World Veterans Update: Saturday Doubles
(By Steve Hopkins)

The 19th World Veteran Championships is underway at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in Las Vegas, NV.  The event began on June 18 and will finish with the finals of doubles events on Saturday and the finals of singles events on Sunday. This event has drawn nearly 5,000 players from 97 countries.  Saturday featured the finals of the Doubles Events.  Here are the Doubles results:

MEN’S DOUBLES

Men’s Over 40 Doubles went to the Indonesian team of Harinto and Jacobs.  Men’s Over 45 Doubles went to the team of Jorg Rosskopf of Germany and Weixing Chen of Austria – both very recognizable names in the US as both have played and won many tournaments here.  Perhaps the most recognizable team in the tournament won the Over 50 Doubles as Sweden’s Erik Lindh and Jorgen Persson brought their world championship doubles team out of retirement to compete and win again.  Bohm (Germany) and Ciociu (Luxemborg) took the Over 55 Doubles title.

The Chinese team of Cai and Huang won the Over 60 Doubles.  Polak (Czech Republic) and Theil (Germany) teamed up to win the Over 65 Doubles.  The Over 70 title went to Korbel (Slovakia) and Ling (Malaysia).  The Over 75 event was won by the Australian team of Klaf and Reid.  The Over 80 winning team included American Chong Keng Tay who teamed with Wing Cheong Mok of Singapore – the defeated the Chinese team of Zonxi Zhang and Mingsheng Chen.  The Over 85 title went to the French team of Decret and Yahiel.  And the Over 90 title went to Ruzha (Czech Republic) and Laine (France) who lost only one game in their four wins.

WOMEN’S DOUBLES

Women’s Over 40 Doubles was won by Rita Kertai (Hungary) and Libuse Horakova (Czech Republic).  The Over 45 event was won by Toelhoj (Denmark) and Gummesson-Sorling (Sweden).  The Over 50 title went to the Taipei team of Lin and Tong.  It was an all-China finals in the Over 55, with Hu and Qin winning.  The Over 60 title went to the German team of Ilves-Schalk and Walter.  The Over 65 event was won by the Chinese team of Guo and Luo.   Women’s Over 70 was won by the Japanese team of Tomoko Egami and Michie Yoshimura – they ended the run of American legends Donna Sakai and Connie Sweeris.  In the Over 75 event, the Chinese team of Tan and Xu took the title.  And the Over 80 title went to the Japanese team of Harada and Nagase.

Check in at ButterflyOnline.com for results of the singles finals which will be played on Sunday (6/24).