World & Australian Championships

2011 Australian Senior and Super Senior Claycourt Championships, Melbourne, 10-13 June - more

2011 World Seniors Teams Championships, Christchurch, New Zealand 21-26 February  - more

2011 Australian Tennis Seniors Championships, Newcastle, 10-21 January - more

2010 World Super Seniors Individual  Championships,Antalya, Turkey 17-24 October - more

2010 World Super Seniors Teams Championships, Antalya, Turkey 11-16 October - more

2011 Australian Senior and Super Senior Claycourt Championships, Melbourne, 10-13 June

The Championships were held at the Dendy Park Tennis Club in Brighton.  Henry Baumeister, John Bennett, Pat Moloney and Neville Rodwell made the trip.  They had limited success with Neville and Pat combining to again be runners-up in the 60 Mens Doubles and also making the semi finals of the 60 and 65 singles respectively.  Henry reached the semi finals of the 55 mens singles.  John and his partner, Lynton Joseph (Vic) reached the semi finals of the 35/40 mens doubles.

2011 World Seniors Teams Championships, Christchurch, New Zealand 21-26 February

Australia ended up with gold, silver and bronze in the events completed at the Teams Championships.  The events being played at Ashburton and Timora (both south of Christchurch and undamaged by the earthquake) were completed but those being held at Wilding Park in Christchurch were abandoned.  The Individual events to be played the following week were cancelled.

The ACT had two representatives competing in the Championships.  Narelle Raftery was in the Court Cup (45+) team which was unfortunately played at Wilding Park.  Ros Balodis captained the Bueno Cup (50+) team, playing at Ashburton, to the final where it lost to the top seeded USA team 2-1. Kerrie Douglas did well against Susan Wright, losing 6-3, 7-5.   Ros  leveled with a superb straight sets win over Di Fishburne 6-1, 6-2.  Ros and Kerrie then faced former Grand Slam doubles winner, Joanne Russell playing with Susan Wright. The Americans were too strong, taking it 6-4, 6-2 to win Gold, with Silver for Australia.

For a full report on the Australian teams, go to www.tennisseniors.org.au.

2011 Australian Tennis Seniors Championships, Newcastle, 10-21 January
 

The ACT won the Australian Teams Trophy for the first time since the trophy was first awarded in 1985.  The trophy is awarded to the State or Territory that has the best average result over all teams for the championships.  The ACT had 6 and a half teams with the 55 mens and the 65(2) mens team finishing first and the 45-50 ladies team losing the final by one game.  The 60(2) and 70(1) ladies teams finished third and the 55 ladies team fifth.  The NSW no2 mens team including two ACT members finished fifth.

In the second week in the individual championships, ACT members won 4 events and were runners up in another 4 events.

A total of 89 teams participated in the Australian Seniors Teams Championships held from 10-14 January.  The number of teams was 37 down on the previous year.  Teams came from all the States except Tasmania, the ACT and New Zealand. NSW had the most teams with 27 followed by Queensland with 17 (despite the floods) and South Australia and Western Australia with 11 each.  Matches in the teams event were played at three venues - Newcastle District Courts, Cessnock and Maitland.  Colin Holgate had the honour of carrying the ACT flag at the opening ceremony.

On the Monday night, ACT team members and their partners and friends enjoyed a very sumpious three course dinner at the Northern Star Hotel.  Thank you again to Graham Smith for his organisation.  For pictures of the dinner, click here.

Congratulations to our mens 55 team of (left to right) John Greenup, Neville Rodwell, captain John Stark, Greg Holcombe, Alan Wilmhurst, and Colin Holgate on winning their final and to the mens 65 team of (pictured below from left to right)  David Sprott, Col Power, captain David Coutts, Peter Breugelmans, Pat Moloney, Col Power and Terry Walker finished first in their section.  Both these teams went one better than last year.

Commiserations to our ladies 45-50 team of (left to right) Ros Balodis (capt), Helen Holcombe, Narelle Raftery, Chris Fraser and Rebecca Claremont,  who lost their final to NSW by one game.

In the individual events, congratulations to Ros Balodis on defending her 50 ladies singles title and combining with Colin Holgate to win the 50 mixed doubles.  Congratulations also Heather McKay on winning the 70 ladies singles and reaching the final of the 70 ladies doubles with Jill Taylor from Queensland.  Peter Clowry won the consolation 60 mens singles.

Narelle Raftery made the final of the 45 ladies singles at her first attempt.  Phil Higgs and Pat Moloney made the final of the combined 120 mens doubles as did Margaret Harrigan with Joy Rigter (Qld) in the 140 combined ladies doubles. Neville Rodwell did very well to reach the semi finals of the 60 mens singles beating the no2 seed Max Bates on the way.

These results have gained Ros Balodis and Narelle Raftery selection in Australian teams for the  2011 ITF Seniors World Team Championships in Christchurch in February and Neville Rodwell as reserve for the Super Seniors 60+ team in Turkey in October.

2010 World Super Seniors Individual  Championships, Antalya, Turkey 17-24 October

Five Australian players won gold medals for their Championship wins at the ITF Super-Seniors

World Individual events at Club Ali Bey, Turkey.

In beautiful sunshine, Neville Halligan, a young 87 year old won his fourth round robin match and

remained undefeated to claim his third successive 85+ Singles Championship.  Neville earlier won

his second Doubles Championship. Elizabeth Allan scored her first win over Heidi Eisterlehner (Germany)6/3 6/4 and captured her third Singles World Championship.  However, Elizabeth and Kerry Ballard were denied Doubles success as this was won by Carol Campling and Wendy Gilchrist in their win over Adrienne Avis and Helen Worland, 2 and 3.  Carol has enjoyed many previous successes (now 15 Doubles and 2 Singles) and for Wendy this is her second gold medal.  Collecting his first gold medal is Alan Hocking who with partner Charles Nelson (USA) convincingly won the 75+ Doubles 6/4 6/2.

The ACT players in Turkey gained valuable experience.  Neville Rodwell and John Stark both lost their first round singles matches in the 60s but did win a round in the doubles together.  Neville went on to win a couple of rounds in the 60s consolation singles before meeting the eventual winner.  Norm Clements played in the 70 singles and doubles without success.

Further results can be found on the Tennis Seniors Australia website and at www.92computing.com.au.

2010 World Super Seniors Teams Championships, Antalya, Turkey 11-16 October

USA dominated finals day in Antalya, with nine of their teams competing and six of which were victorious. They won the 75s, 65s, and 60s in the Men’s and the 75s, 70s and 60s in the Women’s. Despite the best efforts of our teams, Australia managed just three third placings, underlining just how tough the competition was this year. Bronze medals went to our teams in the the Britannia (M65), the Althea Gibson (W70) and the Alice Marble (W60) Cups.