USTA Eastern Section Captures the Talbert Cup

May 31, 2011 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff

On May 24, the USTA Eastern Section team, captained by Russell Heier, captured the Talbert Cup for the second time last weekend, defeating teams from New England, Mid-Atlantic and Middles States at the event, which was hosted this year by Sportime Roslyn. The Talbert Cup, an annual event established in 1986 in memory of nine-time Grand Slam Champion Bill Talbert, pits men ages 35 and above in round-robin competition. The format for the 2011 Talbert Cup was six singles and three doubles, with each team playing a full two-out-of-three-set match with advantage (new balls for a third set). The winning team retains the rights to hold onto the Cup, as well as have team members’ names etched into the cup itself.

Members of the 2011 winning Eastern Section team include Russell Heier (captain), Adam Mandell, Tonny Van de Pieterman, Daniel Montez De Oca, Robert Kresberg, Ricky Becker, Robert Janecek, Barry Ruback, Domagoj Hum, Rafael Picon, Raj Vaswani and Adrian Chirici.

"I’m exceptionally proud of this year’s victory,” Heier said. “We won the final match 5-4. One of the greatest efforts I have ever witnessed in tennis was Raj Vaswani going into a full body cramp at one-love in the third set and pulling out a 6-3 victory, giving Ricky Becker & Adrian Chirici a chance to win the final doubles match, 7-5, 6-3 as Eastern prevailed over New England.”

In other matches, Eastern defeated Middle States 7-2 in the first match and New England beat Mid-Atlantic 5-4 to meet Eastern in the finals.

During his career, Bill Talbert won more than 60 national and international tennis doubles championships, was twice runner-up of the U.S. Singles Tennis Championships, five times captain of the U.S. Davis Cup Team, author of seven books on tennis and tournament director and chairman of four U.S. Open tennis tournaments. Talbert, who passed away in 1999, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967.

 

 

 

 


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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