7/27/17:
"Ryan-Abhi, Sally-Christine part of 18 at C.G. as Samara hosts!":
GTA Thursday Night Tennis only took place at The Cedar Grove Courts. For a while throughout the afternoon and into the evening, it increasingly seemed like a session would not be possible as there were dark skies and occasional bouts of drizzle. Yet, it was never enough to make "Hollywood" Frank Samara (the host, filling in for usual Cedar Grove host - "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan) think that a session was out of the question.
Frank had the chance to head up to Cedar Grove early and he arrived at 6:15. At that time, all four courts were vacant and he was the only car in the parking lot! A few minutes later, an SUV pulled into the lot. Since Samara did not recognize the vehicle, he remained seated in his car.
Another five minutes later (at 6:25), "Killer Kat" Kathy Sheldon found her place in the lot as well. The other woman got out of her SUV and it turned out to be "Dominant" Dawn Peterson. Another five minutes after that, "Kevlar" Kevn Doyle also arrived.
Frank decided to get out of his car to make it a foursome. They promptly told him that "Bravo" Brenda Jordan was also on her way. So Samara decided to just hit with them (the men hitting against the women on Court Four) until she arrived (which she did at 6:50).
But before that, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak arrived at 6:45. He was there to play his Grove Cup XX Round of 41 Match against "The Accelerator" Abhilash Gadi. He went to Court Three to loosen up and practice his serve as he felt the match (set for a 7pm start) would be a no-go anyway due to the pending rains.
At 6:55, Frank decided to stroll over to Court Three to hit with Ryan. Five minutes later, both "ME" Michel Encarnacion and "C.A.T." Christine Toth arrived separately. Once Samara learned that Toth was there to play her GAH7 Quarterfinal against "The Smackdown" Sally Pillay, he decided to have Michel take his place in hitting against Ryan while he would go over to Court One to hit with Christine.
At 7:05, Gadi arrived and he took Encarnacion's spot on Court One (hitting against Pienciak) as Michel then headed to Court One to become part of that hitting session.
Five minutes later, Pillay showed up along with her hubby, "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas. Hot on their tail in the lot was GTA Champion: "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes. Sally came over to Court One to start hitting with Christine one-on-one while Frank headed over to Court Two along with Michel to hit with Nate and Marijus and then get a Doubles One-Setter going.
But when Samara saw "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales pull into the lot at 7:15, he decided to let Jose take his place in the Doubles action over on Court Two while Frank would go ride the bench courtside alongside Court One to watch the ladies' action.
Next to show up at 7:30 was "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli. He joined Samara on the bench, but they did not go into "Heckler" mode (kind of like "Beast Mode" except they get amped up with words rather than actions...LOL!). Instead, they were good boys as they watched Sally and Christine battle. They did engage in their usual "chat-a-thon", but they kept it quiet with only the occasional outburst from Spin as he egged the gals on to play harder (he was an impartial observer).
From 8:25 to 8:30, it was "Laidback" Laurie Boughton, "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega and "2 Tall" Dave Zhu arrived. Some had to wait longer than others, but all would soon get involved in the action.
Tito "Touch" Castolo was the final arrival at 8:50. And that gave us a total of eighteen offcial competitors for the night...pretty impressive when you consider how iffy the evening was weather-wise at the outset of the session.
Let's get to the action!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson over Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan, 6-3! No Aces. This one got underway on Court Four at 6:55. Not sure when it ended as it went right into this next one.
Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson, 6-4! No Aces. This one finished at 8:35.
Grove Cup XX Round of 41 Match:
Ryan Pienciak over Abhilash Gadi, 6-2, 6-2, to successfully defend his # 17 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Round of 32 of the 20th Annual Grove Cup Tournament! No Aces. This was played on Court Three from 7:15 to 8:19.
Samara's Notes: Afterward, Ryan said the match was closer than the score indicates as Abhi had him running all over the place. And Gadi gets to everything as he is one of the fastest players in the league! The amazing thing is (as we learned from Abhi) that this was only his second full Singles match ever! His first was against another tough customer, "Tailor Made" Raj Tailor, in the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament earlier this season.
GAH7 Quarterfinal Match:
Sally Pillay over Christine Toth, 6-2, 6-3, to successfully defend her # 5 Rank in the Women's Division while also advancing to the Semifinals of the 7th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Tournament! No Aces. This was played on Court One from 7:24 to 8:40.
Samara's Notes: I can attest to the fact that this was another match that was much closer than the score indicates as Spin and I watched a good portion of the 1st Set and we actually thought that Christine may have been on her way to pulling off the upset as she won many of the points. She had the ability to control many of them. She was moving Sally around the court and hit quite a few effective lobs that ended up becoming winners as they were so well-placed...deep at the baseline! Pillay let a couple of them go and paid the price for doing so. Sally was also perhaps a bit too aggressive early on as some of her attempted Overhead Smashes either went down into the net or sailed long. Smackdown Sally must have turned things around after we left.
And Sally told me to note that she felt pretty much the same as what I just wrote above as she was very impressed with Christine's game and enjoyed the challenge.
Nathan Fernandes/Marijus Kuzavas over Jose Gonzales/Michel Encarnacion, 6-0! No Aces. Court Two hosted this bagel set from just 7:22 to 7:43!
Nathan Fernandes/Jose Gonzales over Marijus Kuzavas/Michel Encarnacion, 6-4! Marijus: 1 Ace on Jose. This was also played on Court Two, but lasted a bit longer...from 7:46 to 8:22. Afterward, Marijus and Michel had a hitting session with one another.
Frank Samara/Ryan Pienciak over Dan Martinelli/Abhilash Gadi, 6-3! No Aces. It went like this: Ryan was broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All with an un-returned serve along the way, then Break Point where Abhi hit a vicious volley winner for the break) and Spin held serve (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold) to get off to a 2-0 lead. Frank then held in a battle where he decided to forego trying to remember who hit what winners where and when (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point, Deuce and then all Game Points to 3rd Deuce, another Game Point where Ryan had a vicious volley winner of his own to enable the hold) and then Abhilash was broken (Frank hit a victorious volley winner to set up Triple Break Point, but then Abhi had a net-cord-aided winner to make it Double Break Point, but then came the break) to level the score at 2-2. Pienciak held at Love as he hit a drop shot winner and an un-returned serve on the way to Triple Game Point and then Frank hit a Statue of Liberty style volley that clipped the top of the tape and then descended to the court for a winner to enable the hold), but Martinelli held again (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, then 15-All before going straight to Double Game Point and the hold) to tie things up again, this time at 3-3! From here forward, I stopped noting the winners as my hands were soaked with sweat from the high humidity. Plus, I did it in the interest of saving time. Samara held again (Love-15, 15-All, 15-30 and then straight to Game Point and the hold) while Gadi was broken again (Love-15 to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and then a Double Fault to break himself) to fall to 3-5. The Lumberjack then held again and it was also once again at Love as he put this one away on Triple Game/Match Point! We played this one on Court Three from 8:24 to 9:01.
Samara's Notes: Spin was coaxed into playing as once again "The Noble Idiot" could not resist the temptation of playing nor letting the masses down. His one condition was that he needed to team with the speedy Abhi as he could do most of the running. And run he did as Gadi made several great gets along the way. Martinelli played as well as a one-legged man could be expected to play. While his mobility was severely limited, he was game enough to try to get to whatever he could and he swung away to try to end points whenever possible (some ended in his team's favor while others did not). Ryan was doing his usual thing at the net. He got off to a rough start with some failed volley attempts, but his game got cleaner as the contest grew older. Samara was pretty much a cool customer throughout...far from perfect, but holding his own and doing his best not to sink his team's chances.
Dave Zhu/Michel Encarnacion over Edwin Ortega/Jose Gonzales, 7-5! No Aces. This one took got underway on Court Two at 8:35, but I never got to see when it ended. Afterward, Edwin and Dave had a hitting session with one another.
Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay over Nathan Fernandes/Laurie Boughton, 6-4! No Aces. This Mixed Doubles action occupied Court Four from 8:50 to 9:30.
Abhilash Gadi/Tito Castolo over Frank Samara/Ryan Pienciak, 6-2! Abhilash: 1 Ace on Frank on Match Point! Here's how it went down: Ryan held (Ryan had a monster Overhead Smash and Frank had a vicious volley winner on the way to Triple Game Point, it then went to Double Game Point before the hold), Tito held (Tito blew an overhead for Love-15, but then it shifted straight to Double Game Point as Abhi hit an amazing passing shot winner, Frank blew a volley and Abhi hit another winner and then came the hold), but Frank was the first to be broken (15-Love shifted straight to Double Break Point as Abhi hit two more winners along the way while Ryan blew a volley for the break) for 1-2. Abhilash was also broken (Love-15, 15-All and then Tito blew a volley on the way to Double Break Point and then came the break) to level the score at 2-2. But from there, Pienciak was broken (a Triple Game Point lead came crashing down to Deuce as Tito hit a winning volley and Frank blew a volley then when it was Deuce it was Frank blowing yet another volley to set up Break Point where Tito hit a successful volley winner for the break), Castolo held again (Tito hit a winning volley for 15-Love, 15-All and then straight to Double Game Point, but then a sharp-angle return winner from Ryan reversed the momentum and soon it was Deuce only to go to Game Point again and then the hold), Samara was broken again (back-to-back volley winners from Tito made it Love-30, but then Ryan had two consecutive winners to make it 30-All, but then it was Break Point where Tito hit one more volley winner for the break) and Gadi held (Frank blew a volley and then an un-returned serve led the way to Triple Game/Match Point where Abhi scored with a big-time Ace up the T-line against Frank to end this one in dramatic fashion) for a highly impressive victory! We played this one on Court Three from 9:05 to 9:35.
Samara's Notes: This One-Setter was even through the first four games because Tito had very little time to warm up...as such, he was off his game just a bit as he made some volley errors. Once Tito Toca found his touch, everything reversed and suddenly Frank was the one without hand! Meanwhile Abhi's level of play picked up as he now had a partner who was now doing more than just holding up his end of the bargain. Once Gadi nailed that Ace to finish off the competition, he was done for the night as he wanted to make like Costanza and go out on a high note!
Nathan Fernandes/Sally Pillay over Jose Gonzales/Laurie Boughton, 6-3! No Aces. They played this one on Court Four from 9:33 to 9:54 and they saved time by foregoing the changeovers.
Ryan Pienciak/Tito Castolo over Edwin Ortega/Dave Zhu, 6-0! No Aces. This one took place on Court One and lasted from 9:39 to 9:55...just sixteen minutes for this late-night bagel. They, too, decided to forego the changeovers in order to try to get this one done in time...and they did just that!
Overall, despite the very steamy conditions, it was quite the fun session...indeed!
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
862-596-3354
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