By J. Fred Sidhu, special to USTA.com
SURPRISE, ARIZ. – For the Southern and Eastern section teams, it could not have been a more exciting weekend in the beautiful Arizona desert as they won titles at the USTA League Mixed 40 & Over 7.0 & 9.0 National Championships.
Playing under bright, sunny skies at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex, the Southern Section 9.0 mixed doubles team, from Columbus, Ga., won four straight matches in Flight 2 play over Friday and Saturday to advance to the semifinals.
On Sunday morning, Columbus got past a tough Northern Section team from Bloomington, Minn., 2-1, to move into the 9.0 championship match. And in the final, it scored a victory over the Eastern Section team, from Hawthorne, N.Y., 2-1.
“It feels great. We came here thinking we had no chance to win and suddenly we win it. We won a lot of third-set tiebreakers and that’s what you have to do to win these (Nationals),” said Southern captain John Crenshaw. “It’s been a great team experience.”
The 7.0 Eastern section mixed doubles team, from Edison, N.J., lost its first match in Flight 5 action on Friday, but rebounded to win the next two matches to advance to the semifinals.
On Sunday, Edison began a memorable day with a thrilling semifinal victory over the Pacific Northwest section team from Beaverton, Ore., 2-1. Later in the day, the Eastern team completed its dream run to the 7.0 Mixed Doubles title by defeating the Northern California section team, from Los Gatos, Calif., 2-1.
“It’s definitely a dream come true. Everybody contributed to winning the National title,” said Eastern captain David Nguyen. “Everybody played well together. They know each other’s games so well. They hung tough and won the big points.”