APTA Eliminates Tiebreakers

APTA sought reaction from players to this innovation by the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA¹)

Note 1: The USTA was previously known as the United States National Lawn Tennis Association that was established in 1881. In 1920 the word “National” was dropped and in 1975 the word “Lawn” was dropped

National Championships – now the Women had a Senior event

The 1971 Nationals included the inaugural Women’s 50+.

The men had a 128 team draw, and the final was a repeat of the previous years. This win made it a hat-trick for Gray and Sammis, the second hat-trick in the game’s history (Hebard and Carver had won in 1961-1963).

The new and up and coming team of Gloria Dillenbeck and B.J. DeBree won their first title, defeating the winners of the last four events, Charlotte Lee and Peggy Stanton.

Tad Bowen and Sidney Sweet, Jr. repeated as finalists in the Men’s 50+, losing to Robert Baldwin and George Schmid. William Miller and Gregory Prince won the Men’s 60+, while Charlotte Lee and partner Clair Hesseltine won the inaugural Women’s 50+.

In the Junior’s, Charles (Chip) Baird Jr. won his third straight and future Hall of Fame member, Rich Maier, was a finalist.

Source: The APTA Paddle Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 2 & 3