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 reigns again at Abdesselam Trophy

The sixth edition of the Robert Abdesselam Trophy was held last weekend at the Club de Campo in Madrid, where the IC of Spain were joined by competitors from the IC of Belgium, IC of France and IC of Great Britain. As always, it proved to be a highly competitive weekend which went right down to the last match and even called for a set count back. But it was the host nation, the IC of Spain, who were eventually crowned winners.

On the first day of play, the Spanish team defeated the Belgians by 3 matches to 1 in a close battle. The GB and French fixture saw 3 out of 4 of the matches going to a third set match tie-break, with the IC of GB coming out on top on all three occasions to triumph by 3 matches to 1.

On the Saturday, whilst the GB team defeated the Belgians by 4 matches to 0, the IC of France and IC of Spain were all square after four matches and needed a deciding rubber to decide the result. It was the French who edged out the host nation on this occasion and therefore moving into the final day of matches, it was all to play for.

On Sunday, the IC of France saw off the Belgians by 3 matches to 1 and the IC of Spain staged a remarkable comeback to beat the Brits by 3 matches to 1, with the spectators enjoying some extremely high quality doubles play. This therefore left both GB and Spain with a total of 8 matches won and therefore the need to go back to a set count back. With a positive balance of eight sets for the IC of Spain compared to five sets for the IC of GB, it was the host nation that were crowned champions on this occasion.

The victorious team was comprised of Patricia Couder, Charo Couder, Rosa Bielsa, Monica Alvarez Mon, Berta Tintoré, Juan Carlos Andrade, Javier Molina, Juan Avendaño, Carlos de Miguel and Antonio Zapatero, who also captained the team. The President of the Abdesselam Foundation, Mr. Jean Pierre Herve Gautier, and Mr Juan Mª Tintoré, the President of IC Spain, attended the official dinner and the prize giving ceremony.

Congratulations to and appreciations for the IC of Spain for their victory, hospitality and for hosting such an enjoyable and successful weekend. 

 Final positions:
 1. IC of Spain
 2. IC of GB
 3. IC of France
 4. IC of Belgium

For full results and to see the final draw, please click on the file below.