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

To coincide with the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell 2022, the traditional Potter Cup & Two Presidents Cup Committee meeting was held this week in order to review the success of the previous edition and formalise the arrangements for the next edition.

Participating in the meeting were Marco Gilardelli, President of IC Italy and the Potter Cup, Jordi Tamayo, President of the Catalan Tennis Federation, Josep Costa representing RCTB 1899, Jose Rafael de Gispert of RC Polo, together with the director of the competition, Berta Tintore.

The level of the participants has grown exponentially, with the current world champions in both categories among the competitors. The participating teams have welcomed the change of dates to week 42, a move intended to facilitate participation and ensure that the lineups include the best players from each nation.

The Potter Cup will once again include in its program a clinic for the special players of the Acell Federation, which will be hosted by the players of the participating teams.