5/8

5/8/16:

"Mother's Day sees 12 (1 New) at C.G. as Kris hosts!":               

A special Mother's Day edition of GTA Sunday Tennis took place at The Cedar Grove Courts (hosted by "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan).  The morning rains lasted just long enough to throw "Hollywood" Frank Samara's schedule out of whack and prevented him from hosting his usual session at Robin Hood Park in Clifton.  It did end up becoming an absolutely beautiful Sunday afternoon. 

So we will now go to the report from Kris.

Mother's Day was celebrated with some GTA Tennis as well. We got to see a new player In Lidya Mikhail, who has just moved to Cedar Grove. The whole atmosphere got a boost when "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli charged in shortly thereafter, just when a match starred featuring Chris Chiaro and Lidya against Joe Rodrigues and Doinks.

For someone who is just now playing again after a 10 year layoff, Lidya was pretty good as she was getting her groove back. Doinks felt that Lidya's returns to her serves were deep and powerful.

The Cedar Grove Results:

Joe Rodrigues/Doinks Srinivasan over Chris Chiaro/Lidya Mikhail, 7-5!  No Aces (apparently).  It was the official GTA Debut of Lidya Mikhail.

Down Love-2, Chris and Lidya did well to tie it up and when I went to play on the adjacent court, they were leading at 4-3.  Joe was solid and Doinks has been playing well these days. Chris did his part to make it close and competitive.

Kris Srinivasan/Dan Martinelli over Moka Pathan/Sukumar Mitra, 6-2!  No Aces.

Spin was on a roll and his serves were flying like darts with ultra-speed. With his sprightly steps and bouncing energy, we were all over the place and, with Moka and Kumar making some Unforced Errors, we sewed this first One-Setter in quick time. 

Moka Pathan/Sukumar Mitra over Kris Srinivasan/Dan Martinelli, 6-2!  Moka: 1 Ace on Spin (this usually doesn't happen to Spin…in Spin's book)!

Once the initial outburst fizzled a bit, we gave the momentum to our opponents. The sudden shift meant that we couldn't capitalize on opportunities we had to close a few games. Moka and Kumar also upped their game.

Moka and Kumar continued to play against Nate and Jose. There were amazing rallies and it looked like a good match. 

Samara's Notes: Nobody ever reported that score.  Now we go back to Kris. 

Kris Srinivasan/Dan Martinelli over Santosh Reddy/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-4!  No Aces.

Spin was back in his element and, together, we did pretty well. There were some good serves from Santosh and Doinks and they played some really nice deep shots, but were not enough to put us under pressure. 

2 out of 3 Set Doubles Match:

Kris Srinivasan/Jose Gonzales over Nathan Fernandes/Santosh Reddy, 6-3, 6-2, to successfully defend their # 25 Rank in the Doubles Division while Fernandes/Reddy entered the division as the New # 29 Ranked Team!  Jose: 1 Ace on Santosh!

It was a good match for us with me doing a decent job at the net and Jose unleashing his drop shots. There were some terrific gets and slices by Nate. Santosh served well and one of his service games proved to be the longest game with at least 20 Deuces!  He was quite tested by Jose's drop shots.

Kris Srinivasan/Jose Gonzales over Tito Castolo/Santosh Reddy, 7-5!  No Aces.

We were down 2-4 before charging back into the match. Tito was brilliant as usual with his drop shots and smoking Overhead Smashes, but Santosh is not used to coming in aggressively in tandem with Tito. This could have put more pressure on us. Jose punished him with his drop shots for staying back at the baseline. It was a good night for me at the net.

Overall, Mother's Day turned out to be a fistful of action at The Cedar Grove Tennis Courts as we were witnessing some happy fathers having a good time.  Cheers!

Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kris for hosting GTA Tennis up at Cedar Grove and also for providing us with that report.

Sincerely,

Frank Samara