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.

France & Germany win Potter Cup and Two Presidents Cup

France’s men’s and Germany’s ladies’ teams are the champions of the 48^th Potter Cup and 4th Two Presidents' Cup respectively, which were held in Barcelona during the weekend of October 21-24, 2021.

35 years on from their last title, France held aloft the trophy after beating Italy 4/3 in a gruelling final that could have gone either way. With France leading 3/2 after the five singles matches, Italy levelled the tie with the first doubles match, a convincing win for Marcelo Charpentier & Lorenzo Pennisi. This set the stage for a deciding doubles match, won by Rodolphe Gilbert & Christophe Gibiard 7-6(3) 6-1 over Roberto Pertosa & Andrea Monti.

Playing at the RC Polo, the two teams had identical paths to the final, dropping just one match in each of their opening two ties. Italy beat Great Britain and Germany in the top half of the draw. Seeded second, France overcame the USA and the hosts and defending champions, Spain.

The IC Spain team eventually finished in fourth place. Captained by Santiago Tintore, it included Jordi Mas, Alex Lopez Moron, Xavier Llucià, Marc Becker, Oriol Molina, Antonio Diaz de las Casas and David Pons.

World Champions Germany arrived as top seeds and favourites to win the ladies’ IV Two Presidents’ Cup title that had been in the hands of the hosts since its first edition in 2018. They eventually won all three of their matches (against Spain B, Great Britain and, in the final, Spain) with a decisive 2/0 score line.

The final produced the match of the tournament, in which Germany’s world #1 of the Over 40s category Manon Kruse was forced to battle hard against Spain’s Gisela Riera before eventually securing a 6-3 5-7 7-6(6) win. Gitte Müller beat Cristina Fontelles for the loss of just one game in the other singles match, securing Germany an insurmountable 2/0 win. 

The IC Spain women’s team was rounded off by Eva Bes and Neus Avila, and for its part had beaten Belgium and Italy at the RCT Barcelona-1899, before the ladies’ competition moved to the RC Polo for the finals.

A total of 15 teams – 8 men’s and 7 ladies’ – were in action over the weekend. The official dinner saw the players and captains express their gratitude - for the organisation and for the work carried out by the late IC President, Juan Maria Tintoré. The IC Spain in return thanked the players for showing their commitment to the event.

In line with tradition, the tournament also staged its popular tennis clinic for players with intellectual disabilities from the ACELL Foundation, who took the opportunity to play alongside Potter Cup participants during the on-court session.

In addition to the two hosting clubs, the Potter Cup was supported by the Federació Catalana de Tennis, the IC Council, the Ajuntament de Barcelona, the Consell Català de l’Esport and the Real Federación Española de Tenis.