Wilbur Jones' Team Places Third at International Competition

Wilbur Jones of Shawnee, Kan. competed on the third-place Men's 80 & Over Gardnar Mulloy Cup team at the ITF Super Seniors World Team Championships in Umag, Croatia. Jones plays USTA League tennis in USTA Heart of America and USTA National tournaments. He was inducted into the USTA Missouri Valley Hall of Fame in 2016.

The tournament is the senior tennis equivalent of the Davis Cup and Fed Cup competitions, with top American tennis players representing their country in the 65-, 70-, 75-, 80- and 85-and-over age groups. This is the first time that the event featured the women’s 85-and-over division.  The ITF Super-Seniors World Team Championships is the most prestigious team event on the ITF Seniors circuit.

Overall, American teams won five of the 10 titles at the 39th International Tennis Federation (ITF) Super-Seniors World Team Championships.  The women’s team won three titles while the men won two, one of which was the men’s 85-and-over division title for the third year in a row after its debut in 2017.

The American women prevailed in the Kitty Godfree Cup (Women's 65-and-over) and Althea Gibson Cup (Women's 70-and-over) after posting 3-0 victories against Germany and Great Britain in the respective finals.  Wendy McColskey and Tina Karwasky ensured the U.S. retained the Kitty Godfree Cup with wins in the two singles matches, while Jan Kirkland-Cochran and Lilian Peltz-Petow added to it with the doubles win.  It was a similar result in the Althea Gibson Cup as Judy Dixon and Toni Novack won their singles matches before Liane Bryson and Brenda Carter overcame Belinda Blackburn and Rosemary J. Wilson in the doubles.  The U.S. also tasted victory in the Women's 85 Team Cup (Women’s 85-and-over), which was being contested for the first time, as they defeated Argentina 6-1. This clash was contested over five days and across four singles and three doubles matches.

The American men also claimed two victories in the Bitsy Grant Cup (Men’s 75-and-over) and Men's 85 Team Cup (Men’s 85-and-over).  The Men’s 75 team saw them trailing after the first match before Jimmy Parker leveled the contest at one with a victory over Peter Pokorny. Long and Parker then joined forces to take the deciding doubles point again Pokorny and Richard Salzmann in the doubles for the victory. The Men's 85 Cup saw the American men defeat Germany 3-0 in the final as a result of singles wins for George McCabe and King van Nostrand and a doubles victory for McCabe and Joseph Russell.

Following the ITF Super-Seniors World Team Championships, the World Individual Championships will be held September 21-28.

Gardnar Mulloy Cup - Men's 80 & over - Result: 3rd Place

1. Herman Ahlers, Las Vegas

2. Lester Sack, New Orleans, Captain

3. Robert Quall, Merced, Calif.

4. Wilbur Jones, Shawnee, Kan.