"Samara hosts 4 at RHP, Kris hosts 13 at C.G.!":
GTA Tuesday Night Tennis took place at Robin Hood Park in Clifton (hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara) and The Cedar Grove Courts (hosted by "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan).
Let's first go to the full RHP recap before we get the Cedar Grove report from Kris (along with additional scores sent in by GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro and "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak).
Samara issued an e-mail to the league stating he most likely would be hosting at Robin Hood Park and he predicted his arrival time would be around 6pm. The weather was uncertain as dark clouds and high winds rolled though the area numerous times. Thankfully, they never came with much rain (just a brief drizzle here and there).
Samara pulled up to the curb at 6pm and saw that "The Sultan of Swing" Raj Shah was already parked there. Samara got out of his car and walked over to Shah's. On Championship Court and the Entrance Court were young guys from the Clifton High School Tennis Team.
Center Court was available, but the environment was not all that inviting. Plus, dark clouds still loomed nearby and the winds were high. So Frank and Raj just B.S.'ed for a while as they debated what to do.
At 6:15, "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales pulled up to the courts. So Frank and Raj decided to head toward the courts as well. And, to their credit, the young CHS guys then all consolidated over on Championship Court as there were just five of them at this point.
The three of us took the Entrance Court and it was Raj and Frank hitting against Jose.
Then, at 6:35, "J-Rod" Joe Rodrigues arrived and made it a foursome. It ended up being Team Jose against Shah and Samara for back-to-back One-Setters.
Along the way, "El Tio" Carlos Perez and his grandson Santiago arrived at 7:15. They took Championship Court as the CHS guys had left by this time. Ten minutes later, an annoying father/young son combo took Center Court.
At 7:40, "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli arrived to make an extended cameo appearance. And then another ten minutes later, "Coach" Dino Celis arrived to do the same.
So we had a total of just four official competitors for the night. After the official action ended at 8:05, Frank, Spin and Dino had a bull session that ran until around 8:45.
The RHP Results:
Jose Gonzales/Joe Rodrigues over Raj Shah/Frank Samara, 6-3! No Aces. It went like this: Frank was broken at Love as Jose hit a winner, there was a Double Fault for Love-30 and then Jose hit a blast of a return winner for the break, but then Jose was also broken at Love as Raj made a winning return along the way. These last two games defied logic as both Frank and Jose served with their backs to the setting sun as the returning team had to stare down the bright rays of sunlight. Raj then held serve in a battle where I could no longer remember who hit what winner as it went from 15-Love to Double Break Point, then to Deuce, then Game Point, 2nd Deuce then all Break Points until 4th Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point, 5th Deuce, Game Point and the hold, but Joe also held (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) for 2-2. Samara held (Love-30 shifted to 30-All and then Raj hit a beast of a winning Overhead Smash for Game Point, Deuce and then all Game Points until 4th Deuce where Raj hit a winner for Game Point and then Raj hit another winner to secure his partner's hold), but Gonzales held as well (Frank hit a winning return for Love-30, then it was 15-30 where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash for Double Break Point, but then it went to Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to level things again, this time at 3-3. Shah was broken (Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash for 30-Love, it then shifted to 30-All where Raj hit a Double Fault for Break Point and then came the break), but Rodrigues held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to jump out to a 5-3 lead. And then Hollywood was broken (Jose made a winning return for Love-30, it was 15-30 where Joe hit an amazing winner to set up Double Break/Match Point which promptly ended when Jose hit a monster winning return) to take a tough loss! We played this on the Entrance Court from 6:50 to 7:29.
The Skinny: A close contest that quickly unraveled toward the end when Samara made a bunch of dumb Unforced Errors. All parties agreed to an immediate rematch.
Raj Shah/Frank Samara over Jose Gonzales/Joe Rodrigues, 6-2! Raj: 2 Aces on Joe! Here's how it went down: Jose held (15-Love, 15-All, but then straight to Double Game Point as Jose hit a winner along the way, but then it went to Deuce, Game Point and the hold), Frank held at Love, Joe held (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point, but then to Deuce and it was then all Break Points until 4th Deuce, Game Point, 5th Deuce, Game Point, 6th Deuce, Game Point and then finally the hold in a game where I could not remember who hit what winners and when) and Raj held (started with an Ace up the T against Joe and then it went point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) as we were all on serve at 2-2. Gonzales was broken at Love, but Samara held again (Frank hit a drop shot winner to go up 30-Love, then it was Triple Game Point where Jose hit another one of those scorching return winners to make it Double Game Point, but then came the hold) to go up 4-2. Rodrigues was broken (15-Love, then 15-All, but then onto Double Game Point as Jose hit a winning volley and there was an un-returned serve along the way, then Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point which ended with Frank hitting a laser-like return that almost blasted Jose's family jewels while he was up near the net) to fall to 2-5. And then Shah held again (Love-15, 15-All, another Ace up the T against Joe to bring it to 30-15, it was Double Game/Match Point where Frank blew a volley that made him blow his top, but then the hold came on Game/Match Point) to get the revenge win! This one was also played on the Entrance Court and it lasted from 7:30 to 8:05.
The Skinny: Samara still had his fair share of Unforced Errors, but he cleaned up his game a bit, got more aggressive and did well with both of his services. Shah also raised his percentage of winners versus Unforced Errors. Both Gonzales and Rodrigues had spectacular moments which were offset with silly misses at times. Each One-Setter felt closer than its ultimate score.
We're now going to head up to Cedar Grove where we will first report the results from Chiaro (as backed up by Pienciak) before we let Papa K take it away!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Chris Chiaro/Lou La Forgia over Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay, 6-0! No Aces.
Chris Chiaro/Lou La Forgia over Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak, 6-3! Chris: 1 Ace on Tony.
Chris Chiaro/Lou La Forgia over Praful Nair/Ryan Pienciak, 6-2! Lou: 1 Ace on Ryan.
Chris Chiaro/Praful Nair over Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak, 6-1! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank both Chris and Ryan for reporting those results in a very timely manner. And now we go to Kris.
Last night, it looked like the Pickle Ballers went a bit overtime as they went until 7:50pm which surprised me as I thought they may not come, given that there was a morning session for them already. In any case, I was a late show coming over at 8:15.
Joe Rodrigues/Doinks Srinivasan over Jose Gonzales/Natalia Sout, 7-5! No Aces (apparently).
Joe Rodrigues/Doinks Srinivasan over Ryan Pienciak/Natalia Sout, 6-4! No Aces (apparently).
2 out of 3 Sets:
Kris Srinivasan/Raj Shah over Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay, 6-4, 6-2! No Aces.
Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay leading Kris Srinivasan/Raj Shah, 3-2 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
The shot of the night indeed belonged to Marijus. In what should have been a winner from our side, he not only moved from one side of the court to the other side, but then hit an electrifying down the line screamer for a winner! Superb shot! He played one almost like this before, but I let it go past me thinking it was going out.
Raj was superb on his serves (the first ones, of course). He played brilliantly for a guy who hasn't played much in the winter and with his back issues.
Overall, there was plenty of action on what turned out to be a brisk night. Cheers!
Samara's Notes: Kris once again comes through as the host with the most up at Cedar Grove. As always, I thank him for all of his efforts to help enhance the league.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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