Canberra\u2019s Helen Holcombe has won gold at the Super Seniors World Individual Championships held in Umag, Croatia in September.\u00a0\u00a0 Holcombe combined with Germany\u2019s Reinhilde Adams to win the gold medal in the 65+ Women\u2019s Doubles.<\/p>\n
It was Holcombe\u2019s first gold medal in her third appearance at the World Championships, after previously winning silver in the team\u2019s event in 2000.<\/p>\n
After receiving a walkover in the opening round, the pairing upset the number 2 seeds in the quarterfinals, before coming from behind in the semifinals to defeat the fourth seeds, 10-8 in a match tiebreak.<\/p>\n
The final saw them face seventh seeds Marjory Love and Rosemary Wilson from Great Britain.\u00a0 After dropping the first set 6-4, Holcombe and Adams responded to win the second 6-2.\u00a0 They then held their nerve to clinch the tiebreak 10-6, to claim gold.<\/p>\n
Holcombe said the final was a big moment and the duo were pleased to maintain their composure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s an achievement to get into a final where there\u2019s an umpire, you\u2019re playing in a stadium with your name in lights, and not let your nerves get the better of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holcombe and Adams were the eighth seeds and surprisingly had never played together, but Holcombe said their games really complemented each other<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work well together as a team, because she\u2019s really good on the baseline and I work better at the net. She\u2019s an ideal doubles partner because she\u2019s very fit and very determined, which is a bit like me.”<\/p>\n
While Holcombe has been played in teams events for a number of years, since retiring in March 2017, she has spent a lot more time back on the court.\u00a0 Holmcombe also teamed up with her husband, Greg in the mixed where the pairing lost a tough 7-5 5-7 7-10 encounter to eventual silver medalists Lillian Geey and Godfrey Evans.<\/p>\n
Holcombe will now prepare to represent the ACT at the Australian Seniors Team Championships in Shepparton in January, before competing in the Individual events the following week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Canberra\u2019s Helen Holcombe has won gold at the Super Seniors World Individual Championships held in Umag, Croatia in September.\u00a0\u00a0 Holcombe combined with Germany\u2019s Reinhilde Adams to win the gold medal in the 65+ Women\u2019s Doubles. It was Holcombe\u2019s first gold medal in her third appearance at the World Championships, after previously winning silver in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5789,"featured_media":14311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5789"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}