Diamond Jubilee 2008

August 25 - 29, 2008
Chevy Chase, MD, USA
Chevy Chase Club
The US IC celebrated its over 75 years of existence by holding a Diamond Jubilee celebration at the Chevy Chase Club near Washington, DC in the last week of August, 2008. The IC's of 21 countries participated in the Jubilee by entering teams in one or more of four tournaments and attending various social events to mark the occasion. The event included 56 teams, about 200 players and captains and a number of accompanying persons.

For the first time in the history of all the IC's around the world, a single event included play for four of the major IC tournaments: the Windmill Trophy, for men's open division and 45's; the Christiane Mercelis Trophy, for women's open division and 40's; the Columbus Trophy, for men's 55's and 65's; and the Carreta Trophy, for women's 50's and 60's. The Windmill, Mercelis and Columbus tournaments had full draws of 16 teams each, while the Carreta had one of 8. In fact, two of the tournaments had waiting lists of teams that would have liked to have entered. The size of the draws was limited by the number of courts available, which for the first three days included those of 4 clubs in addition to those of the host Chevy Chase Club.

The teams came from all over the world: Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the U. S. The caliber of the teams was very high, and included many former Davis and Fed Cup players and such well known tennis names as Jeremy Bates and Nick Fulwood from Great Britain, Catarina Lindquist Ryan from Sweden, Michel LeClercq from France, and Richey Reneberg and Fred McNair from the United States.

In addition to the main draws, each tournament included first and second round Consolation draws, with the idea that teams coming from around the world should know that they could expect to play at least 3 times. Unfortunately, while most teams did get to play that often, steady rain on the last two days precluded finishing the Consolation tournaments. All the main draws, however, were completed, with the finals being played indoors in a shortened format.

The Windmill Trophy was won by Great Britain, beating the United States in the finals. Sweden triumphed over Germany to win the Mercelis Trophy. The United States won both the Columbus and Carreta tournaments, over France and Great Britain, respectively. The draws and individual scores are posted under the heading for those tournaments.

Social events played a major role in making the celebration a success. An opening reception at the Chevy Chase Club on a beautiful night and with drinks and delicious

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