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Monday: It was a beautiful day in Houston and play began in the 45, 55, 65 and 75's. There were no upsets, but there were several 3 set matches.
Tuesday: There was one upset in the 55's, Betty Wachob ousted the 5th seed, Charleen Hillebrand in the round of 16. She faces Anne Guerrant next.
In the 45's, in minor upsets, Suzanne Siegler beat Debbie Burgess and Janet Mosely beat Sheila Chiricosta. Burgess and Chiricosta were the 10th and 9th seeds respectively.
Wednesday: It didn't pay to be a seed in the 35's today, as 3 singles and one doubles seeds fell. Jennifer Dawson from California outhit Jamie Patterson, the 2nd seed 63 62; Margaret Kitchen beat Tracy Houk, the 3rd seed, 75 63. In the longest match of the day, Suzanne Petterson edged Robin Keener 63 36 63. By the third set Keener was cramping and Petterson was also quite tired, but held on for the win.
Hess/Schaefer upset the 3rd seeds, Patterson/Snook 60 46 60 to reach the semis along with Brigandi Dawson and the 2 top-seeded teams.
In the 65's, Joan Nevins gave 3rd-seeded Dori deVries a scare before falling 67 63 61. Nands Fischer upset 8th-seeded Kathy Langer a day after upsetting 10th seeded Katie Koontz to reach the quarters.
Thursday: In the 35's, the final is set between unseeded Jennifer Dawson and top-seeded, and 2-time defending champion Renata Marcinkowska.
Dawson and her partner, Brigandi, upset the 2nd seeds, Kitchen/Palmer to reach the final.
In the 45's, the top 4 seeds reached the semis, and only Gerda Preissing, the 3rd seed, had to go 3 sets to win. Preissing beat Kathy Vick in a long 3-setter. She plays Fishburne and Nichols plays Wright.
There were 2 minor upsets in the 45 doubles. The 6th seeds, Peltz-Petow/LePrevost edged the 3rd seeds, Melanie Wheatley/Susan Wright in 2 sets, and the 5th seeds, Nichols/Tracy Viebrock beat Sheila Ernest/Janet Mosely 75 63. Karen Hausman/Kathy Foulk gave the top seeds, Anderson/Fishburne all they could handle in their match, and they led 41 in the third before the top seeds rallied for the win.
In the 75's, Louise Owen led Louise Russ 51 in the first set before Russ decided that she only wanted to play 2 sets of singles today, and rallied to win the match in straight sets.
Saturday: In the 45's Diane Fishburne was flawless on Saturday in singles and doubles, as was her doubles partner (a superb doubles strategist), Rita Anderson. Fishburne won the 45 singles over Nichols 2,1 and the 45 doubles (with Anderson) 62 64 over Nichols/Tracy Viebrock. It was Anderson's first gold ball and Fishburne's first gold ball in age division doubles. It was also Viebrock's first USTA ball. Susan Wright (Fisher) was edged in 3 sets by Gerda Preissing in the 3/4 playoff but combined with Melanie Wheatley to win the feed-in doubles final over Sue Bramlette/Kathy Vick. Sherri Bronson/Chris Ramsower-Pearlstein won the 3/4 playoff in doubles over LePrevost/Peltz-Petow, rallying from 45 in the 2nd set to win it 75.
In the 65's, Katie Koontz/Norma Veal successfully defended their doubles title by the topsy-turvy scores of 63 06 62, edging Lynn Little/Dorothy Matthiessen for the 2nd straight year. Dorothy Matthiessen was flawless in the 65 singles final, dropping only 2 games in beating Canada's Inge Weber. Dori deVries beat Veal for the bronze. DeVries/Belmar Gunderson also took the bronze in doubles over Langer/Tietz in 3 sets.
In the 55's, the singles final was a repeat of last year's final, with Anne Guerrant beating the ageless Heide Orth 62 63. Brenda Carter took the bronze. The top ranked team of Kathy Bennett/Judy Louie won the doubles final, successfully defending their title, over Char Hillebrand/Suella Steel in 3 sets. Wachob/Wilson took the bronze in doubles over Carter/Daniels.
In the 75's, Louise Russ won her first gold balls of the year (and her 4th singles and 4th doubles titles of the year). She beat Betty Eisenstein 61 64 in the singles final and combined with Louise Owen to beat Margaret Anderson/Fran Wakefield in the doubles final. Owen had a good tournament as well, beating the 3rd seed, Nancy Stout, and the 4th seed, Dorothy Knode to take the bronze. Cathy Hall/Rita Price took the doubles bronze.
Other than a few showers on Saturday, the weather was as nice as the venue and the hospitality this year. There are a few singles consolation finals scheduled for Sunday as well.
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