IC Spain has won the 40th edition of the Potter Cup, defending their title with a narrow victory over IC United States in the international team event held at RC Polo in Barcelona, Spain, from 31 May – 3 June.
Nine teams competed in this edition of the championship, as well as a Spanish B-Team which took part in the consolation event. The opening rounds of the main draw saw Germany beat Luxembourg 4-1 before going on to lose to the United States by the same score. Meanwhile, in their opening matches, Spain beat Belgium 5-0, France beat Great Britain 6-1 and last year’s runners-up Italy beat Ireland 7-0.
The semi-finals were much more competitive, with Spain edging past France 4-3 and the USA overcoming Italy 5-2 to set up a re-match of the 2004 final, in which the visitors claimed the most recent of their six Potter Cup titles.
On finals day the hosts established a 2-0 lead early on as David de Miguel beat Over 45s World Champion Jeff Greenwald 6-2 7-6(2) and Carlos Costa, playing at his home club, outlasted Mario Tabares 6-4 2-6 7-5. The Americans hit back strongly to level up, with Joey Rive beating Santiago Tintoré 6-1 6-2 and Carl Clark beating Francisco Garcia 6-4 6-2 in the third and fourth rubbers.
The final singles match saw Eduardo Osta come from behind to beat Matt Litsky 4-6 6-2 6-1 to enable Costa & De Miguel to seal the win with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Greenwald & Rive in the first of two double rubbers. Clark & Tabares then beat Tintoré and Francesc Castella 6-4 7-5 for a final score of 4-3 to IC Spain.
The Potter Cup is a friendly competition for International Clubs from around the world. Many of the players that took part were touring professionals and maintain contact to this day, underlining the friendly nature of the competition. The tournament also saw a number of social events including a welcome cocktail at the RC Polo, the traditional dinner at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899 where a cake was cut by the team captains together with the President of the Potter Cup Marco Gilardelli and the President of IC Spain, Juan Maria Tintoré, and a closing dinner at the RC Polo where a special plaque was awarded to the club in recognition of its 33 years as host of the competition.
The event was organised by IC Spain and was supported by the Catalan Tennis Federation, Spanish Tennis Federation, Barcelona's City Hall, the Sports Council of Catalonia, the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899 and the host club, Real Club de Polo. Many of the players expressed their intentions to return to the club in July of this year, when it will host an ITF Senior Circuit event, and of course to be back next year for the 41st edition of the Potter Cup.