Players from 34 countries gathered at the prestigious All England Club on Sunday 4th August to take part in the IC of GB’s Centenary Week. Following a captain’s meeting the teams were officially welcomed to London with a social trip on board the Dixie Queen boat with a Cocktail cruise along the River Thames on a beautiful summer’s evening, perfectly capturing the ethos of the International Lawn Tennis Club.
On Monday morning it was back to business as the teams arrived ready to play the first day in a combination of singles and doubles matches across both men’s and ladies’ tournaments, respectively the Windmill Cup and the Mercelis Cup.
In the Windmill Cup, there were victories for hosts Great Britain over Germany, while third seeds France defeated Belgium 4-0. There were also wins for Denmark, Bermuda, South America, New Zealand, Norway and Canada.
Seb Jackson, who opened the singles for Great Britain, said: “I found it really hard work out there today, I was thinking it would be quite a fun week. My opponent was a bit of an unknown entity for me, and he played really well; I couldn’t get a break, until we were at 4-4. From there it sounds easy, but it was actually really hard to close it out to 6-4.
“In the second set the games were long and competitive, and he just never seemed able to finish it. So, I’m really pleased to have got the win and get the team off to a good start.”
In the ladies’ draw, a dominant display in both the singles and doubles from Michelle Paroubek saw Hong Kong and Switzerland secure victory over Hungary. After the match she said:
“I was just overwhelmed by playing on grass today. I knew my game is quite good on grass, so I have been working for about a year for it, changing a few things in my game to adapt to the surface. I love using my backhand slice to approach the net and it worked really well today. Nobody likes that – Roger did it as well, so I thought ‘why not’, and it worked!
“We face France, the top seeds in the next round tomorrow, who will be a very different opponent.
“I am just loving the experience. The evening last night was incredible, it was so nice with the weather and to dress up it was just so wonderful. I’m meeting so many people from everywhere in the world, some of whom I know from the World Championships and from other ICs, but it’s really nice to meet each other and I love that everybody loves tennis and that everybody is really grateful to be here and play a competitive match together.
“Playing at Wimbledon is incredible; we never get to play in a place like this usually, so it’s just lovely and I’m so grateful for the experience.”
In the second fixture in the Mercelis Cup today, Germany overcame the Netherlands with an incredible performance from Gitte Moller in her singles match against Olga Kalyusnahya. Denmark won the third with victory over Norway, while Australia beat Croatia.
John Feaver, President of the IC of Great Britain commented: “It was great to see the true spirit of the IC coming together and so many people around the world playing on the famous grass courts of the All England Club, which most of them won’t have done before.
“A lot of friendships have been renewed over the last few days and many more will be made over the course of the week ahead. As the week progresses, I’m looking forward to seeing the competition intensify and even more quality matches on the courts.”
A full list of results from today’s matches can be found here.
View photo highlights of the day here.