LAS VEGAS, NV- Two New England Adult 40 & Over 4.0 teams traveled nearly 3,000 miles to compete at the USTA League National Championships from October 26-28 at the Darling Tennis Center and Lorenzi Park in Las Vegas, NV. The 4.0 women, from Lakeville Athletic Club in Lakeville, MA are captained by Lee Dupre and finished 1-1 on Friday. The men, from Enfield Tennis Club in Enfield, CT are captained by Jonathan Han and also finished at a 1-1 mark on day one. 

The women came up just short to begin their day with a 3-2 loss against Pacific Northwest. New England dropped both singles positions, but sisters Lee Dupre and Greta Fox and partners Alicia Stansbury and Elizabeth Straub each picked up doubles victories. Lakeville’s Linda Armanetti and Lee McCaffrey forced their opponents into a second-set tiebreak in the final doubles match, but came up just short.

In their second match against Southern, New England bounced back for a 3-2 win. Mary Bourque avenged her singles loss in the first match by picking up a three-set win in her next go around. Stansbury and Straub picked up their second win of the day, while Dupre and Christine Keller earned the No. 3 doubles point.  

On the men’s side, Jonathan Han’s team opened their tournament with a 3-2 win against Southwest. A singles point from Mike Freedman and a doubles victory from Dito Vazquez and Daniel Torres set the table for Han and partner Jay Kimmel to close out the match. In a near three-hour thriller, Han and Kimmel won the first set in a tiebreak and dropped the second, 7-5. The third-set supertiebreak saw both pairs fatigued but determined to pull through for their teams. 

Leading 9-7 in the supertiebreak with Kimmel set to serve for the match, Han fell to the ground with a cramp in his calf that became too painful to bear. After a brief delay that forced the tournament trainer and Southwest players to tend to Han, Han stood up and attempted to finish the match. Unable to run, Han and Kimmel relinquished their lead as Southwest knotted the score at 9-9. The teams then split points, and in heroic fashion, Han contributed to the next two points won by New England, clinching them the position and match. 

The New England luck ran out in their evening match however, as they took just one position from a gritty Mid-Atlantic squad. Vazquez and Torres won their doubles position once again, 7-5, 7-5, and Sam Ho and the pairs of TJ Megas/Kishi Talati and Mike Freedman/Larry Eagan lost in third-set supertiebreaks. 

The top four teams from the men’s and women’s field advance to Sunday’s semifinal matches. New Englandteams are still in contention to compete on Sunday, but they will likely have to win both matches on Saturday and get some help from tiebreakers. 

The men’s team plays Eastern and Northern California on Saturday, while the women square off against Florida and Midwest. 

Follow the championships with live score updates here.