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paulisi


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Gail Falkenberg
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There has been a lot of press over recent days regarding Gail Falkenberg.

For those not aware Gail is 69 years old and still playing. This week she entered a 25K at Pelham and managed to beat Rosalyn Small 6-0 6-1 and it was her first win on the tour since 1998. Rosalyn Small unsurprisingly is on a 25 game losing streak.

She then came up against Taylor Townsend and lost 6-0 6-0 in fairly quick time.

I understand she serves underarm and plays at the net due to her lack of movement.

I saw something similar at Wrexham a couple of years back, when an American guy signed in and got in due to lack of entries. He was in his early 60's. The match was slightly embarrassing.

The question is should there be a minimum standard to enter these tournaments?



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Coup Droit


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Good on Gail !

To be honest, if you've ever seen the world championships for seniors, or even top/good team seniors, everyone can see that they can kick ar*se. I don't know why Gail has to come to the net - most 75+ ones are still scampering round like blinkin' rabbits. And putting wicked slice on their serves (not much top spin though )

Senior tennis is huge in France, and very big in the UK. It's the one area where GB has a decent number of top world players. I don't follow it, as such (apart from the players I know) but good on them.

And Gail won a match, you say? Way to go, lady.

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Coup Droit


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There's no thread (or section) for Senior Tennis, and I don't really follow it, but this seemed a good opportunity to give a shout to all our top 10 World players:

Top 10 World rankings - GB Players:

Men

35+
WR 4 - Barry Fulcher

60+
WR 2 - Paul French

75+
WR 8 - Henk Nijeboer

85+
WR 6 - John Draper


Women

45+
WR 2 - Isabelle Tyrrell

55+
WR 2 - Christine French

65+
WR 5 - Marjory Love

75+
WR 7 - Ruth Weston
WR 8 - Joan Hassell
WR 9 - Felicity Thomas

80+
WR 3 - June Pearce

85+
WR 7= - Betty Howard
WR 7= - Phyllis McEwan

(age categories are all done in 5 year slots, from 35+ up to 85+)

NB Does anyone know if Ruth Weston is Martin Weston's mum? Or if John Draper is related to Roger?

Anyway, congrats to all.

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steven


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Coup Droit wrote:

NB Does anyone know if Ruth Weston is Martin Weston's mum? Or if John Draper is related to Roger?


No immediately obvious links but Ruth, who is Scottish, is the daughter of Anita Lizana, who won the US Open (or US National Championship as it was called then) playing for Chile in 1937 - http://www.scotsman.com/sport/tennis/scottish-senorita-anita-lizana-took-us-by-storm-1-3828006



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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!

GB top 25s (ranks, whereabouts) & stats - http://www.britishtennis.net/stats.html
insomniacfolder


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Ben Rothenberg interviews the lady herself for 25 minutes, in a special epsiode of NCR: nochallengesremaining.podbean.com/e/episode-149a-69-year-old-gail-falkenberg-the-legend/

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Coup Droit


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steven wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:

NB Does anyone know if Ruth Weston is Martin Weston's mum? Or if John Draper is related to Roger?


No immediately obvious links but Ruth, who is Scottish, is the daughter of Anita Lizana, who won the US Open (or US National Championship as it was called then) playing for Chile in 1937 - http://www.scotsman.com/sport/tennis/scottish-senorita-anita-lizana-took-us-by-storm-1-3828006

 

Thanks, steven. Brilliant.

I do find the family links interesting - and, as per the thread in the General Section, I think the federation should too.

Cheers.



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