Welland octogenarian lives up to super-senior billing on court
Joyce Cutts still capable of making quite a racket at age 86
“I think I like to play the forehand.”
With that request, Sabine Leflaive, 85, of France began her partnership with Joyce Cutts, 86, of Welland in women’s doubles at in International Tennis Federation Super-Seniors tournament in Croatia.
Taking the court with little, or no, practice was not at unusual at the 10-day Garnar Mulloy Cup in Umag. The twosome that beat Cutts-Leflaive for the gold medal — one woman from Ireland, the other from the Netherlands — was also thrown together at the last minute.
“They hadn’t played together either,” Cutts recalled.
A big reason for that is the dwindling participation in the 85 and older category. Only 16 competed in the singles flight at this
year’s tournament.
“We’re kind of slimming down,” said Cutts, one of only two Canadians in the 85-plus category.
Cutts, a member of the University of Alberta Hall of Fame and the Welland Sports Wall of Fame, met Lefaive at a tournament last year, but even that didn’t give them time to practise together.
“You don’t have much time, I didn’t even have a warmup with her because we were all in different hotels,” Cutts said. “Thirtysome countries come there, so it’s a busy place.”
At Umag, Cutts, who won four national championships in Canada, each time with a different playing partner, also competing in mixed doubles, winning bronze alongside of Gordon Oates from Great Britian and in singles, advancing to the second round before being eliminated.
Despite their lack of time together on the court, Cutts and Lefaive defeated a U.S. team 6-2, 6-2 to open the tournament.
“Straight off the bat we get there and she says, ‘I think I like to play the forehand,’” Cutts recalled with a chuckle. “We don’t even practise, but she plays the forehand and I play the backhand.”
Their final went to three sets: they won the first, lost the second.
“In the third set at our age we don’t play a full third set, we play to 10 points. We lost 10-7.”
Last year she competed in a tennis tournament in Orlando but had to scramble at the last minute to find a partner in mixed doubles after her first choice needed cataract surgery.
“I get on the internet and ITF finds me this gentleman from Great Britian, Gordon Oates,” she said.
“He and I went right to the finals. Everybody was watching us, it was just so exciting.
“We lost to an Australian couple who have been playing together for years.”
Cutts has been playing tennis since she was 18. She prefers doubles, especially now that she’s older.
“I simply play more doubles when I’m here in Welland, I just don’t play enough singles,” she said. “In singles, they do the drop shot against me and it’s hard for me to run up and get that drop shot.”
Her next birthday cake will be topped with 87 candles, but that won’t stop Cutts from returning to Croatia to compete at the tournament next year.
“Oh, absolutely I’m going to go, it’s going to be in the same place,” she said. “It’s right on the Adriatic and it’s a gorgeous place.
“The weather was 30 degrees centigrade the whole week, it was beautiful.”
When it comes to keeping active and playing tennis the retired educator ignores the calendar.
“I don’t even feel 86, I really don’t feel it,” she said. “More like about 70, 65.”
Cutts, who works out on 10 to 12 machines three mornings a week at The Y in Welland, attributes her longevity in athletics to her ancestry and growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan.
“I’m of Danish ancestry and my father was a physical performer who could do anything he wanted — stand on his head, walk on his hands.”
Cutts keeps going because she can.
“I have the physical ability to keep going, and it’s my talent,” she said. “Everybody has a talent, and tennis is my talent.”
‘‘ “I don’t even feel 86, I really don’t feel it. More like about 70, 65.” JOYCE CUTTS ITF Super-Senior silver medallist