The Racquet Club of Philadelphia was honored to host the 2010 US Women’s Open the weekend of November 5th through 7th. Women from several courts in the United States and a couple from across the pond competed for that title. The weekend was full of hard fought matches and camaraderie.
The ladies from the UK, Claire Vigrass and Aldona Greenwood, came ready to play and showed the Americans how it’s done. They swept both draws. Claire only lost two games on the way to her third consecutive US Open Championship. Claire and Aldona cruised to their title in the doubles draw. Charlotte Grassi made her way through the back draw with the entire Grassi family cheering her on.
The highlight match of the weekend was an exhibition match played by World #1 Claire Vigrass and hometown pro, Barney Tanfield. A very large turnout was on hand to watch this match reminiscent of the Billie Jean King versus Bobby Riggs, Battle of the Sexes match. The crowd definitely got the match they wanted to see. Barney was the eventual winner after two very hard fought sets.
The spirit of the sport was exhibited at the home of Melissa and Andrew Purcell as they hosted the tournament dinner and cocktail party. Many supporters of the sport and players’ family and friends turned out for a lovely evening.
We would like to thank Kathleen Carson, Pam Post, and Melissa Purcell for all their efforts putting together the tournament. As always, we are thankful for our amazing pro shop of Barney Tanfield, Rob Whitehouse and Steve Virgona.
Respectfully submitted,
-Gary Swantner
