7/24

Tony-Raj B. in Mt.Clair, Rob-Ryan, Dino-Jorge at HP, Frank-Sukumar at RHP, Laura-Sally at C.G.!":

On another hot and sweltering Sunday, it turns out there were four sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: The Mountainside Park Courts in Upper Montclair (featuring the Grove Cup Round of 32 Match between Tony "Sure Shot" Shiao and "Kaboom" Raj Boddu, as reported by both), Holster Park in Clifton (featuring two Grove Cup Round of 32 Matches, the first being "Double R" Rob Ryan versus "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak and the second being "Coach" Dino Celis against "Big George" Jorge Solano...along with other players involved in more action), Robin Hood Park (featuring another Grove Cup Round of 32 Match, this one between "Hollywood" Frank Samara and "The Chef" Sukumar Mitra...as Holster Park was already full), The Nutley Tennis Club (with "The Riz" John Rizzo acting as host) and The Cedar Grove Courts (with "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan acting as host and featuring the GTA Women's Championship Final Match between Laura "The Aura" Gawley and "Spicy" Sally Pillay, with additional commentary from Laura).

Let's first go to Montclair as that was the first result of the day in chronological order.  Then we will detail all the comings and goings between HP and RHP.  We will then finish this report up at Cedar Grove.

The Mountainside Park Result:

Grove Cup Round of 32 Match:
Tony Shiao over Raj Boddu, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, to successfully defend both his # 12 Rank in the Advanced Division and his # 1 Rank in the Intermediate Division while advancing to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  Tony and Raj: 2 Aces each (all in the 1st Set)!

The Kaboom Report: I remember how Tony fought back brilliantly by saving 3 Match Points in the 2nd Set. I was serving up 5-4 (40-15, Double Match Point).  The rest was "The Tony Show" and he is more well-prepared for 3 Set matches than I am right now.  I think we arrived at the courts around 7:45am and the match was over at 10:50.  Good luck to Tony in the rest of the tourney!

The Sure Shot from Shiao: Raj and I met up at Mountainside Park at about 7:30am to beat the heat.  We started our match about 8am and we were both playing fairly well and adjusting to each others style.  We held serve until 4-3 and I was broken at some point and Raj took the 1st Set at 6-4.  In the 2nd Set, I went after his backhand but he was able to run around most of them and je placed the ball well and painted the lines on numerous occasions.  It was frustrating since I was going for my big topspin forehand shots and he was able to get most of them back with placement.  I also mixed the shots up a bit and drew him into the net only to be reminded of why he has the moniker of "KABOOM!"

As time went on, I saw myself down three Match Points at 4-5 (40-15) and thought to myself  "screw it! time to go home" and went for my shots.  Luckily, it paid off and I was able to turn things around and was up 6-5 with a few Set Points only to be robbed and we went to a Tiebreak.  At this point, the sun was blazing and the heat was suffocating our every breath.  I was lucky to take the 2nd Set at 7-6 (7-1). 

As we started the 3rd Set, I got a text from my wife that she and the kids were walking over to see me play and I knew that they would be a distraction so I told myself to focus and get the job done.  I don't remember how the games went, but I was able to take the 3rd Set at 6-3 before my family made their way to the park at about 11am. 

Going into this match, I knew it would be a grueling battle because I was scarred from losing to Raj in three sets during the Intermediate Invitational Finals a few years ago.  He played well today and it could've easily been his victory.  I'm looking forward to playing against Mr. Kaboom again soon.

Samara's Notes: First off, I thank both for all of the details and the timely reporting.  Secondly, I congratulate Tony on a hard-fought victory but also offer major kudos to Raj for a valiant effort.  And third, this may very well be a Nominee for the Intermediate Match of The Year at season's end.

So now we recount how everything went down at both Holster Park and Robin Hood Park.

Samara's e-mail to the league had originally stated that he would initially meet Mitra at Holster Park at 9:45, but that there was a good chance that they would have to take their match somewhere else if Holster Carw was already full.

Sure enough, when he pulled into the parking lot at 9:25, he saw "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto leaning up against his car in the lot.  Vin warned him all the courts were occupied and it was all GTA players.  It was Ryan-Pienciak on one court, Celis-Solano on another and Jay "The Rising" Phoenix was doing battle with "Nik@Nite" Nik Agharkar on the third.

Also at this same time, "Mr. G." Mark Grossman had pulled into the lot.  And then Samara received a voicemail message from Mitra stating that his GPS had failed and he couldn't find Holster Park.  So Frank decided upon just heading to Robin Hood Park, and Sukumar readily agreed.

Samara made his way onto Championship Court of RHP by 9:35.  He then sent text messages to Vin and Spin (aka Dan Martinelli) about his sudden change of plans.  Vin did not see this text until 11am or so.

Mitra arrived at 9:40.  Soon after, a hitting session began. 

At 9:45, Rob Ryan made a drive-by cameo to report the score of his match with Pienciak to Samara.  He said he would be back to watch the match since the winner of Samara-Mitra would advance to The Round of 16 Match to face him.

The Samara-Mitra match got underway at 9:55.  Five minutes later, "The Boss" Bill Bess arrived and took the Entrance Court to give an hour long lesson to a teenage girl.  Another five minutes after that, Rob returned to watch most of the 1st Set (he bailed just prior to the start of the Tiebreak which got underway at 10:50).

That Breaker lasted eight minutes...to conclude a set that lasted one hour and three minutes!  Then there was a four minute break between sets. 

Dino Celis arrived at RHP at 11:05 to report the score of his match with Solano to Samara.  Frank's battle with Kumar ended exactly at 11:30.

From there, Kumar went home while Dino and Frank headed back to Holster Park.  Upon Samara's arrival, he was given scores by  GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro.  Chris then left along with Mark Grossman and "MC" Mike Carucci.

Another Mike..."Holy Moly" Mike Mole was already waiting in the parking lot.  He then took the walk up to the courts with Dino and Frank.

On Center Court, "The Legendary" Chazz Weldon and "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes were hitting against Dan Martinelli and "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan.  At 11:45, this turned into an official One-Setter with the two teams remaining "as is."

Dino had mentioned to Frank that he thought he saw another full match going on there earlier.  The battle was between Phoenix and Agharkar.  Frank sent a text message to Nik and received the scores accordingly.

Frank stayed long enough to see the end of Weldon/Fernandes versus Martinelli/Capan and then see the beginning of Celis/Fernandes vs. Mole/Capan.  Samara had a bull session with Weldon and Martinelli.

Frank then had to leave at 12:45.  Gen sent a text message of that last score to him.

We will now recap all the HP results first and then grab the lone score from RHP after that.

The HP Results:

Grove Cup Round of 32 Match:
Rob Ryan over Ryan Pienciak, 6-1, 6-2, to advance to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  This was not a rank defense for Rob as Ryan is solely in the Intermediate Division!  Ryan: 1 Ace in the 2nd Set.  They got started around 8am and the match was over by 9:30.

Ryan's Write-Up (Pienciak…not Rob…LOL!): We decided to play at Holster at 8am to try to beat the heat. It was still pretty hot and serving into the sun was a brutal and blinding effort.  We finished at 9:15 or so.  I had one Ace in the very last game.  Rob's play was solid while I was sort of a mess.  I wasn't expecting to win necessarily, but Unforced Errors and my iffy serve led to the score being way less close than I would have liked.

Samara's Notes: I thank both Rob for reporting to me directly right after the match had concluded and also Ryan for his write-up which was sent in timely fashion.

Grove Cup Round of 32 Match:
Dino Celis over Jorge Solano, 6-1, 6-0, to advance to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  This was not a rank defense for Dino as Jorge is solely in the Intermediate Division!  Dino: 1 Ace in the 2nd Set.  They got started exactly at 9:29 and the match was over at 10:20.

From The Coach's Clipboard: We had some nice rallies.  He had some nice backhand and forehand returns along with some great volleys at the net.

The Brief from Big George: Dino capitalized on my weaknesses.  Congrats to him!

Samara's Notes: Much like Rob and Ryan, I thank both of the above for their contributions to this report.

Jay Phoenix over Nik Agharkar, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently).

Jay Phoenix tied with Nik Agharkar, 4-4 (Incomplete when Nik had to leave)!  No Aces (apparently).

Nik's Notes: It was great fun.  I am still shaking off the rust.

Jose Gonzales/Vinnie De Benedetto over Ryan Pienciak/Mark Grossman, 6-2!  No Aces.

Chris Chiaro/Chazz Weldon over Mike Carucci/Mark Grossman, 6-1!  No Aces.

Chris Chiaro/Mark Grossman over Chazz Weldon/Mike Carucci, 6-2!  No Aces.

Chazz Weldon/Nathan Fernandes over Dan Martinelli/Genalin Capan, 6-1!  No Aces.  They got this one underway on Center Court at 11:45 and it ended exactly at 12:07.

Dino Celis/Nathan Fernandes over Mike Mole/Genalin Capan, 6-4!  No Aces.  This one got started on Championship Court at exactly 12:22.  Gen sent her text message of the conclusion of the contest at 12:58.

Gen's Notes: Dino and Nate went up 2-0 and then it was leveled at 2-2.  There was an exchange of breaks and then we stayed on serve to 3-3 and 4-4.

Samara's Notes: I thank all those that I already mentioned above for their contributions to this report.  There ended up being a total of fifteen official competitors at HP…pretty impressive for a day so hot and humid.

The RHP Result:

Grove Cup Round of 32 Match:
Frank Samara over Sukumar Mitra, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, to successfully defend his # 15 Rank in the Advanced Division while also advancing to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  No Aces.

1st Set: Frank held serve (un-returned serve for 15-Love and then it shifted to 15-30 as Sukumar hit a winning return and then a winning return off of the net-cord, but then it shifted to Game Point where the hold came with another un-returned serve) and Sukumar was broken in a battle where the winners were not noted due to the length of the game, the heat of the sun and the conversation from Rob (Frank blew an overhead to make it 30-Love, it was then 30-15, Double Game Point got cut down to Deuce and then it was all Game Points until 3rd Deuce, Break Point and then a Double Fault to break himself) to get off to a 0-2 start.  Samara was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, the break came on Break Point), but Mitra was broken again (started with a Double Fault, Love-30, another Double Fault to set up Triple Break Point, the break came on Double Break Point) to go down 1-3.  Hollywood was broken again (Love-15, an un-returned serve for 15-All, but then straight to Double Break Point, the break came on Break Point when Sukumar hit a winner) and then The Chef finally held serve (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point as Sukumar hit a winner and a winning lob along the way and then it was an un-returned serve that secured the hold) to level the set at 3-3!  Frank was broken again (Love-15, a drop shot winner by Frank for 15-All, but then once again it was straight to Double Break Point where Sukumar once again got the break with a winner), but Sukumar was also broken (Triple Break Point, the break came on Double Break Point) to knot the score once more at 4-4.  Samara was broken yet again (Triple Break Point, un-returned serve for Double Break Point, but then a blown overhead by Frank to break himself), but Mitra was also broken again and this time it was at Love to level matters yet again, this time at 5-5!  The Wood was broken yet another time (a hellacious winning return from Sukumar set up Triple Break Point, but Frank would bring it all the way to Deuce only to have it go back to Break Point and then the break) and then came what was likely the most pivotal game of the match with The Chef on serve as he hit a Double Fault to make it Love-30, but then he hit two winners on the way to Game/Set Point, Deuce where another winner from Sukumar set up the 2nd Game/Set Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, un-returned serve for 3rd Deuce, then the 3rd Game/Set Point, 4th Deuce, Break Point and another un-returned serve for 5th Deuce, Break Point again and then finally the break as Samara saved three Set Points to take it to the Tiebreak!  In the Breaker (which began at 10:50): Frank was broken on his lone serve, Sukumar was broken on both of his serves, Samara held the first of his two serves after what was the rally of the match up until that point, but was broken on his second for 3-2.  Mitra hit a Double Fault to go down 2-4 and then came the changeover.  He then hit an un-returned serve to pull to 3-4.  The Wood held both of his serves for a 6-3 lead and the first Set Point in his favor, but the 4th S.P. overall.  The Chef held the first of his two serves to cut Samara's lead to 6-4 and set up the 5th S.P. overall (Samara's second).  He was then broken on that one to go down to a 7-4 TB score at exactly 10:58!  We took a four minute break and then began the next set (all of this was on Championship Court).  During this break, Sukumar said to Frank that he would now likely lose the next one, 6-2.  Samara, just as he was about to serve, said: "I should be so lucky!"

2nd Set: Frank held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and then it was an un-returned serve for the hold), Sukumar held at Love in his best game of the match as he started off with an un-returned serve, hit a winner and then another winner off the net-cord and then secured the hold with a drop shot winner and then Samara was the first to be broken (Sukumar hit a winning return and then another winning return off of the net-cord on the way to Triple Break Point, it was then Double Break Point where Sukumar hit another winning return to get the break), but then Mitra was also broken (an un-returned serve and a winner from Sukumar made it 30-Love, but then it went to 30-All and a Double Fault set up Break Point where Frank hit a winner for the break) to level it at 2-2.  Hollywood then had a Love hold which was book-ended by a winner and an un-returned serve and then The Chef was broken (Triple Break Point, a winner for Double Break Point and then a truly un-returnable serve for Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to go down 2-4.  Frank held again (Sukumar hit a winner for Love-15 and then it went point for point until 30-All as Sukumar hit another winner along the way, but Frank also hit a drop shot winner and then it shifted to Game Point where an un-returned serve secured the hold) and Sukumar was broken again (Sukumar hit a winner for 15-Love, but then it went straight to Double Break/Match Point after what may have been the best rally of the match and then it was Break/Match Point where Frank hit a winning return that froze Sukumar as he thought it was going to drop wide into the Doubles Alley only to watch it spin its way back into the corner of the court and then bounce away to lock down the victory!) to end a hard-fought battle!  It ended at exactly 11:30.

The Skinny: I guess we should now give Mister Mitra the moniker of "Sukumardamus!"  He did accurately predict the score of the 2nd Set and Frank warned him afterward that it may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Sukumar said that he just knew how his game would suffer from having been so close to taking that 1st Set only to fail to close the door on a few occasions.  Except for the One-Setter that he played the night before with Jay Phoenix, Mitra had not played in a while.  So kudos to him on a fine effort as he definitely made things interesting, especially in the initial set. 

The other noteworthy comment to make about this match was the settings at RHP.  Set up in the foolish North to South fashion, the court was completely drenched in sun on the West side of it, but totally kept cool in the shade on the East side of it.  Winning games from the West side was like the equivalent of going up a break.  When Samara was able to do that successfully in the 2nd Set, he knew he was off and running.  Mitra had started off that set in an extra-aggressive fashion as he started swinging away figuring he had nothing left to lose.  It was working for a little while.  But then the wily old Hollywood adjusted his strategy ever so slightly and that was where the turnaround occurred.  All in all, it was a solid match.  Sukumar, as always, is a gentleman and a pleasure to play with...here's to hoping we see more of him in the coming months.  

We now head up to Cedar Grove where we will first get a couple of results from Laura and then Kris will close out this report. 

The Cedar Grove Results:

GTA Women's Championship Tournament Final Match:
Laura Gawley over Sally Pillay, 6-1, 6-1, to win the Tournament and become the New GTA Women's Champion!  No Aces.

Laura's Lowdown: It started with Sally serving and I broke her serve in the first game.  She was able to hold in the 3rd game of the 1st Set.  In the 2nd Set we had a very long second game with Sally serving.  The points were very long and there were a few Deuce points.  She held in this game as well.  The 2nd Set seemed to have much longer points and we were both playing more consistently. We played from 7:30 to approximately 8:40.

We then jumped right into another One-Setter where it was Marijus and me against Sally and Juani, Fernanda Toker's nephew.

Marijus Kuzavas/Laura Gawley over  Juani D'Andres/Sally Pillay, 7-5!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Debut of Juani D'Andres.

We were up 5-1 and they were able to come back to tie it 5-5.  We then went on to break Juanie and Marijus held his serve to win the set 7-5.

Samara's Notes: First off, I thank Laura for her timely and detailed reporting.  Second, I offer her a very hearty congratulations as she is now the New GTA Women's Champion!  Her dominance throughout the tournament was quite impressive.  She will now be asked to hold off on defending the Title as we will very soon launch into yet another Women's Singles event - the 6th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Women's Singles Tournament to crown the next Top Contender (details to follow soon).

And we now let Papa K take it away!

The evening started slowly, but there was plenty of action as all the courts were put to good use, one of which was used by non-GTA folks.  The highlight of the night was the Women's Finals and Juan Ignacio D'Andres (aka Juani D'Andres), the 17 year old nephew of Fernanda, who was brilliant and amazing.  He certainly was the 'Del Potro' of Cedar Grove last night.  He is a very talented player who has phenomenal potential!

Laura continued to dominate the Women's Division.  To Sally's credit, she played hard and set up quite a few points but couldn't close.  Laura was rock solid in the match against Juani and Sally where she went blow for blow with Juani.  Marijus played superbly for most of the night.  It was good to see the man with the indomitable energy (Spin, aka Dan Martinelli) in action.  It was good to see the women in action - Brenda, Natalia, Fernanda, Sally, Doinks and Laura.  Scott and I had a chance to play with Arvind D'Cunha and his pals. Dino and Senthil got to play as well.

Marijus Kuzavas/Sairaj Srinivasan over Scott Bergenfeld/Kris Srinivasan, 6-4!  No Aces.

Kris Srinivasan/Sairaj Srinivasan over Dan Martinelli/Joe Rodrigues, 6-4!  Spin: 1 Ace on Sairaj.

Fernanda Toker/Brenda Jordan over Dino Celis/Natalia Sout, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

Kris Srinivasan/Fernanda Toker over Dino Celis/Natalia Sout, 6-1!  No Aces.

Joe Rodrigues/Doinks Srinivasan over Sairaj Srinivasan/Rob Gawley, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

Fernanda Toker/Brenda Jordan over Sally Pillay/Natalia Sout, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

Unofficial:
Kris and Arvind leading Jean Paul and Azim, 5-2!

Overall, we had decent action here for a Sunday night.  Cheers!

Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kris for being the host with the most up at Cedar Grove.  Officially, they had 15 GTA competitors in action…again, quite impressive given the swamp-like conditions.

All the best,
Frank Samara