"Anna-Natalie in W.R., Samara hosts 7 at HP, Dino-Lou part of 15 at C.G.!":
GTA Tuesday Night Tennis took place in three locations: The Wood-Ridge Courts (featuring the GAH6 Quarterfinal Match between "Automatic" Anna Mazur and "The Natural" Natalie Guzman, with the result sent in by Anna), Holster Park in Clifton (hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara) and at The Cedar Grove Courts (also hosted by Samara, but with assistance from usual host "Papa K" Kris Srinivasan and featuring a 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match between "Coach" Dino Celis and "The Lethal Lefty" Lou La Forgia).
So we will first go to the result from Wood-Ridge as reported by Anna, then the recap of how things developed at HP and then the same for Cedar Grove.
The Wood-Ridge Result:
GAH6 Quarterfinal:
Anna Mazur over Natalie Guzman, 6-0, 6-3, to successfully defend her # 5 Rank in the Women's Division while advancing to the Semifinals of the 6th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Women's Singles Tournament! No Aces (apparently).
The Automatic Update: We played from 6:55 to 8:10. We had a great match. Natalie has improved a lot since the last time I played her earlier this season. We had a great time and long-lasting rallies.
Samara's Notes: I thank Anna for sending in that result and congratulate her on her victory. We now take this report to Clifton.
When Samara pulled into the parking lot at Holster Park at 6:05, he saw the cars of "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto and "J-Rod" Joe Rodrigues already there. Vin was out on the Entrance Court waiting alone while Joe was still doing his Clark Kent to Superman routine inside of his car…LOL!
Frank and Vin shifted over to Championship Court to start hitting with one another. At 6:15, Rodrigues stepped onto the court along with Jay "The Rising" Phoenix. It became a four-way hitting session.
Just when it looked like it was going to be Samara/De Benedetto versus Phoenix/Rodrigues, "Magic" Matt Meillon arrived at 6:20. Frank stepped off the court to allow Matt to take his place.
At 6:25, a Doubles One-Setter began between Phoenix/De Benedetto and Rodrigues/Meillon. Samara shifted over to Center Court just as "Nik@Nite" Nik Agharkar made his way onto the court. After a five minute hitting session, they got a Singles One-Setter underway.
At 6:50, we had the surprise arrival of "Sadistic" Syed Rashid. He practiced his serve on the Entrance Court while waiting for the other action to finish.
When Samara-Agharkar concluded at 7pm, Frank called Syed over to take his place just as a family was set to take over the Entrance Court. This led to another Singles One-Setter between Rashid and Agharkar.
The first Doubles One-Setter finished a little before 7:15 and then Jay left. So Frank took his place in teaming with Vin against Joe and Matt in another Doubles One-Setter. That one ended a minute after 7:45 and then Vin and Matt both left.
But at 7:50, we had the surprise cameo appearance of "Lucky" Leo Victor who had been away in India for a couple of months (to get married, among other things). It was good to see Leo who always greets everyone with a smile.
Rashid-Agharkar ended at 7:55 and then Nik left. A bull session between Frank, Leo, Joe and Syed lasted until 8:10. At that time, all went their separate ways…but Samara headed up to Cedar Grove.
We will get to all that a little later, but first…
The HP Results:
Jay Phoenix/Vinnie De Benedetto over Joe Rodrigues/Matt Meillon, 7-6 (7-5)! Joe: 1 Ace on Jay. This took place on Championship Court from 6:25 to 7:12.
Frank Samara over Nik Agharkar, 6-2! Nik: 1 Ace. It went like this: Nik was broken (a Double Fault set up Triple Break Point, but then a truly un-returnable serve made it Double Break Point only to have another Double Fault cause the break), Frank held serve (un-returned serve for 15-Love, then 30-Love where Nik made several great gets on the way to 30-15 and then Nik hit a winner in the next point for 30-All, but then it went to Game Point where Nik blew a volley to allow the hold), Agharkar was broken again (another truly un-returnable serve for 15-Love and then an un-returned serve for 30-Love followed by a Double Fault for 30-15 where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash for 30-All, then Game Point, Deuce, an impressive corner Ace for Game Point, Deuce where Nik blew a volley for Break Point and then a Double Fault to break himself) and Samara held again (started with a Double Fault, but then hit a near ace that Nik chipped with the frame of his racquet and it was soon onto 30-15, then 30-All, Game Point and the hold) to take a fairly commanding 4-0 lead. Nik@Nite finally held (un-returned serve to go up 15-Love, but then a Double Fault for 15-All where Nik hit a winner for 30-15, then Double Game Point and an un-returned serve for the hold) and then Hollywood was broken (back-to-back un-returned serves made it 30-Love, then 30-15 where Nik made several great gets on the way to 30-All where Nik hit a winner to set up Break Point and then he hit another winner to get the break) to have his lead cut to 4-2. Nik was broken (an un-returnable serve for 15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, but then straight to Double Game Point with another un-returned serve along the way, but then a Double Fault made it Game Point and that was where Frank hit a winning lob for Deuce and then on Break Point it was Nik who blew an overhead to break himself) and then Frank held (15-Love, 15-All and then an un-returned serve would lead to Double Game/Match Point where Nik blew a volley to end it) to end the momentum of Nik and finish the One-Setter! We played this one on Center Court from 6:30 to 7pm.
The Skinny: One can see from his form and his fast-paced shots that Agharkar is a highly-skilled player. But he still has some rust to shake off as he is ever so close to hitting the shots he needs to make (top of the tape several times…just inches past service lines and baselines). Once he does that, he will be a tough player to face. It seemed he was about to reverse all the momentum here as he had Double Game Point to pull to 3-4, but then Unforced Errors reared their ugly heads once again and did him in.
Syed Rashid over Nik Agharkar, 6-4! Nik: 1 Ace. This one also took place on Center Court and lasted from 7:10 to 7:55. It was an impressive win for Syed who was hitting his usual heavy topspin shots.
Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over Joe Rodrigues/Matt Meillon, 6-2! No Aces. Here's how it went down: Frank held serve (a Vin volley for 15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point as Vin hit a winning Backhand Volley as well, then Joe hit a winning return to cut it to Game Point, but then an un-returned serve secured the hold), Matt was broken (Frank made a great get to set up Love-30, it then shifted to 30-All with an un-returned serve and a passing shot winner by Joe, but then it went to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again where Matt hit a passing shot winner of his own for 2nd Deuce, but then Joe blew a volley to set up Break Point once more and then came the break) and Vin held (Joe hit another passing shot winner for Love-15, but then it went right to Double Game Pint as Vin hit a winning Overhead Smash and Joe blew another volley, it was then Game Point where Vin hit a winning volley to secure his own hold) to take a 3-0 lead. Joe held to get his team on the scoreboard (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point as it was The Joe Show when he first hit an un-returned serve, then he hit a winner, then another un-returned serve and then he made a great get on DGP to secure his own hold), but Samara held again (Frank hit a winner for 30-Love, it shifted to 30-All as Joe hit a blistering passing shot winner and Matt hit a winner as well, but then it went to Game Point where Matt made an amazing get/winner combo for Deuce, but Game Point came again and then so did the hold) for a 4-1 lead. Meillon held (Love-15 went to 30-15 right after Joe hit a monster Overhead Smash and then it went to 30-All and Game Point where Frank blew an overhead in ugly fashion to allow the hold) to pull to 2-4. But from there, De Benedetto held again (Joe made a great get/winner combo for Love-15, it then shifted to Double Game Point after an un-returned serve, but then Matt hit a winner to cut it down to Game Point which was where Vin hit a winning Overhead Smash to cement his own hold) and then Rodrigues was broken (Love-30 where Matt hit a scorching winner for 15-30, but then came Double Break/Match Point and the break to end the match) to take the loss! We played this on Championship Court from 7:17 to 7:46.
Samara arrived at Cedar Grove at 8:20. At that time, Celis-La Forgia was already in progress on Court One. On Court Two, Guy Dupoux and Cliff Pierre-Louis were having a hitting session with one another that eventually led to a One-Setter.
On Court Three, it was GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro teaming with his usual partner, "The Sultan of Swing" Raj Shah versus "Instant" Moka Pathan and "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes in a pair of One-Setters as both teams strive to stay tournament ready while waiting for their opponents.
And on Court Four, it was "The Secret Weapon" Sairaj Srinivasan teaming with Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan to take on Papa Kris and "The Argentine Machine" Fernanda Toker.
Riding the bench outside Court Four were "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli, "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan, "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar and "Mr. 500" Levy Lorenzo. Samara soon sat beside them. Spin and Gen were only there to make extended cameo appearances while Senthil and Levy were waiting to play.
Kris would soon inform Frank of a result that took place prior to his arrival. We ended up with a total of 15 official competitors.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Moka Pathan/Raj Shah over Chris Chiaro/Michel Encarnacion, 6-2! No Aces. This one took place on Court Three prior to Samara's arrival.
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Lou La Forgia over Dino Celis, 6-4, 6-4, to become the New # 6 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division! Lou: 1 Ace in the 2nd Set. This one got underway on Court One around 8pm and ended exactly at 9:11.
The Skinny: When Celis saw the e-mail earlier in the day about players hopefully stepping up to give La Forgia a shot to move up the ranks, he decided to answer the call and he reached out to Lou. It was a tough match with a lot of hard-hitting from both sides. This is an impressive victory for La Forgia. Many of those in attendance were happy for him as they felt this type of jump was long overdue and that the Grove Cup withdrawal situation was most unfortunate. He now finds himself one rank away from becoming overqualified for competition in the Intermediate Division. Also, besides the GTA Champion: Chris Chiaro, he is now the highest ranked player not currently in the Grove Cup. Congratulations to Lou! And kudos go out to Dino for answering the call.
Samara's Notes: The only downside for me is that I now fall to an unprecedented low of being the # 17 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division (I believe my previous low was # 16). After putting my rank on the line later this month, I do plan on attempting to make a move back up the ranks as I'd like to be back in The Top 10 by season's end…or at least The Top 15!
Kris Srinivasan/Fernanda Toker over Sairaj Srinivasan/Dennis Cabanatan, 6-3! No Aces. This one got finished on Court Four at exactly 8:33.
Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah over Moka Pathan/Nathan Fernandes, 6-4! No Aces. This one took place on Court Three. Not sure when it began or ended as it went right into another one…which we will get to shortly.
Guy Dupoux over Cliff Pierre-Louis, 6-2! No Aces. They battled on Court Two. Hard to tell when it began or ended as it followed a lengthy hitting session.
Senthil Kumar/Levy Lorenzo over Dennis Cabanatan/Fernanda Toker, 6-3! They played this on Court Four from 8:40 to 9:10. No Aces.
Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah over Moka Pathan/Nathan Fernandes, 6-4! Raj: 1 Ace on Nate. This one ended on Court Three at exactly 9:22.
Moka Pathan/Nathan Fernandes over Chris Chiaro/Lou La Forgia, 6-2! No Aces. This one also took place on Court Three as it lasted from 9:30 to 9:53.
Kris Srinivasan/Fernanda Toker leading Senthil Kumar/Levy Lorenzo, 6-6 (3-1)…Incomplete, when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces. At 9:51, they were tied at 5-5. Then at 9:54, Senthil and Levy went up 6-5. The Tiebreak started at 9:58. Fernanda held her lone serve after Kris hit a winning volley. Senthil was broken on the first of his two serve after he blew an overhead, but then he held his second serve after Kris blew an overhead. Kris held the first of his two serves after a lengthy and exciting rally and then it went dark!
It was a fun way to wrap up a meaningful session of GTA Tennis up at Cedar Grove.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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