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Women's Competitions
Tracy Davis played what must be considered the best ball of her career, dominating her opponents to reach the finals and then defeating current World Champion Karen McConney 21-14 and 21-3 to take the women's open. Tracy displayed both power and speed demonstrating she can put together the type of game to make her a major presence in the sport.
If spectators had a feeling of deja vu during the Women's Doubles finals, it would be understandable. Once again, the finals were a showdown between Barbara Canton-Jackson and Dori Ten against Adrian Floyd and Karen McConney. Since the Championship Women's Doubles began, 9 years ago, Barbara and Dori have appeared in evey finals match. In 1996 and 97, they defeated Adrian and Karen, however, for the past three years they walked away as runner-ups against the same team. This year Canton-Jackson and Ten were in command throughout the match and coasted to two 21-10 wins over their "arch-rivals" to take the Women's Doubles and even score at 3 finals victories against 3 defeats a piece.
The women's play was good, but like the men's, in keeping with the tone of this year's events, it might be remembered secondarily to the "off field controversy." Most of the women players felt it was unfair that they received lower prize money than the men when they had a comparable number of contestants. A petition was circulated among the women players asking that the USHA address this situation. The petition had a strong yet respectful tone and it will be interesting to see how the organization responds to this challenge.
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