Wallenberg Trophy 13-15 September 2013

The Wallenberg Trophy took place on the 13 - 15 September.  Germany won, France were second, GB were third and Sweden fourth.

The weekend was somewhat hampered by rain on Saturday and with only two indoor courts at the club (ETUF Essen).  All singles matches were played on Saturday but the four mixed matches had to be played on Sunday morning.  It was a little frustrating as GB, the Swedes and the French all thought that we could have played the mixed on the Saturday afternoon, thereby finishing Saturday's match and keeping on schedule.

The decision to only play the singles matches on Saturday was made fairly early on Saturday and it was going to leave insufficient time on Sunday to play the scheduled Sunday match (for us vs the French) after the hang over mixed matches.  Sunday's match was therefore cancelled.  So it was a shame that only two of the three matches were played.

Aside from this issue with the scheduling, the Germans looked after us all very well and it was a very enjoyable few days at a very nice club.  We had some excellent and close matches against a strong German side on Friday, losing out 4-2 in the end.  Claire Webb unfortunately tore her calf muscle in the second game of her singles and had to pull out a few games later.  But she somehow managed to battle through two subsequent mixed victories.  

We then beat the Swedes 5-1 on Sat/Sun (Claire had to give a walkover for her singles).  Shame then that we didn't get a shot at a strong French side on Sunday.

Thank you so much to Claire Webb, Chris French and Graham Neale who all played great tennis and were fantastic company over the weekend, and made my (albeit straight forward) job very easy indeed.  I hope we get to play more matches together.

Jim May
Match Manager