West Australian Bobbie Edwards from Wembley Downs Tennis Club recently travelled to Mallorca in Spain to compete at the ITF World Masters Tour Championships.
Bobbie Edwards who is 83 years old has been playing tennis for 45 years and competing in the World Championships since 2006 attended the event with fellow competitors from Australia in Helen Muir (from WA), Jill Taylor and June Simpson.
Bobbie was coming off a personal best achievement winning the 2023 Swan Hill Women’s 80’s Doubles title with Jill Taylor from Queensland and was looking forward to playing on the clay courts in Spain, a surface not familiar to them.
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Read the full diary from Bobbie Edwards:
I travelled with fellow West Australian Helen Muir. The accommodation was magnificent overlooking the sea. All the units had ocean views and had showers and balconies, although no kettles.
We originally were booked in at another resort which was a long way away from the main tennis centre, which made transport a problem. Helen had booked it as there was no accommodation available near the main centre.
For the first time Tennis Australia appointed a team manager Ian Davey to solve team problems. He visited the resorts involved in our accommodation, and somehow managed to get us rooms at the main centre without any extra cost involved and was a real asset.
The teams’ event was the first played with nine countries competing in the 80’s and over age bracket where countries were divided into three sections of three teams for a round robin format.
Australia drew USA and Germany in our three with USA ending up winning the team’s event. Unfortunately, we did not win a match in this group but managed to win two matches when playing the other group. Overall, we finished 7th out of 9th, which wasn’t the best result, but the standard was very high. USA won the teams events with Great Britain second and Germany third.
The second week was the individual events. Both Helen and I won our first round of singles matches and made the quarter finals. Unfortunately, we both lost our quarter finals to the USA who went on to win the 80’s and over singles title.
I played with Jill Taylor in the doubles, and we lost our quarter final. Helen played with June Simpson, and they also lost in their quarter final.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience, the venue was magnificent, and the tennis was outstanding. The team got on well and there was a good team spirit. It was a long way to travel but worth it.
I would sincerely like to thank Tennis West and Tennis Seniors for their kind donations of support. They were greatly received.
Ladies Doubles: Australia v Great Britain
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