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.

Andres Gimeno

It is our sad duty to report that Andres Gimeno, great gentleman, and great ambassador of the values that the International Club promotes, honorary member of the IC of Spain and the first professional player of our country, passed away on Wednesday 9^th October after a long battle with illness. 

Having lived a life dedicated to tennis, he participated in tennis events in all different categories from a young age. A member of the Davis Cup Spanish team from 1958-60, 1972 and 1973 he accumulated a 23-10 win/loss record in the competition and was considered a national hero.  After winning the Trofeo Conde de Godó in his own club in Barcelona in 1960, he was recruited by Jack Kramer to join the professional tour.   He left for Australia to practice with the great legends Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and Pancho Gonzalez and with his great friend Lis Arilla.  Together they travelled through Paris, Rome, Cairo, Karachi, Calcutta, Bangkok and Perth. In 1968, following the split between the professional and amateur tours, Andres still had time to enjoy participating in the grand slams.  In 1969 he became the first Spanish player to reach the finals of the Australian Open, where he lost to Rod Laver.  He also reached two other Grand Slam semi-finals, losing to Ken Rosewall in five sets and to John Newcombe respectively.  But his most outstanding final was the momentous victory at the French Open against Patrick Proisy by 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-1. 

In later life, Andres continued to play as a senior player, participating in the Potter Cup from 1982 to 1989. His great sporting achievements led him to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009.