Christy Bates unable to play in national tennis tournament

For Christy Bates, her team making the USTA national championships was bittersweet. Bates' team won at the 9.0 Mixed Doubles 40-and-over level at CORTA, then took the Georgia title and recently the Southern championships.

That means the Columbus team will represent the Southern region at the nationals at Surprise, Ariz., just outside of Phoenix, on Nov. 20-22, but Bates will not be there. She was unable to make the trip to the Southern tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn., and did not play the required amount of matches to qualify for nationals.

"I had a work-related conference and could not be there (at Southern)," she said. "I actually had two teams there, one at the adult 18 and up and the other at the 40 and up and I counted on my players to put it all together."

Picking up the mantle for Bates and acting as co-captains were John Crenshaw and Allison Cripe for both teams. The 18 and up team did not make the finals.

"Christy set the first day's lineup, and we then talked to see how we would play from there," Crenshaw said. "We wanted to see how both teams looked after that first day then we talked and decided who would play with whom after that first match.

"The reason for that is on both rosters, each team shares players and we wanted to play for a chance to get to the championship."

The Columbus team lost their first match at a 2-1 score but swept the last two 3-0 to win their flight and earn a berth to the finals, where they played the champions from Mississippi.

"It did not look good as we lost the first set on all three matches," Crenshaw said. "But we came back in two of those and won the second sets and then both third set (10 point) tiebreakers to win the match 2-1 and advance to the national tournament.

"We had a great bunch of folks. Those that went to Southern, we all rented a house together, all eight players there. And it rained a solid day, so we played all out matches on indoor courts. Since Columbus had no indoor courts, it was a challenge."

Playing on the winning team were Crenshaw, Eli Rowell, Rick Stoller and Steve Thiel on the men's side and Ann Newman, Claire Mowling, Cripe and Denise Newton on the women's side.

For the national tournament, Lori Duggan will be talking Mowling's place on the roster.

"We have Columbus folks and two from Carrollton, Newman and Rowell, and one from Villa Rica, Newton. I knew those players from when I lived in Carrollton and then moved down here and got them to join our Columbus team." Crenshaw said.

Columbus is in Flight 2. There are three flights, but the winner of Flight 2 has an automatic bid to the finals. Winners of flights 1 and 3 must play in the semifinals to meet the Flight 2 winner in the championship.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Christy Bates unable to play in national tennis tournament ."