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.

IC Spain reclaims Potter Cup trophy

The IC Spain team led by Roberto Menéndez and captained by Santiago Tintore has reclaimed the Potter Cup title, defeating IC France in the final by a score of 4-1.

The key match saw Menéndez, current world champion in the 45+ category, beaten by Frenchman Arnaud Magnin, who has also held the title of world champion on several occasions, in three tight sets.

With this victory, the Spanish team regains the title they last won in 2013 in the prestigious competition held at the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona and bringing together some of the world’s best veteran players.

This forty-ninth edition of the Potter Cup was disputed by eight IC teams, some of them participating in the competition since its inception, such as the USA, Great Britain, France and Spain. They were joined in this edition by teams from Ireland, Belgium, Germany and Italy. IC Spain had to resort to the final doubles rubber to beat IC Ireland in the first round after a tight 3-2 in singles. In the semi-finals they were squeezed past IC Italia after a retirement by the Italian doubles players due to injury.

The Spanish team was comprised of Roberto Menéndez, Pepe Vicente, Albert Costa, Jordi Mas, Bruno Barrientos, Xaiver Llucià, Eduardo Sanz, Oriol Molina, Antonio Diaz de las Casas and Santiago Tintore as Captain.

In the women's event, IC Italy was the winner of the fifth edition of the Two Presidents Cup, beating the Spanish team in the decisive doubles, with the teams level after the singles matches. The players Rosa Andrés and Gisela Riera lost the third set by the tightest of margins: a 16-14 match tie break. They were accompanied in the team by Cristina Fontelles, Neus Avila and Eva Bes.

During the event, the participants once again were able to participate in a clinic with the group of players from the Acell Federation, which provides playing opportunities for players with learning difficulties.

All the participants have expressed their gratitude for the hospitality received from the Real Club de Polo and RCTB 1899, co-hosts of this competition. The tournament was supported by the Catalan Tennis Federation and the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation.