Riz hosts 2 at NTC, MXD2 kicks off at C.G. as 8 total play!”:
GTA Thursday Night Tennis took place at two locations: a late afternoon/early evening session at The Nutley Tennis Club (hosted by “The Riz” John Rizzo as he played three Singles One-Setters against “Steppin’ to the AM” Anish Mehta) and then an evening session at The Cedar Grove Courts (hosted by “Papa K” Kris Srinivasan as he also teamed with his wife Doinks, aka “The Marathon Woman” against The Gawleys – “Rowdy” Rob and Laura “The Aura”).
We will first recap how the NTC session unfolded, and then Kris will detail how the C.G. session progressed. Let’s now go to John.
The NTC Results:
Anish Mehta over John Rizzo, 6-0! No Aces (apparently).
Anish Mehta over John Rizzo, 6-2! No Aces (apparently).
Anish Mehta over John Rizzo, 6-1! No Aces (apparently).
The Riz Report: We started around 6pm during a light rain (which stopped by 6:50). We finished around 7:25. I tried, but he was just too good.
Samara’s Notes: I thank John for sharing those scores. We now head up to Cedar Grove to let Papa K take it away!
First off, it was The MXD2 Mixed Doubles Quarterfinal Match that I played with Doinks against Rob and Laura. It was an emphatic win for The Gawleys as they swept us off with solid tennis compounded by an erratic performance by us. Laura served superbly (acing both of us), but it was Rob's slices that unsettled Doinks to a point where she was almost never to recover. She did keep us alive in the 2nd Set with incredible gets and ground-strokes, but it was far too late to make an impact on the end result. It looked like all the players, curing the first half, were moving towards the same destination. Congratulations to Rob and Laura on their facile victory. They look poised to go the distance.
The Cedar Grove Results:
MXD2 Quarterfinal Match:
Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1, 6-4, to become the New # 4 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division while also advancing to the Semifinals of The MXD2 Mixed Doubles Tournament! Laura: 2 Aces (one on each)!
Nathan Fernandes/Rob Gawley over Kris Srinivasan/Nithin Poosala, 6-3! No Aces.
We started off badly and, against the steady play of Nate and Rob, it was more a question of when they would wrap it up. Nithin, as good as he is, also had a late start as was reflected in his next match as well.
Dave Zhu/Laura Gawley over Senthil Kumar/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1! No Aces.
They changed courts midway from Court 3 to Court 1, but it didn’t change the result.
Kris Srinivasan/Nithin Poosala over Nathan Fernandes/Senthil Kumar, 7-5! Nithin: 1 Ace on Senthil!
It was lopsided initially as we were down Love-4 with inconsistent plays by both of us. We missed closing out those games, but our level went up to get onboard and keep the momentum to level the score at 4-All. Nate was the most consistent and Senthil was playing handsome shots from the baseline and net. Nithin started bombing serves and once we started to stay in the point, it worked more in our favor as we were giving it away earlier. Still, Nate and Senthil went up 5-4, but our level of play had notched up a bit with our serves glowing freely, helping us secure the next 3 games to wrap up the set. We felt good about our play in the last leg. It was a satisfying win after what looked like a certain bagel for us.
Moka Pathan came so late, that he could only get to hit the ball with Doinks. Sairaj was with us all the time and I wonder what he was doing…:-). I think he teamed with Nate to play against Nithin and Dave? Yes, indeed, they did. They were tied up 3-All, but stopped playing when it started drizzling. We played thru the drizzle on our side and it did stop…which enabled us to play through the night. Cheers!
Samara’s Notes: As always, I thank Kris for all he does on behalf of the GTA up at Cedar Grove.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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