2009 Heads-n-Tails at The Club August 2009By Scott Harrison
Mixed Doubles Is Back, Regan and Solarova Win the Main Draw!
Friday, Saturday and Sunday at The Club in Gulf Breeze, the old pre-Ivan number of teams in an area mixed doubles tournament has returned. Club tennis professional and tournament director, Geoff Watts, slaved hard to get a full 64 team draw and what fun the whole weekend was. Despite the rains all 32 matches were played Friday night, the last finishing a little after 11:00PM.
Former UWF All-Americans Geoff Watts and Rick Regan and their partners, Jackie Kasler and Adriana Solarova respectively, faced off in the finals with Regan and Solarova taking top honors 2-6,6-2,6-3. The caliber of play was stellar with the fans erupting in applause on nearly every point.
The top eight teams were again very strong harking back to the late 80's and mid-90's when all the area pros and the UWF players participated. Watts, assistant director Brian Sakey and referee, Scott Harrison, all agreed that, along with the top players, there were many new faces to the Compass Draw format and it seemed everyone had a good time with all the tennis.
Club owner's Chuck and Penny Emling were out there slaving away doing the courts, cleaning up trash and generally making everyone feel good about playing at the Family Sports Complex. Mary and Duane kept things hopping at the Cafe.
Players enjoyed soft drinks, beverages all weekend and heavy hors d'oeuvre Friday, burgers and hot dogs at Noon on Saturday, wonderful Geoff Watts jambalaya for dinner and lasagna for lunch on Sunday. Good healthy lo-cal donuts were available in the morning!!
The semi's and finals of the Main Draw provided some of the best tennis seen around here in years. Local juniors, Jackie Kasler and Jennifer Pfeifler, showed off their talents for the locals and it was so nice to see them play here as we rarely get to see them play around Pensacola in such tough competition. UWF-er, Caitlin Baines, was also in fine form as was former South Alabama player, Adriana Solarova.