Columbus Trophy 2007

The Columbus Trophy hosted by IC Belgium July 10 - 14, was a wonderful event. Led by Thierry Brasseur, Christiana Mercelis and Ronald Bettens, the Belgians provided great hospitality to the participants. The social events, dinners, city tours and the awards ceremony were very well done.

The competition held at the Royal Leopold and Royal Racing clubs had participants from 18 countries. Several countries had former Davis Cup players and ITF World Champions on their rosters so the quality of the play was of a high standard with many close matches.

The USIC 55 team was represented by Bob Litwin, Charlie Hoeveler and Michael Beautyman. The 65 team had Fred Drilling, Thay Butchee and Joe Bachmann.

We were seeded number 2 behind a very strong German team. In the first round we beat the Bahamas followed by a victory over Great Britain and then a win in a very close match over the Spanish team in the semifinals, which came down to the second tie - breaking mechanism of games won (after matches won and then sets won). The match against Germany was quite competitive with three matches going three sets but in the end we prevailed by the final score of 4 - 2.

I want to compliment our players for their sportsmanship and the positive way they represented the USIC. It was a pleasure to play for the team.