7/21

2 at NTC, Kris-Scott (10) at C.G., Anish-Jay at Park, Senthil-Nate in Wayne!":

               

GTA Thursday Night Tennis took place at four locations: The Nutley Tennis Club (hosted by "The Riz" John Rizzo), The Cedar Grove Courts (co-hosted by "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan and "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan while featuring The Grove Cup Round of 32 Match featuring Srinivasan versus "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld), The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley (featuring The Grove Cup Round of 32 Match between "Steppin' to the AM" Anish Mehta and Jay "The Rising" Phoenix, as reported by Jay) and The Nellis Drive Courts in Wayne (featuring The Grove Cup Round of 32 Match between "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar and "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes, as reported by both Senthil and Nate). 

 

Before we run down all the recaps in the order above, I want to thank all those above for reporting in a very detailed and timely manner.  It is greatly appreciated…especially when I cannot be there to host any of the sessions.  This league functions best when all results are sent in as soon as possible.  Without reporting, there really is not much of a structure for such a league.  So, again, kudos to all involved!

 

Let's first go to NTC for a couple of scores sent in by The Riz.

 

The NTC Results:

 

John Rizzo over Tom La, 6-2!  No Aces.  We got started around 6pm.

 

Tom La over John Rizzo, 6-3!  No Aces.  Rizzo was down 0-5 before mounting a partial comeback.

 

We now head up to The Cedar Grove Courts for the report from Kris where Gen filled in the gaps with a couple of scores and details he missed along the way as he was busy in his Grove Cup Round of 32 Match against Scott Bergenfeld.

 

The action started quite early as my Grove Cup Match with Scott was scheduled for 6:30pm, but the enthusiastic Scott came in early just after 6pm.  I came to know that Gen had come a few minutes earlier as she was going to hit a bit with Raj Shah.

 

My son Sairaj went early to secure a court, but Scott was already there.  They had a hitting session as I joined them just around 6:15.  Later to follow suit were Joe Rodrigues, Raj Boddu, Edwin Ortega, Tito Castolo and my wife Doinks.  Essentially, only two courts were used all night long as we had fewer players.

 

Gen's Notes: Sairaj and I were hitting against Raj Shah for 25-30 minutes. Raj took a mini break to watch some of Kris and Scott's match as they wrapped up their 1st Set.  In the meantime, Sairaj and I kept hitting.  Raj returned to the court and then I took my break and allowed the two to play a One-Setter. 

 

The Cedar Grove Results:

 

Raj Shah over Sairaj Srinivisan, 6-1!  Raj: 1 Ace. 

 

Then Joe Rodrigues arrived by 7pm.  We started the next Doubles One-Setter. 

 

Joe Rodrigues/Genalin Capan over Raj Shah/Sairaj Srinivisan, 7-5!  Raj: 1 Ace on Gen. This set was played from 7:30 to 8:15.

 

It was a tight set and we were tied up at 3-3.  Raj/Sairaj took the next two games for the lead at 5-3.

We saved 1 Match Point.  Then we took next 4 straight games for a nice comeback win.  We won on our 2nd MP (the 3rd MP in the set).  Joe was on fire as he made several amazing shots that kept us in the game. 

 

The Say from Papa K: They had a good match and, per Gen, Joe was brilliant and helped his side win at the crucial moments.

 

Grove Cup Round of 32 Match:

Scott Bergenfeld over Kris Srinivasan, 6-3, 6-3, to become both the New # 9 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 8 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  No Aces.

 

Scott played fantastically to earn a handsome victory that he fully deserved.  The original plan was for me to go early and hit a bit with Sairaj to get warmed up.  But it changed with me hitting with Scott for a few minutes.  As the match started, I was just trying to put the racquet to the ball, let alone play nice shots.  In less than 10 minutes, I was close to going down Love-5 before surviving to make it 1-4.  It was from there where our battle truly started.  With my back against the wall, the best I could do was to win three games.

 

The 2nd Set started off more competitively.  The lengthy rallies made it more intense.  I started the 2nd Set well by holding on to my serve.  Scott did well to hold his serve, too.  The next game was brutal as I slipped from a 40- Love lead only to lose my serve after an 8 Deuce battle!  But I got the break back to tie it at 2-All.  The next game turned out to be a monster that lasted a whole 30 minutes!  From another 40-Love position, I squandered it to go to Deuce once again.  From there on, it was brutal as the game prolonged forever with as many as 16 Deuces as I faced multiple Game Points and Break Points before finally, finally holding on to my serve!  This was an incredible game that saw many multi-shot rallies and Scott showed how fit he was as he was able to get to so many shots with ease.  There were some ridiculous misses by me as I set the point.  Boy, Scott can move so fast and here I was seeing the life energy sucked out of me!  All the constant Doubles matches that I am involved with and not having played any Singles was indeed telling.  I had plenty of shots that were short much to my dislike, but I dug in hard.  The last three games went with ease as I was still trying to catch my breath…:-)  Overall, Scott was brilliant and deserved his great win.  I did figure out how to get him, but the poor execution on some points set me back.  Still, it was fun, a very good match and one where Scott clearly had the edge. He is one of the nicest guys on and off the court, so it was a pleasure to play with him.

 

Raj played a few Singles One-Setters, first with Sairaj, then with Joe and later with Tito.  It was good experience for the youngster.

 

Raj Shah over Joe Rodrigues, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

 

Raj Shah over Tito Castolo, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

 

The last one looked like a very good match and Raj was clearly tested by the crafty play of Tito that forced some Unforced Errors. Tito seemed to play with ease, but Raj came thru good in the end.

 

Samara's Notes: It is truly a shame that Tito is unwilling to get involved in the Singles side of things here in the GTA.  A little known fact is that he had defeated Omar "Stealth" Santos in straight sets earlier this season, but he asked Omar not to report it as he knew it would land him in the Advanced Division.  Mr. Castolo simply chooses to be a Doubles specialist.  But if he changed his mind, he would certainly be one of the better players in the "A" Division as well.

 

Now I turn this report back over to Kris.

 

2 out of 3 Sets:

Kris Srinivasan/Raj Boddu over Edwin Ortega/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2, 6-3!  Doinks: 2 Aces on Raj (both died before the ball reached him)!

 

It was a relaxing match for me after the hard-fought Singles earlier.  Boddu was solid and my net play was getting better.  Doinks was consistent, especially from the baseline.  Ed missed a few at the net which he usually does well, but his serving was very good.

 

Raj Boddu/Doinks Srinivasan tied with Edwin Ortega/Tito Castolo, 3-3 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)!  No Aces.  It was a close, competitive match that ended with the lights going out before it could be finished. 

 

I had a nice hitting session with Jordan Bachvaroff as he tested out his new racquet.  So it was plenty of tennis for me, but the turnout was low.  Friday looks like a great night for tennis to cap the start of the weekend.  Cheers!

 

We now head back to Nutley, but this time around the action was at The Park Ave. Courts (it has been a long time since we've had any GTA action there) as Jay provides the recap of his match with Anish.

 

The Park Ave. Result:

 

Grove Cup Round of 32 Match:

Anish Mehta over Jay Phoenix, 6-2, 6-0, to successfully defend his # 15 Rank in the Advanced Division while also becoming the New # 3 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division and also advancing to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  No Aces.   

 

The Say from Jay: We played around 8pm.  He crushed me.  Neither of us had any aces.  But he had several serves that were un-returnable.  I did not see any weaknesses in his game.

 

We now head up to Wayne for the dual recap from Senthil and Nate to close out this report.

 

The Nellis Drive Result:

 

Grove Cup Round of 32 Match:

Nathan Fernandes over Senthil Kumar, 7-5, 6-0, to become the New # 13 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while also advancing to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  No Aces.

 

The Untangled Web from Senthil: We started at 7:15pm and ended around 9:15pm.  After a 10 minute warm-up (itself set the tone for the match, our warm up was like a 30 shot rally), Nathan won the toss and started on serve.  It started off at 1-1 and then Senthil got a couple of breaks of serve against Nate in a well-contested battle to lead the set at 5-1.  Nathan picked up his defensive game and started chasing the put-away shots.  Nathan leveled the set at 5-5, went up 6-5 and took the set at 7-5.  Senthil played the whole set trying to keep up with Nathan and possibly ran out of breath. 

 

The 2nd Set was an easy zap for Nathan even though most games were at 30-All.  Nathan adjusted well and worked on a strategy of moving the ball to get Unforced Errors from Senthil.  Senthil played many good winning shots only to see the ball returned with good placement. 

 

Nate sets it straight: Senthil was up 5-1 in the 1st Set before I came back to take the next 12 games for the "W."  I know it is a GTA cliché', but the match really was closer than the score indicates.  Credit goes to Senthil for fighting till the end and continuing to play his aggressive and intelligent brand of tennis. 

 

Samara's Notes: It truly was a monumental night of GTA Tennis in multiple locations.  The Grove Cup Tournament is already off and running to a fast start (another matter that is greatly appreciated) and its impact is quickly rocking the ranks of the league.  Again, thanks to all involved. 

 

Sincerely,

Frank Samara