GTA Wednesday Tennis took place in the early afternoon at The Mountainside Park Courts in Montclair (featuring the GTA Intermediate Invitational Quarterfinal Match between Tony "Sure Shot" Shiao and "Holy Moly" Mike Mole, score sent in by both, but details by Tony).
Then there was the evening session up at The Cedar Grove Courts (hosted by "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan and featuring a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match between "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas and "Coach" Dino Celis, score sent in by both, but details by Dino and additional scores sent in by "Kid Crush" Chris Chiaro).
Let's go to that first result as sent in by Mr. Shiao.
The Mountainside Park Result:
GTA Intermediate Invitational Quarterfinal Match:
Tony Shiao over Mike Mole, 6-2, 6-1, to successfully defend both his # 20 Rank in the Advanced Division and # 8 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Semifinals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament! Tony and Mike: 1 Ace each in the 2nd Set.
The Sure Shot from Shiao: After the rain stopped in the morning, Mike and I decided to meet up at Mountainside Park for our Invitational Match at 1:30pm. Mike walked up barebones with just a racket and a can of tennis balls in hand. No cover or large racket bag or even a water bottle! It was hardcore and a true intimidation factor for me because the last time I played with someone who showed up with just a racket, it was Ruddy Pena and he beat me easily as if he was on a Sunday stroll.
I've never really had the chance to play against Mike in the past, but I've seen his powerful serves and crazy topspin forehands at The Bubble, so I knew I'd have to adjust my game to suit. Although the final score does not indicate it, we had many Deuce games and they could have swung in either one's favor. His serves were powerful and fast and, when he gets them in, they are often nonreturnable. His topspin forehands allowed Mike to hit some wicked sick angles forcing me into the alleys. We both had Unforced Errors, but I believe the timing of when they occurred was the deciding factor to my advantage.
I enjoyed playing with Mike and we had many hard hitting rallies and I can honestly say we both did not do any pushing and went all out. I am looking forward to playing against Mike again in the near future.
Samara's Notes: I thank Tony for providing us with all those details. I also congratulate him on an impressive victory. He now advances to face "Net Profit" Praful Nair in the Semis. I also thank Mike for sending me a text of the score in a very timely fashion.
We will now head up to Cedar Grove where we will first report the result as sent in by Dino (and also confirmed by Marijus), then the couple of scores from Chris and then the balance of the report coming in from Kris.
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Dino Celis over Marijus Kuzavas, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, to become the New # 4 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division! Marijus: 9 Aces (5 in the 1st Set, 2 in the 2nd Set and 2 in the 3rd Set)!
From The Coach's Clipboard: We played from 7:30 to 9:25. He was unstoppable in the 1st Set. It was a very competitive match that could have gone either way. I managed to break him and then held serve at the right time.
Samara's Notes: I congratulate Dino on a very hard-fought victory and also offer kudos to Marijus for a spirited effort as well. I also thank both for reporting. And now for those two Doubles One-Setter scores from Chris.
Chris Chiaro/Raj Tailor over Praful Nair/Lou La Forgia, 7-6 (8-6)! No Aces.
Chris Chiaro/Raj Tailor over Praful Nair/Lou La Forgia, 6-4! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank Chris for those scores. And now we will let Papa K take it away!
Tennis could commence only after 7:30pm as the Pickle Ballers took to the courts until that time. I expect the same today even though it does mention until 9:30pm for Wednesday. There was a Doubles One-Setter three women and Spin on one court and a singles match between Dino and Marijus.
On the other side, one court was taken by Arvind (he played just a single set with us, but felt he needed to play with higher skilled players) was again involved in Doubles that might have taken up all night but for an innocent comment I made that one of the players heard I believe. While sitting on the bench, I said that we are losing precious play time without getting to play. This was after these guys had played for a while. I was afraid that Arvind may be a constant feature here when I saw him last week and it looks to be so.
Dino probably had the best result of the night taking out Marijus in 3 sets after a disastrous start. The Doubles action involving Lou and Praful against Chris and Raj Taylor looked quite solid.
I had a poor night and apparently so did Doinks. Natalia had some terrific gets. It was Kevin who played steady and kept it deep and away from me that helped his teammate, Jose put away a bunch of points.
Sally was on fire from the get-go and it looked like she continued to be so all night until she had her Gatorade at the end of the night to cool her down…:-). Dawn was steady and it was a mixed bag for Brenda and Doinks.
Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over Dan Martinelli/Dawn Peterson, 6-2! No Aces (apparently).
Praful Nair/Sally Pillay over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1! No Aces.
Jose Gonzales/Kevin Doyle over Kris Srinivasan/Natalia Sout, 6-3! No Aces.
Kris Srinivasan/Natalia Sout leading Jose Gonzales/Kevin Doyle, 5-4 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! Jose: 1 Ace on Natalia.
We needed just a point and a game to wrap up the set in the last match. With just a few minutes to 10pm, it was all rush-rush, that we actually blew up 2 games and almost the third. Some days, you are not destined to win…:-). We also got to see at least 4 games (for the night) that we lost after being up 40-Love or we failed to break when the opponent was serving Love-40.
Arvind and one of his pals stayed back, and actually got to play after Dino finished his match. All in all, it was buzzing action on all the courts! Cheers!
Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kris for all he does on behalf of the GTA up at Cedar Grove. And 15 official competitors is an impressive total for the night.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
No comments:
Post a Comment