IC Spain Champions of the Abdesselam Trophy

Madrid, July 2023

During the 5th and 9th of July, our veteran teams +50 and +60 were crowned champions of the Robert Abdesselam Trophy Tournament held at the facilities of the Club de Tenis Chamartín in Madrid, under excellent hospitality and organization.

The competition, organized this time by IC Spain, pays tribute to the figure of Robert Abdesselam, junior champion of France, vice president of the French Tennis Federation and the International Federation, as well as a member of the Davis Cup team. Additionally, he was a founder of NATO, served as a volunteer during World War II, and created the Robert Abdesselam Foundation to support French tennis and promote competition for retired players from the professional circuit.

The competition format is a "round-robin" in doubles mode: 1 women's doubles, 1 men's doubles, and 2 mixed doubles (50/55 and 55/60). Each match won earns one point, so the winning team is the one with the most points after the three days of competition.

For this edition, the IC Spain team was formed by Rosa Bielsa, Carmen Chillida, Carmen Mendaro, Ángel Arbelo, Juan Avendaño, Javier Linares (Captain-player), and Javier Molina, who competed against the International IC teams of Belgium, France, and the invited IC team for this occasion, Norway. Spain emerged victorious in a hard-fought final against France.

The awards ceremony was attended by Nicolás Ramos (President of Club de Tenis Chamartín), Javier Linares (Sports Vice President of CTCH, Captain, and IC Spain executive), and Chema Iñigo (Sports Director of the club and competition supervisor).

It was a heartfelt tournament where, once again, we enjoyed good tennis among friends and had the additional privilege, through the Higher Sports Council (Consejo Superior de Deportes), of witnessing the presentation of the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit to Spanish tennis player Garbiñe Muguruza.

Ireland and Spain claim Potter Cup titles

Ireland has won the Potter Cup title for the first time, scoring a 5-2 win over France on the final day of the International Club’s flagship men’s senior tennis competition. The women’s title went to Spain, who successfully defended their title in a repeat of last year’s final against Italy.

A total of 12 national IC teams were in Barcelona for the competition, which was played on the courts of the Real Club de Polo and Real Club de Tenis Barcelona 1899 from May 30st to June 2nd 2019.

The men’s event saw a series of upsets as unseeded Ireland tore through the draw, outlasting third seeds United States 4-3 on the opening day and hosts Spain 5-2 in the semi-finals. In the top half of the draw, fourth seeded France edged past Great Britain 4-3 before ending Italy’s four-year unbeaten streak in the semi-finals by the same score line.

The final day saw the two teams poised for another nail bitingly close finished after Ireland led 3-2 following a series of brutal singles battles, of which all but one went to three sets. Unfortunately, the French team had to withdraw from the doubles matches, handing victory to a jubilant Irish team. Ireland thus becomes just the eighth nation ever to win a title at the 47 editions of the Potter Cup, following in the footsteps of IC Spain, IC Italy, IC USA, IC Great Britain, IC Brazil, IC Germany and IC France.  

There were fewer upsets in the women’s competition, which saw the top seeded teams emerge to battle for the Two Presidents’ Trophy for a second year in succession. Having beaten Great Britain and Ireland respectively without the loss of a match, Spain and Italy revelled in the chance of a re-match, which went to the wire.

The tie could not have been closer, with the two teams splitting the singles matches (Eva Bes beat Alice Canepa 7-5 6-2 to give the hosts the lead before Francesca Frappi levelled with a 6-2 6-2 win over Noelia Perez). For the deciding doubles, Spain drafted in Gisela Riera to partner Perez, with the pair eventually scraping to a thrilling 6-3 4-6 (12-10) win over Canepa & Frappi to defend the title. 

The tournament also staged its now traditional tennis clinic for players with intellectual disabilities from the ACELL Foundation, who had the opportunity to play alongside Potter Cup participants in an entertaining on-court session.

In addition to the two hosting clubs, the 2019 Potter Cup was supported by the Catalan Tennis Federation, the IC Council, the Barcelona Town City Hall, the Diputación de Barcelona,  the Consell Català de l’Esport and the Spanish Tennis Federation.