5/9/16:
GTA Monday Tennis took place in three locations: an early morning session at The TJ Field Courts in Fair Lawn as both "The Z-Man" Dave Zapusek and "The Flax Machine" Mike Flax battled one another in their mutual return to the league), Robin Hood Park in Clifton (where host "Hollywood" Frank Samara was a late arrival) and at The Cedar Grove Courts (featuring the GTA Intermediate Invitational Quarterfinal Match between "Net Profit" Praful Nair and Jay "The Rising" Phoenix with scores being sent in by Nair, "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan, "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan and "Bravo" Brenda Jordan). The weather was once again absolutely beautiful – sunny and 70 degrees!
So we will now go to the score from Dave (as reported directly when he made a cameo appearance at the RHP session), then the full RHP recap and then all the results from Cedar Grove.
The TJ Field Result:
3 out of 5 Sets Challenge Match:
Dave Zapusek over Mike Flax, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4, as both re-enter the Intermediate Division as the New # 38 and # 39 Ranked Players respectively! No Aces. It was the official GTA Return of both Zapusek and Flax. This match lasted about two hours, roughly from 9am to 11am.
Samara's Notes: I thank Dave for sharing that result with us. And now we go to Robin Hood Park.
Samara pulled up to RHP at 6:15 (half an hour later than he indicated via e-mail earlier in the day). Upon his arrival, he saw the Entrance Court occupied by a dad and his two kids (this court would be full most of the night, but each group there would not last long as it was then a mom and her two kids, a couple and then three guys to close out the night).
On Championship Court, he saw "Sadistic" Syed Rashid (who had just made his own arrival a short while ago) in a hitting session with "Lucky" Leo Victor. At the fence it was New GTA Champion: "Instant" Moka Pathan, "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli and "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto.
As it turns out, a Doubles One-Setter had already taken place featuring Victor and De Benedetto against Pathan and "Nasty" Nilay Patel (who had already left by this time).
At 6:29, the second Doubles One-Setter of the day got underway featuring Martinelli and Rashid versus Victor and De Benedetto. Pathan left at 6:40.
At 7:05, "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes arrived. As always, whenever people are waiting to play (in this case, both Samara and Fernandes), the ongoing action almost always runs long. This time was no exception as the battle in progress lasted all the way until 7:26!
After that one, De Benedetto left. Martinelli decided to go into his usual "Heckler" mode. So that left Samara and Victor to take on Rashid and Fernandes.
This third battle was also quite lengthy as it went into the darkness and did not end until 8:18! From there, there was a bull session. Syed was the first to leave it at 8:30.
The next two to go were Spin and Nate at 8:45. Finally, Frank and Leo called it a night at 9pm. At this time, it was too late for Samara to head up to Cedar Grove as promised.
Let's recap those RHP scores before we head up to Cedar Grove.
The RHP Results:
Moka Pathan/Nilay Patel over Leo Victor/Vinnie De Benedetto, 6-0! No Aces. This one took place on Championship Court and lasted roughly from 5:30 to 5:50 (that likely includes the hitting session as the actual set only took about 15 minutes).
Dan Martinelli/Syed Rashid over Leo Victor/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (7-4)! Spin: 1 Ace on Leo; and Syed: 1 Ace on Leo! Here's the basic breakdown: Leo was broken, Syed was broken, Vinnie was broken but Spin was the first to hold for a 3-1 lead. Victor responded with a Love hold, but Rashid also held to take a 4-2 lead for his team. De Benedetto held to pull to 3-4, but then Martinelli had a marvelous service game as he had two near aces that were back-to-back before eventually scoring an official Ace against Leo on Double Game Point for the hold and a 5-3 lead! Then, came what could have been a pivotal game with Lucky Leo on serve as it went straight to Triple Break/Match Point, then Double Break/Match Point, Break/Match Point, Deuce, 4th Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point and finally the hold to get to 4-5! Sadistic Syed was then broken for 5-5. The Vin Man was broken to fall to 5-6, but then The Doc was also broken and for the first time in another up and down struggle that went like this (Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and then an un-returnable serve for 3rd Deuce, Game/Match Point where Vin hit a winning Overhead Smash for 4th Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 5th Deuce, Break Point, 6th Deuce, Break Point and then the break) which meant they were heading to the Tiebreak at 7:18! In the Breaker: Leo held his lone serve and then Syed was broken on the first of his two serves, but then nailed Leo with a corner Ace for 1-2. Vin held his first serve for 3-1, but was broken on his second for 3-2. Spin held the first of his two serves after hitting a winner for 3-3 at the changeover and then he held again after Vin blew an overhead to make it 4-3! Victor was broken on the first of his two serves, but then held on his second after hitting a "Lucky" roller over the net for the winner to pull to 4-5! But from there, Rashid held both of his serves to end the TB at 7-4 on the 7th Match Point! This occupied Championship Court from 6:29 to 7:26!
The Skinny: This one was a lot of fun to watch. It had many momentum shots. Leo and Syed were really ramping up their fast-paced forehand shots while Spin and Vin were actually doing more with smart placements. It was an even battle that stands an outside chance at being a Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.
Frank Samara/Leo Victor over Syed Rashid/Nathan Fernandes, 7-5! Syed: 1 Ace on Frank! The dirty lowdown: Nathan was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All…and there was an un-returned serve along the way…and then Leo hit another lucky roller for Break Point where an excellent rally brought it back to Deuce and then Leo hit a scorcher of a winning return for Break Point and then Frank ended the gamed with an amped up winner), Frank was broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All after hitting a winner, but then the break came on Break Point), Syed was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point where an un-returned serve set up Break Point which ended with a winning volley from Frank), but Leo was the first to hold serve (30-Love shifted to 30-All after Nate hit consecutive winning Overhead Smashes, but that was where Leo hit a mishit winner for Game Point, but then Nate hit a winner for Deuce, the hold came on the next Game Point) for a 3-1 lead. Fernandes held (a winning Overhead Smash by Syed got things started and then there was a point where Nate had to hit three consecutive Overhead Smashes for the eventual winner over and above Frank's defense and this all led to Triple Game Point which was cut to Double Game Point with yet another lucky roller from Leo and then a passing shot winner from Frank, but then came the hold) and Samara was broken again (Love-15, 15-All and then right to Double Break Point as Nate hit a winning Overhead Smash along the way, it was then Break Point where the break occurred) to tie it up at 3-3. Rashid held (Syed hit a sizzling winner for 15-Love, then 30-Love, 30-15 where a sideline Ace against Frank set up Double Game Point and then came the hold), but Victor held again (Nate hit a winning Overhead Smash for Love-30, but it shifted to 30-All after Frank hit his patented Windmill Overhead Smash, then it was Break Point where Frank hit an even more impressive Overhead Smash to bring it to Deuce, then it was Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point where Leo hit a hell of a winner for 3rd Deuce, then Game Point and the hold) to knot the score once more at 4-4! Nate the Great held again (another amazing winner from Syed for 15-Love, then it was 15-All before heading straight to Double Game Point with a winner from Nate along the way and then another winner by Nate for the hold), but then Hollywood finally held (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point) to make it 5-5! Sadistic Syed was broken (Leo hit a winner for Love-15 and then a Double Fault made it Love-30, it then went to Triple Break Point and the Love break) and then Lucky Leo held at Love as he hit a winner to get things started and then on Triple Game/Match Point it was Frank hitting the winning Overhead Smash to secure the Love hold for his partner and get the win! This one took place on Championship Court from 7:29 to 8:18!
The Skinny: It was getting quite dark in the latter stages of this contest and Syed wanted to end it as a tie at 5-5. But the other three (mainly Frank) convinced him to play on as his team would go back to the western half of the court (where it was easier to see). Samara failed to mention his nearly X-ray vision in the dark as he was relatively unfazed by playing this one out from the darker eastside. All in all, it was a lot of fun and a great way to close out the session.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Chris Chiaro/Mike Kazlauskas over Marijus Kuzavas/Kris Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces.
GTA Intermediate Invitational Quarterfinal Match:
Praful Nair over Jay Phoenix, 7-5, 6-0, to successfully defend his # 23 Rank in the Advanced Division while simultaneously becoming the New # 6 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division and also advancing to the Semifinals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament! No Aces.
Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Praful Nair/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces.
Praful Nair/Doinks Srinivasan over Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley, 7-6 (12-10)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: Even with no other details that last One-Setter sounds like a definite Nominee for One-Set Mixed Doubles Match of The Year! We now close this report with the results from Brenda.
2 out of 3 Set Mixed Doubles Match:
Tito Castolo/Dawn Peterson over Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan, 6-2, 6-2, to become the New # 10 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division! No Aces (apparently).
Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over Dawn Peterson/Natalia Sout, 6-2! No Aces (apparently).
Samara's Notes: I thank Kris, Praful, Doinks and Brenda for all acting as co-hosts of the GTA Tennis session up at Cedar Grove and also for providing us with their reports.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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