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2017 ITF Super-Seniors World Individual Championships

Opening Days Produce Few Surprises

October 17, 2017
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The 2017 ITF Super-Seniors World Individual Championships kicked off on Saturday at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.  Play has continued daily with finals set to be played on Thursday and Friday.

 

Singles action has produced very few  surprises, as none of the 10 draws saw its top seed fail to reach the quarterfinals. In fact, the only No. 1 seed to come up short so far is Australian Nola Collins in the women’s 80 draw, as she retired trailing 4-2 in her quarterfinal matchup with No. 7 seed Roz King of the United States.

 

The women’s 80 draw is one of four singles draw to already be in the semifinal round, joined by the women’s 85 and the men’s 85. The seeds held true to form in the men’s 85 division, where the top four seeds will battle it out for the title, while the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the women’s 75 are still alive, along with the fifth seed and ninth seed. In the women’s 85 draw, three of the top four have bested the competition so far, while unseeded Margaret Canby of the United States has kept her run going. The women’s 80 has been the tournament’s most unpredictable division, with none of the top four advancing to the semifinals; seeds five, seven and eight have done so, along with one unseeded hopeful.

 

For the remaining six divisions, draws are in the quarterfinal stage heading into Wednesday’s schedule of play. The women’s 65 quarterfinals nearly featured all eight top seeds, but Team USA’s Judy Dixon toppled No. 7 seed Reinhilde Adams of Germany 7-6(7), 7-5. Five of the women’s 70 top eight seeds have navigated their way to the final eight, plus No. 16 June Peck of Great Britain; Mary Ann Gaskin (Canada) and Carol Gay (USA), both not seeded, round out the division’s field of remaining players.

 

In men’s 65 and men’s 70 play, five seeds among the top eight that started the week remain in the main draw for the quarterfinals. All eight of the men’s 65 quarterfinalists are seeded, with No. 30 Tom Smith and No. 31 Padg Bolton (both of the United States) the biggest surprises of the bunch. Meanwhile, the men’s 70 quarterfinals will feature five of the draw’s top eight seeds plus unseeded Americans James Pressly and Steve Gottleib along with No. 31 Peter Keller of Australia.

 

The men’s 75 top eight have been on cruise control for the most part this week, with only 24th-seeded Stephen Lunsford of the United States and unseeded Team USA representative Henry Steinglass breaking things up. While only half of the top eight in the men’s 80 stayed in the main draw to the quarterfinal round, seven of the eight participants competing for the divisional title are seeded; American Herman Ahlers is the only unseeded quarterfinalist.

 

In the tournament’s doubles action, three of the four duos remaining in the top half of the men’s 65 draw feature at least one American; the third-seeded Austrian pair of Haupt-Buchenrode and Hellmonseder are also in the hunt. The men’s 70 quarterfinals nearly saw the top eight advance to that stage, but No. 7 seed Flor de la Morena and Velasco Ramirez of Spain were forced to withdraw prior to their match with Claudi and Ramacciotti of Italy. A pair of unseeded tandems, Beatty and Lunsford (USA) along with Kataoka and Urushigawa (Japan), has navigated their way to the men’s 75 final eight. With the men’s 80 draw consisting of only 10 duos, none of the top four seeds have played yet, while the men’s 85 division is down the semifinal round, where the top four teams remain.

 

Dixon, who pulled the lone upset in the women’ 65 singles draw, kept her momentum going in doubles, as she and partner Hahn are the lone unseeded pair still alive in the women’s 65 doubles after taking care of No. 7 seed Jamieson and Mills (New Zealand) 6-4, 6-1. The women’s 70 doubles division has seen only one of its seed knocked out as well, with No. 5 seed Lockhart and Peck (Great Britain) being edged out by Baron (Great Britain) and Spriess (Germany) 6-3, 4-6, 10-8. All four of the women’s 75 top seeds find themselves in the final four, while the women’s 80 semifinals will see a top four seed clash with an unseeded duo.

 

In mixed doubles action, mixed 65 draw has seen nothing but chalk so far while the mixed 70 draw has been filled by upsets.

 

For full results from the 2017 ITF Super-Seniors World Individual Championships, click here.