Donna Fales leads the group of American medalists at the ITF Masters Individual World Championships in Bol, Croatia.

Draws and results are here.

Donna Fales, W85, won four medals at the ITF World Championships: in week one she led the USA Women’s 85 Team to victory, playing singles and doubles in every match, and in week two she won the 85 singles and doubles (with Roz King, USA) and the 80 mixed (with Fred Drilling, USA). She only dropped three singles matches all week. King was a bronze medalist in 85 singles and mixed doubles (with Nick Ourusoff, USA).

Donna Floyd Fales, W85s, Golden Girl, US Players Consensus (and I’m sure others): absolute legend. I hit with Donna in Mallorca a few years ago… she wore me out, she hit a heavy ball.

Fred Drilling won, in addition to the 80 mixed, the men’s 80 doubles with Jimmy Parker (USA); Jimmy was a finalist in the men’s 80 division, falling in a tiebreak to Italy’s Antonio Claudi in the final. Parker was the only American man to win a medal in singles. David Dollins/Jody Rush earned bronze medals in 80 doubles.

Brian Cheney/David Fish won the 75 doubles and defeated Canadians Tim Griffin/Chris Burr in the final.

Chuck Nelson, USA, was a silver medalist in 90 men’s doubles.

In the women’s ’75, Gwenda Ward maintained her No. 2 ranking and reached the final before falling to defending champion Marjorie Love of Great Britain. She was a bronze medalist in 75 doubles (with Tuija Hannukainen) and a gold medalist in the 75 mixed (with Frenchman Bruno Renault, champion in the men’s 75 singles). Liane Bryson and Ann Stanley, USA, were finalists in the women’s 75 doubles and Bryson was the finalist in the mixed doubles (with Petr Kolacek). Stanley was a 75 mixed bronze medalist (with Niall Sweeney).

Roz King noted that Liane and her competitive, smiling spirit and smarts were the talk of the stands. Gwenda gained a lot of respect for the way she built herself up and competed against other top quality players, especially in mixed. “a force to be reckoned with”

In the women’s 80s, Sue Kimball/Betty Wachob were the gold medalists, beating Carolann Castell (USA) and Telsche Andree of Germany in the final. Kimball lost a heartbreaker in the singles semifinals to Gail Benedetti, 12–10 in the match tiebreaker, but finished with a bronze medal in singles.

Roz King: “Sue and Betty did their double act quietly and beautifully.”