A Fairfield Glade team competed last month in the United States Tennis Association mixed doubles state championship in Chattanooga.
Competitors included some of the state’s best players on teams from Memphis, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, Knoxville and Nashville.
The Fairfield Glade team played in five matches against opponents in the mixed doubles in the 55 and over, 3.5 division. Players included Pat Tingle, Jim Wilson, Mary Bawsel, Melanie Fawbush, Mick Hodzen, Guy Goff, Ric Fagan, Yelena Soto and co-captains Craig Leeper and Catherine Henderson.
“Fairfield Glade enters these invitational tournaments with a distinct disadvantage,” said Henderson. “We don’t have the opportunity to play an entire league season because we don’t have any opponents in Cumberland County. By the time we get to the tournament, our opponents have played at least five or six matches against each other.”
The lack of local competition doesn’t deter them from making their mark at the tournament.
“We may not have been the strongest team in the draw,” explained Leeper, “but we upset the No. 1 team.”
He refers to the Fairfield Glade team’s 2-1 win over Chattanooga, a team that entered the tournament as the favorite. Their season record was 6-0, which they did without ever dropping a line, a remarkable season.
In the match against Fairfield Glade, they lost lines 2 and 3.
“It was the best win we had, and it prevented them from winning the tournament,” Leeper said.
By the end of the tournament, four teams emerged with a 3-2 match score, forcing the first place spot to be decided by the number of games won.
Memphis took the overall championship, with Chattanooga just three games behind because of its loss to the Fairfield Glade team. Fairfield Glade ended the championships with a 2-3 overall record.
All the matches were close, and the team is looking forward to competing again next year.
Tennessee is part of the USTA’s largest section, the Southern section, which is the largest of all the areas, boasting more than 167,000 players, or 27% of the USTA membership.
The section includes Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.