provided to the players as well as the really nice Rosemary Beach dri-fit t-shirt.

The Men’s 4.0 singles and doubles were the largest draws with 16 players and 14 teams respectively.

Area winners included:

Singles

M3.5 Byron Cotton (Shalimar); M4.5 Todd Van Dam (Niceville); W2.5 Kathryn Beiswanger (Panama City); W 3.5 Brittany Rebolledo (Panama City Beach).

Mixed Doubles

7.0  Thao Nguyen/Hai Tran (Panama City Beach); 8.0  Blair Crooke/Shaner Garner-Crooke (Gulf Breeze); 9.0  Lauren Haack (Navarre)/Lubo Kaderjak (Ft. Walton Beach)

Men’s Doubles

5.0 Mike Clark (Santa Rosa Beach)/Ben White (Shalimar)

Women’s Doubles

3.0 Beiswanger/Vanessa Ramos (Lynn Haven);  3.5 Wendy Cleveland (Santa Rosa Beach)/Memori Spence (Panama City Beach); 4.0 Lisa Bew (Gulf Breeze)/Angela Stewart (Navarre).

Smith Wins Girls’ 16s in California

Annalisa Smith (left), Cassidy Wechter

Unseeded Annalisa Smith from Pensacola defeated top-seeded Cassidy Wechter, La Jolla, Calif., 6-3, 6-3 to win the Girls 16s singles at the 3^rd Annual Coronado Nick Shultz Memorial Junior Open held Sept. 23-25, 2016 in Coronado, Calif.

Smith downed #2 seed Catherine Murray of Sand Diego 6-0, 6-1 in the second round of the 16 draw field.

Two hundred seven players participated in the event including Annalisa’s older brother, Gordon, who played in the Boys’ 18s.

Both the Smiths did a great job in representing the Panhandle and Florida.