69-year-old Gail ‘The Legend’ Falkenberg loses to Taylor Townsend after shock qualifier victory

The 69-year-old, astonishingly, beat a woman 47 years her junior at the ITF25k tournament on Monday – her first win since making a remarkable comeback in 2011 at the age of 64.

Falkenberg made headlines with her 6-0 6-1 win over 22-year-old Rosalyn Small in which she often served underarm to great effect, but not everyone was impressed with the veteran’s underdog story.

She had previously lost 32 times in 32 matches with a record of 64 sets out of 64 lost, while Small had suffered 25 defeats from 25 matches with 50 games lost out of 50 – stats which did not impress tennis coach Roy Coopersmith, who posted numerous videos from her matches on Facebook.

“This is for me obscene,” he wrote on Facebook. “And another respect almost as bad as when truly undeserving locals get wildcards into these tournaments and they shouldn’t even get a wildcard into beginner tournaments.

“Where is the realisation this is a business - this isn’t a joke - this makes it into a joke.”

Falkenberg’s dream win was followed by a comprehensive 6-0 6-0 defeat to Townsend – a promising American player, who reached the third round of the US Open in 2014 and was ranked at number 94 in the world just over a year ago with four ITF titles to her name.

Falkenberg won just 12 points against Townsend and commented afterwards to the Wall Street Journal: “I know I can keep getting better. There’s always something to work on with tennis.”

It is understandable that Coopersmith refers to tennis as a “business”, but the sport is also entertainment and this is being seen as a wonderful story by many fans of the game. She may have only recorded a victory over a player with a similarly poor record, but that should take nothing away from Falkenberg, who is perceived as an inspiration by many for her doughty approach to competing at her age. Townsend was simply handed an easy victory, but Falkenberg had won the right to face her in the previous round. Good on Gail for her win!