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.

Potter Cup Committee meets in Barcelona

The Potter Cup Committee yesterday held its traditional meeting coinciding with the opening day of play at the ATP Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, 68^th Conde de Godó Trophy.

As a result of the current sanitary restrictions, many members of the Committee attended the meeting virtually. In attendance were Benson Greatrex (IC Great Britain), Josep Costa (RCTB-1899), Jose Rafael de Gispert (RC Polo), Eva Bes (representative, ladies' competition) and Berta Tintoré, Director of the Competition.

The 48^th edition of this competition for senior teams aged 45 & Over (men) and 40 & Over (women) is scheduled to take place from October 21^st to 24^th, 2021. The event will once again be held at the RC Polo and RCTB-1899 in Barcelona, with the latter club hosting the preliminary rounds of the ladies’ competition. Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, the teams reiterated their intention to take part in the 2021 edition of the tournament.