Wallenberg Trophy 2024

Fixture: Wallenberg Trophy (no. 23)

Date: 13-15 September 2024

Venue: Rochusclub, Dusseldorf

Result: Germany 1st place, France 2nd place, Sweden 3rd place, Great Britain 4th place.

Each year IC teams from Great Britain, France Sweden and Germany meet and compete for the Wallenberg Trophy. Teams of four players consisting of one woman 35+, one woman 45+, one man 45+ and one man 55+ each play singles and then 2 rubbers of mixed doubles against counterparts. The mixed pairings are determined by age (the younger pair play together, as do the older pair).

Great Britain fielded a strong team of Seb Jackson, Charles Durham (c) , Dearbhla Kelly and Teresa Catlin.

The captains meeting concluded that no discernible advantage would be had by seeding the countries as each IC had a mixture of talent. Making the draw out of a fictional Bavarian Tyrolean hat, saw Great Britain drawn against a particularly strong German side and Sweden against France.

The setting was Rochusclub Dusseldorfer Tennis Club, who provided us with lovely hospitality, a beautiful playing environment and bright sunshine for the weekend.

Despite our strong team and sterling performances from all, we were up against 2 former Masters world ranked no.1 males in Christian Schaffkes and Christian Greuter, along with 2 ex professional ladies in Svenja Huttner and Claudia Hoffman-Timm. We managed to win only one of the singles and one of the mixed doubles to lose 4-2 overall.

France won the other semi final in a close fought match v Sweden.

The evening brought with it a lovely steak, some consoling, friendly conversation, a few speeches and gifts and some entertaining stories involving highly ranked professional tennis players from eons past.

Onto the rapid turnaround Sunday and 3rd/4th place playoff versus Sweden, with 1st and 2nd place being battled out by Germany and France. Short sets (starting 2-2) were the order of the day to enable matches to be finished on time.

Charles came in second against an older and some might say wiser and faster opponent who has also been ranked World no.1 losing 6-4 7-5 but which lasted an inordinate amount of time. Seb and Teresa on the other hand, having grown accustomed to the environment both won their singles with reasonable comfort and

within an efficient time frame. Dearbhla however also lost to a very strong young lady Nadja Roma leaving us at 2-2 prior to the mixed doubles.

Charles and Teresa confidently strode to victory in the older mixed doubles whilst the relative youngsters Seb and Dearbhla lost 7-5 6-4 to a strong Swedish pair, leaving us at 3-3. With the offer of a joint third place on the table the GB team brushed aside the idea of an easy draw and decided to roll the dice in a deciding championship tie break to 10. Having won both of their mixed doubles rubbers it was decided that Charles and Teresa would take on the best that the Swedish team could muster. A close and momentum swinging championship tie break resulted in a 10-7 loss for the GB side.

Meanwhile Germany and France also played a championship tie break to decide the victors with the home nation winning 10-5.

A fantastic event and team spirit made the loss just bearable bringing the short and intensive schedule to an end at lunch time on Sunday. All players and supporters then made their way home via planes, trains and automobiles.

Particular thanks go to Alex Kurucz and Lutf Steinhoefel for very helpful and charming organisation of the event, transport and hospitality.

Great Britain are looking forward to hosting this event in 2025.