4/11/18:
"Marijus-Jordan in C.G., 4 play in Nutley, 12 compete (+2) at Bubble!":
There were three sessions of GTA Wednesday Tennis: the first one was at The Cedar Grove Courts as "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas and "The Bulgarian Bull" Jordan Bachvaroff got together for their GTA Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match (with Marijus reporting). We also get an update from there from "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan.
The second was at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "SWAT" Rich Liu (as he had sent the word out to his Meet-Up Group that there would be a session). But the reporting duties were assigned to Laurie "Suge Boogie" Boughton.
And then the third was at The Wayne Bubble as "The Riz" John Rizzo hosted the final Night Owls session there for this season while "Hollywood" Frank Samara collected the scores (well, all but one of them…LOL!).
Let's first go to the result from Marijus.
The Cedar Grove Result:
GTA Championship Tournament Quarterfinal:
Marijus Kuzavas over Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-2, 6-0, to successfully defend his # 3 Rank in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Semifinals of the GTA Championship Tournament! Marijus: 2 Aces!
The Scoop from Super Mario: Jordan was bothered by some pain in his hip area and he was slowed down by it considerably. Still, Jordan fought valiantly and gave me a good match.
Samara's Notes: I thank Marijus for his timely reporting and congratulate him on his very impressive victory. We now have two of the four Semifinalists (the other being "King Crush" Chris Chiaro) already established in this tourney. Just two more Quarterfinal Matches to be played…good progress!
We now go to the update from Doinks.
I saw Jorge Solano practicing his serve around 8pm. I came out and practiced serving for a bit and then just hit with him for about an hour. I was surprised nobody else came because it was just cool out and there was no wind at all. It was quite a pleasant evening. I also saw Jordan and Marijus playing their match before 8pm.
Samara's Notes: I thank Doinks for letting us know that there was no other official GTA action at that session. We now go to Nutley for the report from Laurie.
I got the job of reporting the scores. HAHAHAHAHHAHAA! There were four of us: me, Edgar Valencia, Rich Liu and Ravishing Randy Doran. I know Rich and Randy played a set of Singles, but I honestly don't know the score… LOL!
Samara's Notes: Guess that one will have to remain unofficial. Back to "The Hostess with the Most-est" for what was official.
The Park Ave. Courts Results:
Edgar Valencia over Laurie Boughton, 6-3! No Aces. He is "the KING of the drop shot!"
Samara's Notes: No offense to Edgar (or Laurie's opinion, for that matter), but Mr. Valencia may have to settle for being "The Prince of the Drop Shot" as Tito "Touch" Castolo is still the reigning "King," in my opinion.
Now we go back to Laurie for the rest.
We played till the lights went out at 10pm. The Doubles One-Setter was incomplete, but they asked me to give you the score anyway…LOL!
Rich Liu/Laurie Boughton leading Randy Doran/Edgar Valencia, 4-3 (Incomplete at lights out)! Edgar: 1 Ace on Rich!
I was also requested to report the following: Laurie was brutal at the net against Ravishing Randy. He was left, at times, draped over the net or bleeding, and we almost called the EMT's… LOL! It was a super fun night. :)
Samara's Notes: I thank Laurie for her very timely reporting of this session along with the color commentary. It is greatly appreciated.
And now we go to the session up at The Wayne Bubble.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
Kevin Doyle/Sam Senowitz over Sean McHugh/Jeanette Pegg, 6-4! Sam: 1 Ace on Sean! This got underway on Court Two at 9:15. Not sure when it ended as they then switched up the teams for another one…which we will get to later in this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Women's Doubles Match:
Fadia Nicolas/Dawn Peterson over Kathy Sheldon/Robin Wilson, 6-3, 6-3, to successfully defend their # 18 Rank in the Women's Doubles Division! No Aces. They played this match on Court One from 9:15 to 10:45.
Around the same time those two courts of players got things going, Vlad Smolyanskiy and Ted Cedroski began playing Singles on Court Four. I never bothered to collect their score, so that will have to remain unofficial (hence, the "+2" in the Subject headline of this report).
"The Adonis" Don Moya began hitting against both Samara and Rizzo on Court Three. Then, when "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis arrived at 9:15, Frank and John stepped off (like George Costanza) to allow Dino to hit with Don while the three of us waited for "Daddy O" Paul Daddio to arrive at 9:30. Paul entered The Bubble on time and had five minutes of hitting with Don as well. From there, Mr. Moya went back to his office while the rest of us played some Doubles.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Paul Daddio/John Rizzo over Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 6-2, 6-1, to successfully defend their # 13 Rank in the Doubles Division! No Aces.
1st Set: Dino was broken at Love, Paul held serve (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce and then all Game Points thru 3rd Deuce, one more Game Point and finally the hold), Frank was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point and the break) and John held (Triple Game Point, Double Fault for Double Game Point, Game Point, Deuce, another Game Point and finally the hold) for an impressive 4-0 start! Celis held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold) to get his team onto the scoreboard, but then Daddio held again (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) for a commanding 5-1 lead. Samara held (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point and the hold) to pull to 2-5, but then Rizzo held again (Triple Game Point, Double Fault for Double Game Point, but then came the hold) to take the set at 10:07 (we had started it at 9:37, so it was exactly a half hour long)! We began the next one just one minute later.
2nd Set: Dino was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, then came Break Point and the break), Paul held (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point, a bounce back to Deuce and then Game Point, a Double Fault for 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce, another Game Point and finally the hold) and Frank was broken at Love for 0-3! John was also broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break) to allow the opposition onto the scoreboard in this set, but from there it was Celis getting broken again (15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then a further descent to Double Break Point, a bounce back to Deuce, another Break Point and the break), Daddio held yet again (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point, then came Game Point and the hold) and Samara was also broken again (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break/Match Point and then the break) to take the loss at 10:35!
The Skinny: The action actually felt a bit closer than the score indicates, but Daddio was clearly the MVP of this match as he was the most dominant server and was also a force at the net with his overheads and volleys. He was ably supported by Rizzo who made some very nice gets along the way (often rushing in from the baseline) and then hitting short-angle shots for winners. Celis offered up a mixed bag of hard-hitting winners that were often offset by shots that were dumped into the net. Samara reverted to his recent trend of doing just about everything right except for the overheads (his recent outing at the last Friday Night Bubble Party was the opposite of that). If only he could put it all together in a singular performance, he might be onto something…LOL!
We then decided to keep the teams and tried to get in a One-Setter. But first there is another one to report.
Sean McHugh/Sam Senowitz leading Kevin Doyle/Jeanette Pegg, 5-3 (Incomplete when they stopped the action at 10:50)! No Aces.
Paul Daddio/John Rizzo tied with Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 3-3 (Incomplete when we had to stop the action at 11:02…we got it going at 10:38)! No Aces. Here's how it was going: Paul was broken (started off with a Double Fault, then Love-30 shifted to 30-All, then another Double Fault to set up Break Point and then came the break), Dino was broken at Love, but John was the first to hold serve (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) for 2-1. Frank also held (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold), but then Daddio held (30-Love, a Double Fault for 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) for 3-2. At this point, we agreed that the next game would be the last one…of course it ended up being the lengthiest one of the night! With Celis on serve, he got off to a 15-Love start, then 15-All which shifted to Double Game Point and then another shift to Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point, 4th Deuce, Break Point, 5th Deuce, Game Point and the hold to walk away with a tie at 3-3!
The Skinny: Daddio/Rizzo switched up both their service sides and return of serve sides in this one. Meanwhile, Samara/Celis just switched up their service sides. Not sure if any of that contributed to the more evenly balanced match-up in this one or not. It was a shame the session had to end when it did as the action was growing more intense as the evening grew older. Still, it was a lot of fun nonetheless.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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