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The matches have concluded in Pensacola, the site of the 40/50 clay courts and mother/daughter events. The new site for this event is the Pensacola Country Club, but Brian, Scott, Renee and Retsy are running the tournament again, and did a great job.
And the winners are: Carolyn Nichols won the 40 singles over Fran Chandler 63 62; Heide Orth beat Mary Ginnard in a 3 hour, 3 set match which involved a lot of running to take the 50's crown; Gerda Preissing/Lu Fendig beat Nichols/Phyllis Zilm in the 40 doubles final; and Orth/Anne Guerrant beat Jane Strnadel/Sue Bramlette 75 63 to win the 50 doubles. Sue Rasmussen took the 40 singles bronze and combined with Terry Thompson to win the doubles bronze; Christy Wing took the 50's singles bronze and with Mary Ginnard won the 50's doubles bronze. Gerda Preissing edged Zilm (withstanding 3 match points against her) to place 5th in the 40 singles and Pat Keleman took 5th in the 50 singles. Great weather, great tournament.
The semis were held on Friday under sunny, slightly breezy conditions. The top 2 seeds made it to the semis of the 40 singles, and both won by identical 61 75 scores. Fran Chandler withstood a barrage of forehand bullets hit by Sue Rasmussen in one semi and Carolyn Nichols rallied from 0-4 down in the 2nd set to win her semi over the topspin maestro, Karen Hausman.
The doubles in the 40's also went according to form, with Gerda Preissing/Lu Fendig ousting Claudett Laliberte/Hausman in straight sets, and Nichols/Phyllis Zilm beating Rasmussen/Terry Thompson 64 62. Zilm played a flawless match, pounding serves and overheads consistently.
In the 50's, there were a few upsets, but top-seeded Mary Ginnard avoided being one of them, edging Anne Guerrant 75 36 63. Ginnard's feet carried her everywhere Anne hit, at times she seemed to be moving in the direction Guerrant hit the ball before Guerrant knew that's where she was going to hit it herself. The ageless Heide Orth upset 2nd-seeded Christy Wing 63 in the third. Wing said Orth's balls were just skidding off the court and that Orth was deadly on midcourt balls. Wing beat Guerrant by default to place third.
In the doubles, Sue Bramlette, who has won the doubles here the past 2 years, and Jane Strnadel upset Ginnard/Wing in 2 close sets in one semi, and Orth/Guerrant edged Pat Kelleman/Vee Kelley in the other semi.
The match of the tournament to date occurred on the first day of play between Tiina Smith and Renee Broxson of Pensacola. The match was nearly 4 hours long, finally won by Broxson 76 63. The points were so long that the players had trouble remembering the score at times.
The seeds all made it to the quarters in each age division. However, in the quarters, there were 2 upsets in the 40's division. Karen Hausman, the 5th seed, edged 3rd-seeded Gerda Preissing in a 3-hour match, 26 64 64 and rallied from 3-1 down in the third to win. Sue Rasmussen used her deadly forehand to beat 4th-seeded Phyllis Zilm 63 63.
Hausman pulled double-duty, playing doubles with Claudette Laliberte (replacing an ill Mary Johnson). They beat Bodish/Mullen 61 75 to reach the semis. They face Fendig/Preissing in one semi while Nichols/Zilm play Rasmussen/Terry Thompson in the other semi.
In the 50's, the top 4 seeds, Ginnard, Wing, Orth and Guerrant, all reached the semis without the loss of a set, though Wing had a tough first set challenge from Sue Bramlette before winning 75 62.
At the dinner on Wednesday, besides a nice dinner Brian gave out many interesting "awards". Among the awards given out were fountain of youth pills to Mary Ginnard, Smart Ass pills to Claudette Laliberte, direction finding advice and equipment to Karen Hausman, a container of body parts (which allegedly included a butt), to Retsy Wilson, and of course the "Golden Panties" award to Heide Orth.
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