The Aiken Tennis Club was pleased to host the twelfth Annual Calhoun Witham Cup beginning on Tuesday November 1 and concluding on Sunday November 6, 2011. The Tournament was previously known as the Aiken 30+ Handicap and was renamed the Calhoun Witham Cup following the death of A. Calhoun Witham, MD a devotee of high handicap court tennis and a beloved member of the Aiken Tennis Club.
This year the Witham Cup had a sold out field of twenty-four teams from Boston, New York, Washington, Newport and England and one representative from Australia as well as many Aiken players. The field consisted of six Divisions of four teams with each participating team being guaranteed three matches. The top two teams of each division and the next best four “wildcard” teams based on our tie breaker resolution involving sets and games won and lost moved on to Saturday morning’s round of 16. These matches where highly competitive with three of the eight matches going three sets, and two of the matches involved two-set matches where each team won at least four games per set.
In the quarter finals Aiken’s Robert Glance and Philadelphia’s John Iole prevailed against Radley’s Vern Cassin and Sarah Backhouse 2/6 6/5 6/5. Aiken’s Tom Swift and Francois Verglas won over Newport’s Clem Napolitano and Washington’s Martin Whitmer 6/5 6/2. Melbourne’s Bob Malseed and Newport’s Steve Devoe outlasted Petra Napolitano and Kip Curren from Newport 2/6 6/2 6/5. Ginny Goodyear and her son Seth Kopald prevailed in a real nail biter with Aiken’s Jason Mengel and Robert Cook 6/5 5/6 6/5.
This set the stage for the Sunday morning semi finals, but not before the crowd of over one hundred was treated to a gourmet tournament dinner prepared by Chef Brandon from Juniper restaurant.
In the semifinals Goodyear and Kopald beat Glance and Iole 6/4,6/2, while Malseed and Devoe beat Verglas and Swift 6/2 2/6 6/1. A brunch was served compliments of the Witham family after the semi finals.
The finals were played to a packed viewing room and side galleries. Ginny Goodyear and her son Seth Kopald prevailed in a very close and back and forth match over Bob Malseed and Steve Devoe 6/5 6/4.
Results
