5/3/16:
GTA Tuesday Night Tennis surprisingly took place at The Cedar Grove Courts (hosted by "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan as he witnessed the GTA Women's Championship Tournament Round of 16 Match between Laura "The Aura" Gawley and "The Natural" Natalie Guzman) as a day full of steady rain briefly gave way in the early evening to a faint drizzle. Kudos must be given to both ladies for battling to get that match in despite less than favorable weather conditions.
Later in the evening, "Hollywood" Frank Samara hosted a session of four players at The Fair Lawn Racquet Club as he was the invited guest/sub of "The Olympian" Marie Salamon.
We will now go to the recap from Kris (Laura had also sent in her score directly, but Kris provided additional commentary) and then Samara will finish the report.
The Cedar Grove Result:
The damp weather dampened the possibility of tennis for almost all barring two daring women who got to play their match, thanks to some mopping and blow-drying of the court by Rob Gawley. Laura and Natalie Guzman were not deterred by the misty conditions with a very slight drizzle.
GTA Women's Championship Tournament Round of 16 Match:
Laura Gawley over Natalie Guzman, 6-1, 6-0, to successfully defend her # 1 Rank in the Women's Division plus advance to the Quarterfinals of the GTA Women's Championship Tournament!
The Say from Papa K: I got to see the last part of the match, and it was a treat. Laura was clinical in her thumping win as she constructed her points systematically by playing a few shots deep before coming in to the net and closing the point. Natalie played solid shots both forehand and backhand, but some of Laura's well-paced shots didn't give her much time to play deep…and it also didn't help that she was completely rooted to the baseline throughout the match. She did have an amazing backhand down the line winner to Laura's serve. Overall, it was an offensive approach that Laura took that kept Natalie on a defensive mode. This was a must watch match as to how to play strategically. Cheers!
Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kris for being the host with the most up at Cedar Grove and providing us with his very comprehensive reports. And I also must congratulate Laura on her impressive victory…and a shout out to Natalie for her valiant effort as well.
Samara arrived at Fair Lawn by 7:25, went across the street to grab a quick Sicilian slice before entering the Racquet Club at 7:40 and then lounged in the lounge (like that?) until the other three parties (I did not know who they would be) arrived.
At 8pm, I walked down to Court Two (as directed by the woman at the desk) to wait for the others. All three arrived within minutes. First it was the lovely couple I played with a little over a month ago, Ralph and Wanda Nadal. Soon to follow was a familiar face from some time ago, Russ Johnson.
The Nadals are one of the strongest Mixed Doubles tandems I have ever faced. Russ is a much-experienced lefty who has just about every shot in the book.
We had a spilt court hitting session that lasted close to twenty minutes. Ralph and Russ lined up on the same side of the court facing off against Wanda and me. So that led to the first Doubles One-Setter.
After that one, Wanda took a bathroom break…which I welcomed as it enabled me the time to write the point-by-point breakdown of the games.
Beyond that, we then played two more One-Setters where I teamed with Russ against The Nadals. Like the first of the three sets, we did not switch court sides every two games (we held sides for the entire set). We also did not take a break between the last two, so I did not do my normal breakdown.
I actually had all of the games (point by point) memorized until "Coach" Dino Celis made a late cameo appearance as he was heading home from work nearby and decided to stop by to see how the session went. Once I started B.S.'ing with him, my mind became a blank slate…LOL!
So here we go with what I have on those three One-Setters (all of which were high quality as I was doing my best to keep up with three very solid and experienced players).
The Fair Lawn Results:
Ralph Nadal/Russ Johnson over Frank Samara/Wanda Nadal, 6-1! Ralph: 1 Ace on Wanda! It was the official GTA Return of Russ Johnson. It went like this: Wanda was broken (15-Love to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point and then the break) and Ralph held serve (15-Love, 15-All, 2 Double Faults for Double Break Point, then shift to Deuce, an Ace up the T against Wanda for Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to go up 2-0. Frank held (15-Love, 15-All to Double Game Point and the hold) to get his team on the scoreboard, but from there Russ also held (15-Love, 15-All to Double Game Point and the hold), W. Nadal was broken again (Love-15 to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break), R. Nadal held again and this time it was at Love and Samara was broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, but then a poorly timed Double Fault for Break/Match Point, Deuce, it ended on the 2nd Break/Match Point) to take a tough loss! We played this on Court Two from 8:25 to 8:40.
The Skinny: Ralph is one of the biggest servers that I've ever faced. Often, his Double Fault count equals or exceeds his Ace count…but that is because he goes for it on second serve. Russ has just about every shot in the book and is a crafty lefty on top of all that. Wanda is one of the most aggressive and powerful Women's players that I've ever had the pleasure to play with or against. I was doing my best to make up for lack of form with get-making (some of my best as of late due to losing five pounds in just four days thanks to having no car and doing a lot of walking) and crafty junk tennis. As the night went on, my style became more and more confounding for the opposition (or maybe I just was raising the level of my game to all of theirs).
Frank Samara/Russ Johnson over Ralph Nadal/Wanda Nadal, 6-3! Ralph: 3 Aces (2 on Russ which were both truly corner/sideline strikes and 1 on Frank which was a T-shot…and the first two of these Aces were back to back in the same game)! Down 1-3, Samara/Johnson then took five straight games for an impressive comeback! This one also took place on Court Two and lasted from 8:45 to 9:20.
Ralph Nadal/Wanda Nadal over Frank Samara/Russ Johnson, 7-6 (7-4)! Ralph: 3 Aces (2 on Russ, one of which was another corner/sideline combo and the other was on the T and 1 on Frank which was another T-shot)! Down 1-3, the Nadals then went up 4-3. It then went 4-4, 5-4 for the Nadals, 5-5 and 6-5 for the Nadals where Samara held serve to force the Tiebreak. In the TB, Samara/Johnson had 1-0 and 2-1 leads before going down 2-4, 3-4 and then to 3-6 which was the first Match Point of the entire contest. They saved that one, but then went down on the next one…the 2nd M.P. overall! This war occupied Court Two from 9:22 to 10pm.
The Skinny: For the entire night, rallies rarely went long as these three are winner-hitters. And yes, sometimes that leads to Unforced Errors as well. But many of the games in the last two One-Setters did go to multiple Deuces. This last battle above could be a possible Nominee for One-Set Doubles Specialty Match of The Year as the quality was quite high throughout the contest.
I thank Marie for the invite and applaud Russ and The Nadals for their sportsmanship. It was a nice night!
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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