9/29/17:
"Kumar-Panda in Wayne, 10 play (2 new) at PAC, Boughton-Nicolas part of 7 at C.G.!":
There were three sessions of GTA Friday Night Tennis: one in the early evening at The Nellis Drive Courts in Wayne featuring the long-awaited GTA Intermediate Title Match between the reigning GTA Intermediate Champion: "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar and the 2017 GTA Intermediate Invitational Champ: "The Annihilator" Nihar Panda (with both reporting); one at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara and the other was the usual one at The Cedar Grove Courts which had the usual host, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan, report some scores, but first it was "Laidback" Laurie Boughton reporting from that session as Boughton faced "Fabulous" Fadia Nicolas in a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match.
So let's first grab that important result that took place in Wayne, then we will go to Nutley to see how things unfolded there and then we will end this report with all that happened in Cedar Grove.
The Nellis Drive Result:
GTA Intermediate Title Match:
Nihar Panda over Senthil Kumar, 6-1, 6-2, to become the New GTA Intermediate Champion plus successfully defend his # 9 Rank in the Advanced Division! No Aces.
The Untangled Web by Senthil: We both reached the courts around 6:45 and likely warmed up until 7:15 as around that time is when we started the match. The match was completed by 8:30. Nihar is very consistent with his game and most noteworthy were his passing shots whenever I approached the net. He had very good control and placement with those passing shots. He hardly made any unforced errors. My confidence in Singles is low this year as I did not get the chance to play much of it this summer. Anyway, I lost to a better player in every aspect.
Panda Expresses Himself: I thank Senthil for a good match. I enjoyed it. He made me run around the court by utilizing a lot of drop shots. He was also very consistent, though a couple of his drop shots did not work. Overall, it was a good match.
The Consequences: As Former Champ, Senthil is entitled to the first rematch which should take place in October.
Samara's Notes: I congratulate Nihar on a highly impressive victory and I thank both of them for their very timely reporting which included informative commentary.
Now it is off to Nutley we go!
When Samara pulled into the parking lot off of Park Ave. at 7:25, he saw that all four courts were full. Well, that was not entirely true as out on Court One he saw a familiar face...and it belonged to "The Hit Man" Tom La. Frank greeted him as he was still sitting down with his back to the fence.
Once again, Tom said he had called Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan to see if he wanted to join us. And again, it seemed that Dennis prefers to play up at Cedar Grove. La also mentioned the possibility of "The Riz" John Rizzo attending the session. Samara said the same and then sent John a text message to inform him that both of them were already there.
Rizzo was already on his way and arrived at 7:35...five minutes after "Richie" Rich Liu had done the same. We now had four for Doubles on Court One.
Meanwhile on Court Three, there were two more familiar faces (as far as Samara was concerned) as Edgar "Valentino" Valencia was teaming with an unfamiliar face to go up against Arunraj "Air" Nair who was also partnered with someone unfamiliar to Frank.
Rich explained that one of those two guys was a regular named David and Liu suggested that Samara retrieve his info later in the evening. As for the other gentleman, he was making his first appearance as part of their meet-up group.
At 7:40, "Ravishing" Randy Doran arrived. So now we had five on that court. Samara was willing to sit out, but La said he would prefer to do that instead as he had originally planned on not playing any tennis on this night as he would be saving his energy and strength for the Second Annual Demuro Tennis Reunion the following day (Saturday).
So we opted to have it be Samara/Rizzo versus Doran/Liu for the initial One-Setter (on that court) of the night. When the first Doubles One-Setter finished exactly at 8:53, there was some confusion as to who would compete in the next one.
As he did on Wednesday night, La was looking not to play (again, citing his commitment to the Demuro event the next day). Meanwhile, Samara suggested to Rizzo that if John wanted to play two One-Setters that he should do them back-to-back to avoid getting cold and stiff sitting out...speaking of which, Rizzo was already battling a head cold and it was quite cold and windy on this particular evening.
During these discussions and negotiations, they had finished the second of two Doubles One-Setters on Court Three. Two guys just left Court Two and "MC Quick" Mike Carucci made his arrival at 8:40.
So Samara convinced La to take his place in teaming with Rizzo against Doran and Liu to free him up to meet the two new guys and collect their info. As it turned out, both were happy to give their info and become part of the league.
First, Frank met David Caicedo who is tall, long and lanky. After seeing him play, he earned the moniker of "DC-10" as he swoops around the court like a jumbo jet with great speed and a wide wingspan.
The other gentleman is Phil Federico who deserves the nickname of "Fed-X" as he delivers on the court. We hope to see more of both of them in the future.
As these discussions were going on, Carucci and Valencia started hitting with one another on Court Three. With Phil needing to leave at this time, Frank suggested they have Mike take his place and the other three players were fine with that as they shifted over to Court Two to be closer to the rest of the GTA contingent.
Court Four had a few people linger there for a while longer before they left. And at 9:40, three younger players took over that court. Again, after 8pm, it would be fairly easy to take at least three of the four courts at Park Ave.
Getting back to Court One, Rizzo removed himself from the court after that second Doubles One-Setter. With Doran/Liu on a 2-0 winning streak, they then played the one combo they had not yet faced - Samara/La. Rizzo then got to see quite a battle as the third One-Setter was quite intense in nature. Yet, it was also still somewhat lighthearted.
We ended up having ten official competitors (two of them making their official GTA Debut) on a chilly evening that was warmed up by heated (yet fun) action on the courts. It was quite the session, indeed!
The Park Ave. Results:
Arunraj Nair/Phil Federico over Edgar Valencia/David Caicedo, 6-2! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of both Phil Federico and David Caicedo. They estimated that they started this on Court Three around 7:15. Not sure when it ended as it went right into another One-Setter which we will get to a little later in this report.
Randy Doran/Rich Liu over Frank Samara/John Rizzo, 7-5! Rich: 1 Ace on Frank! It went like this: Randy held serve (15-Love then point for point to Game Point as John hit a winner along the way to make it 15-All and then there were two un-returned serves prior to the G.P., the last of which set it up and then came a third un-returned serve to secure the hold), Frank held his in an epic battle where winners were no longer remembered once we got to multiple Deuces (Love-15 shifted to Double Game Point as John first hit a winning volley and then a drop shot winner along the way, but then that was reduced to Deuce where John hit a winning lob to set up Game Point which was the first of a few up until 3rd Deuce and then it was all Break Points until 6th Deuce, then Game Point, 7th Deuce, Break Point, 8th Deuce, Break Point, 9th Deuce, Game Point, Double Fault to 10th Deuce, Game Point and finally the hold!), Rich held (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then it was straight to Double Game Point as Rich hit an awesome passing shot winner along the way), but John was the first to be broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30 as John made an amazing get only to send it back to Randy who was waiting at the net to hit the easy volley winner and then Frank also made a great get in a point that was a losing effort and then Frank was able to hit a precision winning lob that somehow found its way to the baseline and out of the reach of the opposition to make it 30-All, but then came Break Point and the break) for 1-3. Doran was broken (he started off with a Double Fault and then Frank hit a winner and John hit a scorcher of a winning return to set up Triple Break Point which was reduced to Break Point, but then came the break), but Samara held again (Frank hit a winner for 15-Love and it was off and running to Triple Game Point where Randy scored with a wicked Backhand Volley winner and then Rich followed that with a whipping volley winner to reduce the lead to Game Point only to have an un-returned serve secure the hold) to level things at 3-3. Liu also held again (John hit a winning lob for Love-15 and then it went point for point until 30-All as John also had hit a winning passing shot return along the way which was followed by an un-returned serve and then came another un-returned serve to set up Game Point which ended with a winning volley from Randy), but Rizzo also held (John hit a passing shot winner and an un-returned serve to get to 30-Love which was where Randy hit a winner of his own for 30-15 only to then blow an overhead to set up Double Game Point and then came the hold) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Ravishing Randy held (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, a shift to 15-30 where back-to-back un-returned serves set up Game Point where the hold was locked down by a winning Overhead Smash by Rich), but Hollywood had his third straight hold (Randy hit a winning volley for Love-15, but then it went straight to Double Game Point as John hit a precise passing shot winner and Frank also hit a winner along the way and then an un-returned serve secured the hold) to stay alive at 5-5! But then Richie Rich also had his third straight hold (an un-returned serve and a winner from Rich made it 30-Love, but then back-to-back blown volleys by Randy brought it to 30-All where Randy redeemed himself with an excellent Backhand Volley winner to set up Game Point, it then went to Deuce and Game Point again where Rich scored with a sideline Ace against Frank for the hold) to go up 6-5 and then The Riz was broken (Frank hit a winning volley for 15-Love only to blow back-to-back volley attempts on the way to Double Break/Match Point where Randy scored with a winning return for the break) to take a tough loss! We played this one on Court One from 7:45 to 8:33.
The Skinny: Randy came in saying he was rusty as he has been too busy to play tennis for quite some time. Well, if Mr. Doran was in fact off his game...it really did not seem that way on the court as he was very much a factor in his team's win. But so was his partner Rich who played with his usual amount of aggression while his consistency had also improved. John played well considering the fact that he was feeling under the weather and this was only his second night on the hard courts in quite some time. Frank was having a fun and fine outing as he was hitting most of his shots at will and was never broken on serve. He only got a little sloppy while trying to be too precise in that last game and that led to the defeat.
Edgar Valencia/David Caicedo over Arunraj Nair/Phil Federico, 6-3! No Aces. This one was done on Court Three at 8:40.
Randy Doran/Rich Liu over John Rizzo/Tom La, 7-5! Tom: 2 Aces (one on each); and Randy: 1 Ace on John on his very first serve! This was played on Court One from 8:37 to 9:11.
The Skinny: John had held his serve in the first game and then it was time for me to meet the new guys and try to guide the session along. When the foursome of Carucci, Valencia, Nair and Caicedo decided to move over from Court Three to Court Two, it made it possible for me to take some notes for both Doubles One-Setters. By this time, Doran/Liu had taken a lead of 5-3 only to have it get leveled to 5-5. La was then on serve and Randy hit a roller over the net to set up Double Break Point. It then went to Break Point where Tom hit a Double Fault to break himself and hand a 6-5 lead over to the opposition. Liu was then on serve and went up 30-Love, it was leveled to 30-All and then it was Game/Match Point where Rich scored with an un-returned serve to get the win!
Edgar Valencia/Arunraj Nair over Mike Carucci/David Caicedo, 7-5! David: 1 Ace on Edgar! They faced off on Court Two from 8:49 to 9:39. Mike was broken and Edgar held serve for a 2-0 lead. David held when he scored with the Ace against Edgar on Game Point and then Arunraj was broken to level it at 2-2. Carucci was broken again, but so was Valencia for 3-3. Mike called out to Frank (once Samara was back in action on Court One) that this one got tied up again at 4-4 and 5-5 along the way.
Frank Samara/Tom La over Randy Doran/Rich Liu, 7-5! No Aces. Here's how it went down: Randy was broken (Tom blew a volley for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then Randy blew a volley for 15-30 where Tom hit a whipping winner to set up Double Break Point where Randy responded with a wicked winner of his own to bring it to Break Point which was where Tom scored with an awesome passing shot winner for the break), Frank held serve (Randy scored with a winning drop shot return for Love-15, it then went to Love-30 before shifting to 30-All as Tom hit a winner along the way, but then Frank blew a drop shot attempt to make it Break Point only to hit one un-returned serve for Deuce and then another to set up Game Point and then came the hold), Rich was broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, but then it went right to Double Break Point as Frank hit an impressive return winner and Randy blew a volley along the way and then Frank scored with another awesome return winner for the break) and then Tom held (a truly un-returnable serve for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then it went point for point to Game Point as Rich hit a winning lob and Tom hit a drop shot winner along the way and then it went to Deuce which was where Frank hit a winning volley to set up Game Point and then an un-returned serve earned the hold) to take what seemed to be a commanding lead at 4-0! Doran held at Love as all four of his serves went un-returned and then Samara suffered his first service break of the night and it was at Love as Randy hit a winner, Rich hit a sizzler of a return winner and then Randy hit back-to-back winners, the last of which was truly a scorcher as his team had just taken eight straight points off the opposition to pull to 2-4! But then Liu was broken at Love after a Double Fault set up Triple Break Point only to have Tom hit a vicious volley winner to put his team up 5-2 with a seemingly strong lead once again! But then La was also broken (the heretofore rally of the match ended with Tom hitting what could only be described as Backhand Volley drop shot winner for 15-Love, then a Double Fault for 15-All and then it went point for point to Game Point as Randy scored with a venomous volley winner along the way and then a Double Fault set up Break Point where yet another Double Fault caused the break), Doran held again (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold...I let noting the winners slide as remaining time until lights out was now a prime concern) and The Wood was broken again (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point and the break) to balance this battle at 5-5! Richie Rich was broken a third straight time (Double Fault for Love-30 which was where Frank scored with a victorious volley winner to set up Triple Break Point where an un-returned serve made it Double Break Point where a rally that exceeded the prior "rally of the match" in both length and intensity ended with a desperation volley winner from Tom to get the break) and then The Hit Man held at Love after starting off with two truly un-returnable serves to eek out what turned out to be a hard-fought victory after all! We played this one on Court One from 9:18 to 9:59...just one minute before lights out at 10pm!
The Skinny: It seemed that in this third One-Setter, the Doran/Liu tandem started to run out of gas while their opposition was always able to switch in a new and fresher man. Frank's freshness showed early on as he was really having one of his better outings in quite some time. Meanwhile, Rich was lamenting the fact that he lost his serve in this one. Randy was still a steady presence albeit a more sedate one this time around. Speaking of sedate, Tom got off to a hot start and finished strong in the end...but there were a couple of games there in the middle (during the opposition's comeback) where he had seemed to just check out mentally while Samara scurried to try to cover extra court during these few games. Perhaps La thought they had already gotten to the finish line. The problem was that they had yet to break the tape! It was a fine effort on the part of Randy and Rich to rebound and make this one interesting as the rallies certainly intensified in the latter stages once all four parties were fully invested in the outcome.
Edgar Valencia/Arunraj Nair leading Mike Carucci/David Caicedo, 4-1 (Incomplete when they decided to stop this one after the fifth game had finished at 9:57...they had begun this one at 9:40 on Court Two). Mike was willing to give Frank the game-by-game breakdown, but Samara said it was not necessary as it ended up being an incomplete set.
We now will detail all that took place up at Cedar Grove. We will first get the result from Laurie and then the balance of the scores came from Kris.
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Fadia Nicolas over Laurie Boughton, 6-1, 6-1, to become the New # 12 Ranked Player in the Women's Division! No Aces.
The Lowdown from Laurie: Fadia whooped me in straight sets! That said, we both had a BLAST and I do believe we played some great tennis. :-) If the degree to which we were both sweating on that chilly night was indicative of a great match, it was truly GREAT! :-) I can't wait to play singles with her again, cuz THAT was my kind of tennis! :-) Thank you, Fadia!
Samara's Notes: I thank Laurie for her timely reporting as well as her colorful commentary. And I also congratulate Fadia on a very impressive victory. We now go to Kris for two more scores.
Nathan Fernandes/Mike Sindler over Ryan Pienciak/Kris Srinivasan, 7-5! No Aces.
Nathan Fernandes/Ryan Pienciak over Moka Pathan/Kris Srinivasan, 6-0! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank Kris for reporting those results. The Srinivasans went away for the weekend after the Friday night session, so we did not get the usual full report from The K Man. Also, keep their absence in mind when viewing the coming Saturday and Sunday Night Results reports as either the turnout was low or much of the would-be reporting never occurred.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
862-596-3354
"Kumar-Panda in Wayne, 10 play (2 new) at PAC, Boughton-Nicolas part of 7 at C.G.!":
There were three sessions of GTA Friday Night Tennis: one in the early evening at The Nellis Drive Courts in Wayne featuring the long-awaited GTA Intermediate Title Match between the reigning GTA Intermediate Champion: "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar and the 2017 GTA Intermediate Invitational Champ: "The Annihilator" Nihar Panda (with both reporting); one at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara and the other was the usual one at The Cedar Grove Courts which had the usual host, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan, report some scores, but first it was "Laidback" Laurie Boughton reporting from that session as Boughton faced "Fabulous" Fadia Nicolas in a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match.
So let's first grab that important result that took place in Wayne, then we will go to Nutley to see how things unfolded there and then we will end this report with all that happened in Cedar Grove.
The Nellis Drive Result:
GTA Intermediate Title Match:
Nihar Panda over Senthil Kumar, 6-1, 6-2, to become the New GTA Intermediate Champion plus successfully defend his # 9 Rank in the Advanced Division! No Aces.
The Untangled Web by Senthil: We both reached the courts around 6:45 and likely warmed up until 7:15 as around that time is when we started the match. The match was completed by 8:30. Nihar is very consistent with his game and most noteworthy were his passing shots whenever I approached the net. He had very good control and placement with those passing shots. He hardly made any unforced errors. My confidence in Singles is low this year as I did not get the chance to play much of it this summer. Anyway, I lost to a better player in every aspect.
Panda Expresses Himself: I thank Senthil for a good match. I enjoyed it. He made me run around the court by utilizing a lot of drop shots. He was also very consistent, though a couple of his drop shots did not work. Overall, it was a good match.
The Consequences: As Former Champ, Senthil is entitled to the first rematch which should take place in October.
Samara's Notes: I congratulate Nihar on a highly impressive victory and I thank both of them for their very timely reporting which included informative commentary.
Now it is off to Nutley we go!
When Samara pulled into the parking lot off of Park Ave. at 7:25, he saw that all four courts were full. Well, that was not entirely true as out on Court One he saw a familiar face...and it belonged to "The Hit Man" Tom La. Frank greeted him as he was still sitting down with his back to the fence.
Once again, Tom said he had called Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan to see if he wanted to join us. And again, it seemed that Dennis prefers to play up at Cedar Grove. La also mentioned the possibility of "The Riz" John Rizzo attending the session. Samara said the same and then sent John a text message to inform him that both of them were already there.
Rizzo was already on his way and arrived at 7:35...five minutes after "Richie" Rich Liu had done the same. We now had four for Doubles on Court One.
Meanwhile on Court Three, there were two more familiar faces (as far as Samara was concerned) as Edgar "Valentino" Valencia was teaming with an unfamiliar face to go up against Arunraj "Air" Nair who was also partnered with someone unfamiliar to Frank.
Rich explained that one of those two guys was a regular named David and Liu suggested that Samara retrieve his info later in the evening. As for the other gentleman, he was making his first appearance as part of their meet-up group.
At 7:40, "Ravishing" Randy Doran arrived. So now we had five on that court. Samara was willing to sit out, but La said he would prefer to do that instead as he had originally planned on not playing any tennis on this night as he would be saving his energy and strength for the Second Annual Demuro Tennis Reunion the following day (Saturday).
So we opted to have it be Samara/Rizzo versus Doran/Liu for the initial One-Setter (on that court) of the night. When the first Doubles One-Setter finished exactly at 8:53, there was some confusion as to who would compete in the next one.
As he did on Wednesday night, La was looking not to play (again, citing his commitment to the Demuro event the next day). Meanwhile, Samara suggested to Rizzo that if John wanted to play two One-Setters that he should do them back-to-back to avoid getting cold and stiff sitting out...speaking of which, Rizzo was already battling a head cold and it was quite cold and windy on this particular evening.
During these discussions and negotiations, they had finished the second of two Doubles One-Setters on Court Three. Two guys just left Court Two and "MC Quick" Mike Carucci made his arrival at 8:40.
So Samara convinced La to take his place in teaming with Rizzo against Doran and Liu to free him up to meet the two new guys and collect their info. As it turned out, both were happy to give their info and become part of the league.
First, Frank met David Caicedo who is tall, long and lanky. After seeing him play, he earned the moniker of "DC-10" as he swoops around the court like a jumbo jet with great speed and a wide wingspan.
The other gentleman is Phil Federico who deserves the nickname of "Fed-X" as he delivers on the court. We hope to see more of both of them in the future.
As these discussions were going on, Carucci and Valencia started hitting with one another on Court Three. With Phil needing to leave at this time, Frank suggested they have Mike take his place and the other three players were fine with that as they shifted over to Court Two to be closer to the rest of the GTA contingent.
Court Four had a few people linger there for a while longer before they left. And at 9:40, three younger players took over that court. Again, after 8pm, it would be fairly easy to take at least three of the four courts at Park Ave.
Getting back to Court One, Rizzo removed himself from the court after that second Doubles One-Setter. With Doran/Liu on a 2-0 winning streak, they then played the one combo they had not yet faced - Samara/La. Rizzo then got to see quite a battle as the third One-Setter was quite intense in nature. Yet, it was also still somewhat lighthearted.
We ended up having ten official competitors (two of them making their official GTA Debut) on a chilly evening that was warmed up by heated (yet fun) action on the courts. It was quite the session, indeed!
The Park Ave. Results:
Arunraj Nair/Phil Federico over Edgar Valencia/David Caicedo, 6-2! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of both Phil Federico and David Caicedo. They estimated that they started this on Court Three around 7:15. Not sure when it ended as it went right into another One-Setter which we will get to a little later in this report.
Randy Doran/Rich Liu over Frank Samara/John Rizzo, 7-5! Rich: 1 Ace on Frank! It went like this: Randy held serve (15-Love then point for point to Game Point as John hit a winner along the way to make it 15-All and then there were two un-returned serves prior to the G.P., the last of which set it up and then came a third un-returned serve to secure the hold), Frank held his in an epic battle where winners were no longer remembered once we got to multiple Deuces (Love-15 shifted to Double Game Point as John first hit a winning volley and then a drop shot winner along the way, but then that was reduced to Deuce where John hit a winning lob to set up Game Point which was the first of a few up until 3rd Deuce and then it was all Break Points until 6th Deuce, then Game Point, 7th Deuce, Break Point, 8th Deuce, Break Point, 9th Deuce, Game Point, Double Fault to 10th Deuce, Game Point and finally the hold!), Rich held (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then it was straight to Double Game Point as Rich hit an awesome passing shot winner along the way), but John was the first to be broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30 as John made an amazing get only to send it back to Randy who was waiting at the net to hit the easy volley winner and then Frank also made a great get in a point that was a losing effort and then Frank was able to hit a precision winning lob that somehow found its way to the baseline and out of the reach of the opposition to make it 30-All, but then came Break Point and the break) for 1-3. Doran was broken (he started off with a Double Fault and then Frank hit a winner and John hit a scorcher of a winning return to set up Triple Break Point which was reduced to Break Point, but then came the break), but Samara held again (Frank hit a winner for 15-Love and it was off and running to Triple Game Point where Randy scored with a wicked Backhand Volley winner and then Rich followed that with a whipping volley winner to reduce the lead to Game Point only to have an un-returned serve secure the hold) to level things at 3-3. Liu also held again (John hit a winning lob for Love-15 and then it went point for point until 30-All as John also had hit a winning passing shot return along the way which was followed by an un-returned serve and then came another un-returned serve to set up Game Point which ended with a winning volley from Randy), but Rizzo also held (John hit a passing shot winner and an un-returned serve to get to 30-Love which was where Randy hit a winner of his own for 30-15 only to then blow an overhead to set up Double Game Point and then came the hold) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Ravishing Randy held (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, a shift to 15-30 where back-to-back un-returned serves set up Game Point where the hold was locked down by a winning Overhead Smash by Rich), but Hollywood had his third straight hold (Randy hit a winning volley for Love-15, but then it went straight to Double Game Point as John hit a precise passing shot winner and Frank also hit a winner along the way and then an un-returned serve secured the hold) to stay alive at 5-5! But then Richie Rich also had his third straight hold (an un-returned serve and a winner from Rich made it 30-Love, but then back-to-back blown volleys by Randy brought it to 30-All where Randy redeemed himself with an excellent Backhand Volley winner to set up Game Point, it then went to Deuce and Game Point again where Rich scored with a sideline Ace against Frank for the hold) to go up 6-5 and then The Riz was broken (Frank hit a winning volley for 15-Love only to blow back-to-back volley attempts on the way to Double Break/Match Point where Randy scored with a winning return for the break) to take a tough loss! We played this one on Court One from 7:45 to 8:33.
The Skinny: Randy came in saying he was rusty as he has been too busy to play tennis for quite some time. Well, if Mr. Doran was in fact off his game...it really did not seem that way on the court as he was very much a factor in his team's win. But so was his partner Rich who played with his usual amount of aggression while his consistency had also improved. John played well considering the fact that he was feeling under the weather and this was only his second night on the hard courts in quite some time. Frank was having a fun and fine outing as he was hitting most of his shots at will and was never broken on serve. He only got a little sloppy while trying to be too precise in that last game and that led to the defeat.
Edgar Valencia/David Caicedo over Arunraj Nair/Phil Federico, 6-3! No Aces. This one was done on Court Three at 8:40.
Randy Doran/Rich Liu over John Rizzo/Tom La, 7-5! Tom: 2 Aces (one on each); and Randy: 1 Ace on John on his very first serve! This was played on Court One from 8:37 to 9:11.
The Skinny: John had held his serve in the first game and then it was time for me to meet the new guys and try to guide the session along. When the foursome of Carucci, Valencia, Nair and Caicedo decided to move over from Court Three to Court Two, it made it possible for me to take some notes for both Doubles One-Setters. By this time, Doran/Liu had taken a lead of 5-3 only to have it get leveled to 5-5. La was then on serve and Randy hit a roller over the net to set up Double Break Point. It then went to Break Point where Tom hit a Double Fault to break himself and hand a 6-5 lead over to the opposition. Liu was then on serve and went up 30-Love, it was leveled to 30-All and then it was Game/Match Point where Rich scored with an un-returned serve to get the win!
Edgar Valencia/Arunraj Nair over Mike Carucci/David Caicedo, 7-5! David: 1 Ace on Edgar! They faced off on Court Two from 8:49 to 9:39. Mike was broken and Edgar held serve for a 2-0 lead. David held when he scored with the Ace against Edgar on Game Point and then Arunraj was broken to level it at 2-2. Carucci was broken again, but so was Valencia for 3-3. Mike called out to Frank (once Samara was back in action on Court One) that this one got tied up again at 4-4 and 5-5 along the way.
Frank Samara/Tom La over Randy Doran/Rich Liu, 7-5! No Aces. Here's how it went down: Randy was broken (Tom blew a volley for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then Randy blew a volley for 15-30 where Tom hit a whipping winner to set up Double Break Point where Randy responded with a wicked winner of his own to bring it to Break Point which was where Tom scored with an awesome passing shot winner for the break), Frank held serve (Randy scored with a winning drop shot return for Love-15, it then went to Love-30 before shifting to 30-All as Tom hit a winner along the way, but then Frank blew a drop shot attempt to make it Break Point only to hit one un-returned serve for Deuce and then another to set up Game Point and then came the hold), Rich was broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, but then it went right to Double Break Point as Frank hit an impressive return winner and Randy blew a volley along the way and then Frank scored with another awesome return winner for the break) and then Tom held (a truly un-returnable serve for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then it went point for point to Game Point as Rich hit a winning lob and Tom hit a drop shot winner along the way and then it went to Deuce which was where Frank hit a winning volley to set up Game Point and then an un-returned serve earned the hold) to take what seemed to be a commanding lead at 4-0! Doran held at Love as all four of his serves went un-returned and then Samara suffered his first service break of the night and it was at Love as Randy hit a winner, Rich hit a sizzler of a return winner and then Randy hit back-to-back winners, the last of which was truly a scorcher as his team had just taken eight straight points off the opposition to pull to 2-4! But then Liu was broken at Love after a Double Fault set up Triple Break Point only to have Tom hit a vicious volley winner to put his team up 5-2 with a seemingly strong lead once again! But then La was also broken (the heretofore rally of the match ended with Tom hitting what could only be described as Backhand Volley drop shot winner for 15-Love, then a Double Fault for 15-All and then it went point for point to Game Point as Randy scored with a venomous volley winner along the way and then a Double Fault set up Break Point where yet another Double Fault caused the break), Doran held again (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold...I let noting the winners slide as remaining time until lights out was now a prime concern) and The Wood was broken again (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point and the break) to balance this battle at 5-5! Richie Rich was broken a third straight time (Double Fault for Love-30 which was where Frank scored with a victorious volley winner to set up Triple Break Point where an un-returned serve made it Double Break Point where a rally that exceeded the prior "rally of the match" in both length and intensity ended with a desperation volley winner from Tom to get the break) and then The Hit Man held at Love after starting off with two truly un-returnable serves to eek out what turned out to be a hard-fought victory after all! We played this one on Court One from 9:18 to 9:59...just one minute before lights out at 10pm!
The Skinny: It seemed that in this third One-Setter, the Doran/Liu tandem started to run out of gas while their opposition was always able to switch in a new and fresher man. Frank's freshness showed early on as he was really having one of his better outings in quite some time. Meanwhile, Rich was lamenting the fact that he lost his serve in this one. Randy was still a steady presence albeit a more sedate one this time around. Speaking of sedate, Tom got off to a hot start and finished strong in the end...but there were a couple of games there in the middle (during the opposition's comeback) where he had seemed to just check out mentally while Samara scurried to try to cover extra court during these few games. Perhaps La thought they had already gotten to the finish line. The problem was that they had yet to break the tape! It was a fine effort on the part of Randy and Rich to rebound and make this one interesting as the rallies certainly intensified in the latter stages once all four parties were fully invested in the outcome.
Edgar Valencia/Arunraj Nair leading Mike Carucci/David Caicedo, 4-1 (Incomplete when they decided to stop this one after the fifth game had finished at 9:57...they had begun this one at 9:40 on Court Two). Mike was willing to give Frank the game-by-game breakdown, but Samara said it was not necessary as it ended up being an incomplete set.
We now will detail all that took place up at Cedar Grove. We will first get the result from Laurie and then the balance of the scores came from Kris.
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Fadia Nicolas over Laurie Boughton, 6-1, 6-1, to become the New # 12 Ranked Player in the Women's Division! No Aces.
The Lowdown from Laurie: Fadia whooped me in straight sets! That said, we both had a BLAST and I do believe we played some great tennis. :-) If the degree to which we were both sweating on that chilly night was indicative of a great match, it was truly GREAT! :-) I can't wait to play singles with her again, cuz THAT was my kind of tennis! :-) Thank you, Fadia!
Samara's Notes: I thank Laurie for her timely reporting as well as her colorful commentary. And I also congratulate Fadia on a very impressive victory. We now go to Kris for two more scores.
Nathan Fernandes/Mike Sindler over Ryan Pienciak/Kris Srinivasan, 7-5! No Aces.
Nathan Fernandes/Ryan Pienciak over Moka Pathan/Kris Srinivasan, 6-0! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank Kris for reporting those results. The Srinivasans went away for the weekend after the Friday night session, so we did not get the usual full report from The K Man. Also, keep their absence in mind when viewing the coming Saturday and Sunday Night Results reports as either the turnout was low or much of the would-be reporting never occurred.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
862-596-3354
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