9/16/16:
"Samara hosts 16 at C.G.!:
There was just one session of GTA Friday Night Tennis: the usual later session up at The Cedar Grove Courts hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara (with some assistance from the usual host there, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan).
Let's now recap all that transpired up at Cedar Grove.
Samara pulled into the parking lot at 6:30. On Court One, there were two guys having a full Singles Match with one another. "J-Bach" Jordan Bachvaroff knew the older of the two gents from having previously played in Little Falls with him.
Court Two was vacant. On Court Three there were four young boys. And on Court Four, Jordan was practicing his serve. Jordan eagerly invited Frank to come hit with them, but Samara needed a couple of minutes to get situated first
Soon Frank got out on the court and started hitting with Jordan. For a little while, it looked like it may just be the two of them. Then, at 6:45, "Big George" Jorge Solano arrived and ended up taking Samara's side in hitting against Bachvaroff.
At 6:50, Kate and Herb Reiner took Court Two for a brief hitting session with each other. They ended up being replaced by a foursome (two men, two women...who decided to do it "Battle of The Sexes" style for the rest of the night). That group stayed until 8:20 (and also seemed to know both Jordan and The Gawleys, who came later in the session).
At 7:05, Kris came across the street just as "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar was arriving at the same time. Samara decided to let both of them take Court Four while he decided to step off for a while.
The potential logjam ended quickly as the two guys on Court One left at 7:10 which enabled Senthil and Jordan to take over that court while "Spicy" Sally Pillay (who had just arrived) headed onto Court Four.
Five minutes later, "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes pulled into the lot and then soon headed onto Court Four as well. The hitting session was now Nate and Jorge against Kris and Sally. It soon led to a Doubles One-Setter featuring those two same teams.
When "The Secret Weapon" Sairaj Srinivasan came across the street at 7:20, Samara directed him to head to Court One and he would meet him there to take on Senthil and Jordan in Doubles. Five minutes later, that was the second Doubles One-Setter underway.
At 7:30, "Kaboom" Raj Boddu and "ME" Michel Enacarnacion both arrived. They were able to take Court Three as the four kids were leaving it at that exact time. The two then began a hitting session with one another. Five minutes later, "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan came a cross the street and got involved in the hitting session on Court Three.
At 7:50, both "Rowdy" Rob Gawley and GTA Women's Champion: Laura "The Aura" Gawley both arrived. Laura stated her initial intent of teaming with her hubby rather than be split up into action on two courts (as Court Three needed a woman to enable some Mixed Doubles action). But when she asked Rob to back up her opinion on that, he said it was no big deal to him either way. She then said "fine" and made a beeline to Court Three where she said she would be for "the rest of the night!"
How does that expression go? Unhappy wife, unhappy life? Something like that, right? Well, The Rowdy One (aka Squash Boy) likes to live life on the edge. They patched things up quite nicely later in the evening anyway.
At 8:05, "Instant" Moka Pathan and Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan both arrived at the same time. They would not have to wait long as the winners of that first Doubles One-Setter on Court Four (Kris and Sally) both stepped off to allow Moka and Dennis to take their place. Instead, Srinivasan and Pillay soon faced off with Samara on Court Two in a lengthy hitting session.
"2 Tall" Dave Zhu was the final arrival at 8:40 and that gave us a total of 16 official competitors! It was a fun session that ran rather smoothly as we always seemed to gain courts just when we needed them. Good times!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Kris Srinivasan/Sally Pillay over Nathan Fernandes/Jorge Solano, 6-4! No Aces. This was played on Court Four from 7:17 to 8:07.
Senthil Kumar/Jordan Bachvaroff over Frank Samara/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces. It went like this: Jordan held serve (a winning Overhead Smash by Sairaj and then a winning return by Sairaj set up Love-30 only to have it shift gears straight to Game Point as Senthil hit a winning Backhand Volley along the way and there was also an un-returned serve...the hold came on the G.P.), Sairaj was broken (15-Love and then point for point until 30-All, then Break Point where Frank whipped out his Windmill Overhead Smash to make it Deuce, but then a Double Fault brought it back to Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point again and then the break) and Senthil held (30-Love, Double Fault for 30-15, 30-All, Game Point, Deuce and then all Game Points to 3rd Deuce, Game Point again and then finally the hold in a game where I could no longer remember who hit what winners, but suffice to say that both Sairaj and Senthil hit many of them and the majority were volleys at the net...they had some nice exchanges up there) to take a 3-0 lead! Frank held (Jordan made a great get in the first point and then Senthil had an awesome get/winner combo to make it Love-30, but then two un-returned serves led the way to Game Point where Frank hit a winning lob for the hold) to get his team on the scoreboard, but Bachvaroff held again (Triple Game Point, Double Fault for Double Game Point and then an un-returned serve for the hold) and Srinivasan was broken again (Love-15, 15-All, 15-30, Double Fault for Double Break Point and that was where Sairaj blew an overhead to break himself) to fall to 1-5. Kumar was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All where Sairaj had a winning return and Senthil had a winning volley along the way, but then it went to Break Point where Jordan blew a volley for the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-2. And then came the game of the match with Samara on serve as Sairaj blew an overhead to set up Triple Break/Match Point, but then it was Double Break/Match Point where Senthil blew an overhead to make it Break/Match Point and then came the Moment of the Match as a shot (can't remember if Senthil or Jordan hit it) that landed near the baseline with Frank standing over it was thought to be in by Samara only to have both Sairaj and Rob Gawley from the bench call it long and that brought the game to Deuce, then it was the 4th Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce where Frank made a Fernanda-style get/dig/lob combo to go up Game Point, then the 5th Break/Match Point, 3rd Deuce, then the 6th Break/Match Point, 4th Deuce and then the 7th Break/Match Point where Frank dumped an unforced error into the net after a fairly lengthy rally...talk about disappointing and anticlimactic! We played this one on Court One from 7:25 to 8:03.
The Skinny: It felt closer than the score. Sairaj played excellent tennis. Unfortunately for him, his best game was the one where I couldn't remember all the winners...and I likely forgot some in the final game as well. He had at least three or four winning forehand returns where he just fired it down the Doubles Alley. He also made several nice volleys and Overhead Smashes. Once he gets a little more consistent, The Secret Weapon will become a very lethal weapon...indeed!
Michel Encarnacion/Laura Gawley over Raj Boddu/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-3! Raj: 1 Ace on Michel; and Michel: 1 Ace on Raj! This one took place on Court Three and lasted from 8pm to 8:38. Michel left afterward.
Senthil Kumar/Rob Gawley over Jordan Bachvaroff/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-2! Rob: 1 Ace on Sairaj. Court One hosted this one from 8:07 to 8:40. Sairaj called it a night after this one.
Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan over Jorge Solano/Dennis Cabanatan, 6-3! No Aces. They played this on Court Four from 8:10 to 8:37. Nate and Moka wanted to get some playing time as a team together as they find themselves in the Semifinals of the ongoing and much delayed M2 Men's Doubles Tournament where they are still waiting for a winner to emerge from the in-progress Quarterfinal Match between the teams of Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah and Dwight Thomas Sr./Dwight Thomas Jr.
Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan over Kris Srinivasan/Dennis Cabanatan, 7-5! No Aces. This also took place on Court Four and lasted from 8:38 to 9:16.
Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Sally Pillay/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces. Even without engaging in changeovers, this was a long one! They played this on Court Three from 8:43 to 9:38! Samara was watching from the sidelines until he was called into action. Up 2-1, Rob had a service game that easily went to 20-plus Deuces...no exaggeration! He held to go up 3-1. Soon after that, Frank was needed on Court Four. After this win, The Gawleys left while Sally and Doinks had a hard-hitting sparring session with one another.
Senthil Kumar/Jordan Bachvaroff over Raj Boddu/Dave Zhu, 6-4! Raj: 1 Ace on Senthil. They played this one on Court One from 8:48 to 9:23.
Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan over Frank Samara/Dennis Cabanatan, 6-0! No Aces. Here's how it went down: Dennis was broken (an un-returned serve and then a winner by Dennis made it 30-Love, then it went to 30-15 where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash for Double Game Point, but then it shifted to Deuce where Moka hit a drop shot winner to set up Break Point and then came the break), Nathan held serve (Love-30 shifted to Game Point as Moka hit a winner, Nate hit a winner and then Nate hit a winning volley along the way and then the hold came next), Frank was broken (15-Love, 15-All and then Moka blew an overhead as the game shifted to Double Game Point, but then it shifted to Deuce where Nathan blew a volley to make it Game Point once more, but then Nate hit a winning drop shot return for 2nd Deuce and then it went to Break Point where Dennis blew a volley for the break), Moka held (Dennis blew a volley for 15-Love, Frank hit a winning Backhand Volley for 15-All, but then it was off and running toward Double Game Point as first there was an un-returned serve then followed by a truly un-returnable serve along the way and then another un-returned serve secured the hold), Cabanatan was broken again (Moka hit a lob return that caused Frank to whiff on what should have been a winning Windmill Overhead Smash and that made it Love-15 and it was all downhill from there as it was a Love break) and then Fernandes held again (Moka blew an overhead for Love-15, it shifted to 30-15 with an un-returned serve along the way and that was where the rally of the match ended with a hard-hitting winner from Frank for 30-All and then Dennis hit a winning Backhand Volley to make it Break Point, but then it went to Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Break Point yet again, 3rd Deuce where the second best rally of the match ended with a blown volley by Dennis to set up Game/Match Point and then came the hold) to serve up a late-night bagel! We played this on Court Four from 9:20 to 9:47.
The Skinny: It is a cliche', but most of them are true...this did feel much closer than the shutout score indicates. We had several Game Point and/or Break Point opportunities, but could never convert on any of them. Dennis is a menacing force with that big lefty forehand of his, but sometime he is a menace to himself with some ill-timed moments of inconsistency. On the overall, he is a very solid player who just has to make his game a little cleaner and then he will be taking most of his opponents to the cleaners! Much credit also has to go to the resiliency of the winners...especially Nate who is always cool, calm and collected. Moka was a little all over the map as well...often hitting impressive winners only to be followed by some foolish errors. For my part, I actually felt I played pretty well after almost falling asleep while alone on Court Two.
Kris Srinivasan/Dave Zhu over Senthil Kumar/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-4! No Aces. Not sure if they decided to forego changeovers, but I do know they were happy to get this one done on Court One in rather rapid time (they played it from 9:25 to 9:57)!
All's well that ends well...and it is always an especially satisfying session when all matches have come to their full and proper conclusion. All in all, it was a lot of fun.
Best wishes,
Frank Samara
"Samara hosts 16 at C.G.!:
There was just one session of GTA Friday Night Tennis: the usual later session up at The Cedar Grove Courts hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara (with some assistance from the usual host there, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan).
Let's now recap all that transpired up at Cedar Grove.
Samara pulled into the parking lot at 6:30. On Court One, there were two guys having a full Singles Match with one another. "J-Bach" Jordan Bachvaroff knew the older of the two gents from having previously played in Little Falls with him.
Court Two was vacant. On Court Three there were four young boys. And on Court Four, Jordan was practicing his serve. Jordan eagerly invited Frank to come hit with them, but Samara needed a couple of minutes to get situated first
Soon Frank got out on the court and started hitting with Jordan. For a little while, it looked like it may just be the two of them. Then, at 6:45, "Big George" Jorge Solano arrived and ended up taking Samara's side in hitting against Bachvaroff.
At 6:50, Kate and Herb Reiner took Court Two for a brief hitting session with each other. They ended up being replaced by a foursome (two men, two women...who decided to do it "Battle of The Sexes" style for the rest of the night). That group stayed until 8:20 (and also seemed to know both Jordan and The Gawleys, who came later in the session).
At 7:05, Kris came across the street just as "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar was arriving at the same time. Samara decided to let both of them take Court Four while he decided to step off for a while.
The potential logjam ended quickly as the two guys on Court One left at 7:10 which enabled Senthil and Jordan to take over that court while "Spicy" Sally Pillay (who had just arrived) headed onto Court Four.
Five minutes later, "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes pulled into the lot and then soon headed onto Court Four as well. The hitting session was now Nate and Jorge against Kris and Sally. It soon led to a Doubles One-Setter featuring those two same teams.
When "The Secret Weapon" Sairaj Srinivasan came across the street at 7:20, Samara directed him to head to Court One and he would meet him there to take on Senthil and Jordan in Doubles. Five minutes later, that was the second Doubles One-Setter underway.
At 7:30, "Kaboom" Raj Boddu and "ME" Michel Enacarnacion both arrived. They were able to take Court Three as the four kids were leaving it at that exact time. The two then began a hitting session with one another. Five minutes later, "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan came a cross the street and got involved in the hitting session on Court Three.
At 7:50, both "Rowdy" Rob Gawley and GTA Women's Champion: Laura "The Aura" Gawley both arrived. Laura stated her initial intent of teaming with her hubby rather than be split up into action on two courts (as Court Three needed a woman to enable some Mixed Doubles action). But when she asked Rob to back up her opinion on that, he said it was no big deal to him either way. She then said "fine" and made a beeline to Court Three where she said she would be for "the rest of the night!"
How does that expression go? Unhappy wife, unhappy life? Something like that, right? Well, The Rowdy One (aka Squash Boy) likes to live life on the edge. They patched things up quite nicely later in the evening anyway.
At 8:05, "Instant" Moka Pathan and Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan both arrived at the same time. They would not have to wait long as the winners of that first Doubles One-Setter on Court Four (Kris and Sally) both stepped off to allow Moka and Dennis to take their place. Instead, Srinivasan and Pillay soon faced off with Samara on Court Two in a lengthy hitting session.
"2 Tall" Dave Zhu was the final arrival at 8:40 and that gave us a total of 16 official competitors! It was a fun session that ran rather smoothly as we always seemed to gain courts just when we needed them. Good times!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Kris Srinivasan/Sally Pillay over Nathan Fernandes/Jorge Solano, 6-4! No Aces. This was played on Court Four from 7:17 to 8:07.
Senthil Kumar/Jordan Bachvaroff over Frank Samara/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces. It went like this: Jordan held serve (a winning Overhead Smash by Sairaj and then a winning return by Sairaj set up Love-30 only to have it shift gears straight to Game Point as Senthil hit a winning Backhand Volley along the way and there was also an un-returned serve...the hold came on the G.P.), Sairaj was broken (15-Love and then point for point until 30-All, then Break Point where Frank whipped out his Windmill Overhead Smash to make it Deuce, but then a Double Fault brought it back to Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point again and then the break) and Senthil held (30-Love, Double Fault for 30-15, 30-All, Game Point, Deuce and then all Game Points to 3rd Deuce, Game Point again and then finally the hold in a game where I could no longer remember who hit what winners, but suffice to say that both Sairaj and Senthil hit many of them and the majority were volleys at the net...they had some nice exchanges up there) to take a 3-0 lead! Frank held (Jordan made a great get in the first point and then Senthil had an awesome get/winner combo to make it Love-30, but then two un-returned serves led the way to Game Point where Frank hit a winning lob for the hold) to get his team on the scoreboard, but Bachvaroff held again (Triple Game Point, Double Fault for Double Game Point and then an un-returned serve for the hold) and Srinivasan was broken again (Love-15, 15-All, 15-30, Double Fault for Double Break Point and that was where Sairaj blew an overhead to break himself) to fall to 1-5. Kumar was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All where Sairaj had a winning return and Senthil had a winning volley along the way, but then it went to Break Point where Jordan blew a volley for the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-2. And then came the game of the match with Samara on serve as Sairaj blew an overhead to set up Triple Break/Match Point, but then it was Double Break/Match Point where Senthil blew an overhead to make it Break/Match Point and then came the Moment of the Match as a shot (can't remember if Senthil or Jordan hit it) that landed near the baseline with Frank standing over it was thought to be in by Samara only to have both Sairaj and Rob Gawley from the bench call it long and that brought the game to Deuce, then it was the 4th Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce where Frank made a Fernanda-style get/dig/lob combo to go up Game Point, then the 5th Break/Match Point, 3rd Deuce, then the 6th Break/Match Point, 4th Deuce and then the 7th Break/Match Point where Frank dumped an unforced error into the net after a fairly lengthy rally...talk about disappointing and anticlimactic! We played this one on Court One from 7:25 to 8:03.
The Skinny: It felt closer than the score. Sairaj played excellent tennis. Unfortunately for him, his best game was the one where I couldn't remember all the winners...and I likely forgot some in the final game as well. He had at least three or four winning forehand returns where he just fired it down the Doubles Alley. He also made several nice volleys and Overhead Smashes. Once he gets a little more consistent, The Secret Weapon will become a very lethal weapon...indeed!
Michel Encarnacion/Laura Gawley over Raj Boddu/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-3! Raj: 1 Ace on Michel; and Michel: 1 Ace on Raj! This one took place on Court Three and lasted from 8pm to 8:38. Michel left afterward.
Senthil Kumar/Rob Gawley over Jordan Bachvaroff/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-2! Rob: 1 Ace on Sairaj. Court One hosted this one from 8:07 to 8:40. Sairaj called it a night after this one.
Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan over Jorge Solano/Dennis Cabanatan, 6-3! No Aces. They played this on Court Four from 8:10 to 8:37. Nate and Moka wanted to get some playing time as a team together as they find themselves in the Semifinals of the ongoing and much delayed M2 Men's Doubles Tournament where they are still waiting for a winner to emerge from the in-progress Quarterfinal Match between the teams of Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah and Dwight Thomas Sr./Dwight Thomas Jr.
Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan over Kris Srinivasan/Dennis Cabanatan, 7-5! No Aces. This also took place on Court Four and lasted from 8:38 to 9:16.
Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Sally Pillay/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces. Even without engaging in changeovers, this was a long one! They played this on Court Three from 8:43 to 9:38! Samara was watching from the sidelines until he was called into action. Up 2-1, Rob had a service game that easily went to 20-plus Deuces...no exaggeration! He held to go up 3-1. Soon after that, Frank was needed on Court Four. After this win, The Gawleys left while Sally and Doinks had a hard-hitting sparring session with one another.
Senthil Kumar/Jordan Bachvaroff over Raj Boddu/Dave Zhu, 6-4! Raj: 1 Ace on Senthil. They played this one on Court One from 8:48 to 9:23.
Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan over Frank Samara/Dennis Cabanatan, 6-0! No Aces. Here's how it went down: Dennis was broken (an un-returned serve and then a winner by Dennis made it 30-Love, then it went to 30-15 where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash for Double Game Point, but then it shifted to Deuce where Moka hit a drop shot winner to set up Break Point and then came the break), Nathan held serve (Love-30 shifted to Game Point as Moka hit a winner, Nate hit a winner and then Nate hit a winning volley along the way and then the hold came next), Frank was broken (15-Love, 15-All and then Moka blew an overhead as the game shifted to Double Game Point, but then it shifted to Deuce where Nathan blew a volley to make it Game Point once more, but then Nate hit a winning drop shot return for 2nd Deuce and then it went to Break Point where Dennis blew a volley for the break), Moka held (Dennis blew a volley for 15-Love, Frank hit a winning Backhand Volley for 15-All, but then it was off and running toward Double Game Point as first there was an un-returned serve then followed by a truly un-returnable serve along the way and then another un-returned serve secured the hold), Cabanatan was broken again (Moka hit a lob return that caused Frank to whiff on what should have been a winning Windmill Overhead Smash and that made it Love-15 and it was all downhill from there as it was a Love break) and then Fernandes held again (Moka blew an overhead for Love-15, it shifted to 30-15 with an un-returned serve along the way and that was where the rally of the match ended with a hard-hitting winner from Frank for 30-All and then Dennis hit a winning Backhand Volley to make it Break Point, but then it went to Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Break Point yet again, 3rd Deuce where the second best rally of the match ended with a blown volley by Dennis to set up Game/Match Point and then came the hold) to serve up a late-night bagel! We played this on Court Four from 9:20 to 9:47.
The Skinny: It is a cliche', but most of them are true...this did feel much closer than the shutout score indicates. We had several Game Point and/or Break Point opportunities, but could never convert on any of them. Dennis is a menacing force with that big lefty forehand of his, but sometime he is a menace to himself with some ill-timed moments of inconsistency. On the overall, he is a very solid player who just has to make his game a little cleaner and then he will be taking most of his opponents to the cleaners! Much credit also has to go to the resiliency of the winners...especially Nate who is always cool, calm and collected. Moka was a little all over the map as well...often hitting impressive winners only to be followed by some foolish errors. For my part, I actually felt I played pretty well after almost falling asleep while alone on Court Two.
Kris Srinivasan/Dave Zhu over Senthil Kumar/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-4! No Aces. Not sure if they decided to forego changeovers, but I do know they were happy to get this one done on Court One in rather rapid time (they played it from 9:25 to 9:57)!
All's well that ends well...and it is always an especially satisfying session when all matches have come to their full and proper conclusion. All in all, it was a lot of fun.
Best wishes,
Frank Samara
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