The WTT Seniors 3.5 team (Bytner Travel) from Albany, NY won the 2002
WTT Seniors National Championship in the 3.5 Division in Forest Hills, NY. The National
Championships were played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, NY, the site of
the original US Open.
The Team players are as follows: Jean Hooper (Captain), Barbara Clay, Stephanie Temshiv,
Marie Stone, George Della Rocco, John Zeh, Barry Loffredo and Larry Rorick.
Bytner Travel qualified for the national championship by winning the WTT National Qualifier in Central Park,Schenectady.
Bytner Travel
WTT 4.5 Regional Champion
Headed to Nationals in August 23-25, 2002
We had never played against so many good 4.5-5.0 players. But
through guile, deceit, fluke shots, mishits, timely bad calls, and letcord service aces
our 'B' team pulled through. The 'B' team got a chance to play cuz the 'A' team
couldn't make it. Good thing, cuz with so many good played on our team some of us
don't get to play much. ;-)
After driving 2 hours on saturday morning we did not play well and only beat our 1st
opponent by 8 games (would have been a bigger margin but a certain #1
ranked Open ETA Mixed Doubles team got drubbed 6-0 at 5th mixed (snore....). The
next two matches (saturday p.m. and sunday a.m.) we played our normal level and beat both
opponents by 18 games apiece. Sheer luck against formidable
opponents. Heck, tom bain's 2nd serve actually exceeded 20 mph a few times, ron
salvador actually hit two service aces (two! count 'em - two!), milly back actually hit a
few topspin lob winners, and regina lindsey actually made a few backhand volleys.
Ron & Tom only dropped 3 games in 3 sets of mens doubles. Milly & Regina won
6-0 in ladies doubles against our last opponents. Our 'final' opponent feared us so
much they defaulted.
But all the luck was used up on the court and the team ended up in a loss at Mohegan Sun.
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