Women’s President’s Cup inaugurated

To recognize the top amateurs in the country in a time when professional events eclipsed the tournament landscape, the APTA (with original support from Hertz) had created the President’s Cup, a round robin that pitted the top five teams in each of six designated regions of the country. The top sixteen nationally ranked teams were exempt.

While the Men’s President’s Cup was founded in 1978, the Women’s President’s Cup began in 1983. The New Canaan Field Club was the venue, with final playoffs at New Canaan High School on an indoor court.

This event initially ran on a date separate from the National Championships, but as the professional era came to a close, the President’s Cup took its place the day before the APTA Nationals and remains an honored tradition to this day. Many President’s Cup teams have fond memories of playing hotly contested matches late into the evening before a boisterous crowd that would decide the regional “home” of the Cup (and bragging rights) for the next year.

Source: Christina Kelly, Passing Shots: A Pictorial History of Platform Tennis, 2010, and Platform Tennis News, January 1983