Cape Town, South Africa – “Olé, Olé, Olé!” rang out at the Western Province Tennis courts on Friday when Spain made a successful title defence of the Margaret Court Cup (Women 45) at the ITF Young Seniors World Team Championships in Cape Town.
Throughout the week, the all-conquering Spanish team sounded a championship challenge with a string of one-sided wins but they were fully extended on Friday by the sixth-seeded South Africa in the gold medal match which attracted the biggest crowd for any venue this week.
In both singles, the Spaniards were subjected to three-sets encounters as they warded off the twin intimidation of never-say-die opponents and a spoiling wind to eventually clinch the tie 2-0.
In their previous matches at the venue, windless conditions prevailed but on Friday the Spanish players were forced to reckon with conditions, and they found it trying.
Top seeds Spain sent out Noelia Perez-Penate for the opening singles against South Africa’s Lettica Venter and neither would have anticipated the dogfight that was to play out in the opening two sets. Perez-Penate eventually held out for a 6-3 4-6 6-1 win.
The match was held up for 10 minutes in the second set when Venter required medical attention for her elbow. Perez-Penate said afterwards the stoppage broke her rhythm.
“The wind made it difficult because it was blowing for the first time this week,” said Perez-Penate. “But it was more in the head because I needed to put that behind me.
“My plan was to constantly change tactics at the start and it worked well in the first set. In the second set, I started making too many errors and the match started drifting away from me.
“By the time we had the injury stoppage I was leading 3-2 and when we resumed she started hitting very flat and with lots of top spin. I was out of it and lost the set 6-4.
“I didn’t very long to find my game in the third and I kept thinking that I should have ended the match after two sets.”
South Africa’s Jacqueline Booth made a valiant attempt to rescue the tie for her country in the next singles clash but in the end succumbed to the steady play of Ana Salas-Lozano, who clinched the tie with a 1-6 6-3 6-4 win.
Booth raised a fair amount of applause throughout the clash for her adventurous play but it also yielded unforced errors when big points were at stake in the later sets.
The second-seeded Netherlands were next to strike gold when they annexed the Dubler Cup (Men 45) following their close-shave 2-1 win over top seeds France at the Green Point Tennis Club.
But despite this setback for France, they turned out to the stand-out performers at the 2017 showpiece as they went to win the next four titles on offer. It was a remarkable performance, bagging four titles and a runner-up position in six age divisions.
The Women 35 top seeds France came good against The Netherlands (3) with wins in both singles to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup.
Prior to the start of this match, France won the deciding doubles against Germany after rain prevented play on Thursday.
The Tony Trabert Cup (Men 40) also went to France, the top seeds, after they dispatched third seeds Spain 2-0 at the Western Province Cricket Club courts.
Both singles matches were hard-fought affairs, especially the second which was decided on straight-set tie-breaks.
There was more glory for France at the Pinelands Tennis Club after their Women’s 40 team, the third seeds, caused an upset with a 2-0 win over top seeds Spain.
France completed their trophy haul at the Kelvin Grove Club courts in glorious fashion after completing the week-long tournament undefeated.
They won the Italia Cup (Men 35) with a 2-0 win over Great Britain.
Marc Steger who closed out the tie with a straight-sets win in the second singles match said afterwards the team battled in the windy conditions but they remained strong mentally.
“We were not overly aggressive. The plan was to play a solid game and make sure faults don’t creep into our play,” said Steger, a tennis coach who hails from Mulhouse, a city in Eastern France.
“We put a lot of emphasis on solid groundstrokes and opted to play most of the time from the comfort of the baseline.”
The action in Cape Town will continue on Sunday when the ITF Young Seniors World Individual Championships get under way.