Saturday, June 18, 2016

INTERNATIONAL CLUB GOES TO NEW YORK

INTERNATIONAL CLUB GOES TO NEW YORK

When the International Lawn Tennis Club of Canada team travels to New York, bringing home the hardware isn't at the top of their agenda, instead it is to get to play on the beautiful grass courts at Piping Rock Country Club.  Of course Piping Rock has clay courts in case the grass is unplayable, and given that the Friday afternoon brought light drizzle, these courts were the only ones available for practice. Saturday however brought a picture perfect day for playing matches on the grass and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Sunday the rain set in and the morning matches were played at the huge Port Washington indoor facility.  Any weather problems were made up for with the wonderful hospitality.




This was the first time in several years that an open men's team traveled to New York and the women's team was the largest and the youngest average age Canada has fielded in New York, thanks to some young new members.  Pictured here Back row L to R Dale Kozicz (Captain), Sue Smylie, Janice Hebert, Julie Salomon, Laura Randmaa Atkinson, Jane Seed. Front Row: Kanta Murali, Susanna Sekely, Kathy Mueller and guest/local resident Junko Matsushita.

There were lots of close matches. Of particular note Kanta Murali had a tough three set singles with a 29 year old who had played for Harvard. When the final tally was made, the US retained the Gengler Cup by ten matches to five.





The senior men's team are pictured in their club house clothes. L to R. John Payne, Tim Griffin, Owen Pellew, Bob Awrey, Terry Redvers, Dennis Ing, Raj Nagendra, Ivan Petrov and Rosti Brankovsky (Captain).   The USA team retained the Baker Bowl, also by a score of 10 matches to 5. Unfortunately Canada was 0 for 4 in super tiebreakers otherwise the result might have been different.

The Canadian Open Men's team took a 5-4 lead  after Saturdays matches, but failed to take any of the Sunday matches, giving the USA another 10-5 win to take the Sorlein Cup. Could it have been too much sun on the Saturday or too much hospitality on Saturday night that caused their collapse? The Open team members were Jamie Weatherall, Robert Janacek, Jeremy Langer, Eric Vehovec, Fil Marinkovic, Keenan O'Young, Adam Taylor and captain, Michael Stauble. 

Always a great weekend! The Canadian IC are looking forward to hosting a full USIC team in Toronto next June.  

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