9/18/16:
"Samara hosts 8 at AP, Gen hosts 2 at HP, M2 forfeit!:
There were two sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the usual morning one at Albion Park in Clifton (hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara) and a late afternoon/early evening one at Holster Park (hosted by "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan).
And now for how the session at Albion unfolded.
Samara pulled up to the curb at 10:10. Walking up from the courts was "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto (who had been there since 9:45) and he looked desperate for some tennis action.
On the South Court, there were two outsiders and these guys seemed to have had a fairly lengthy Singles Match against one another. They ended up leaving at 11:35.
So Samara stepped onto the North Court with De Benedetto as they entered into a hitting session.
"Coach" Dino Celis was the next to arrive at the courts at 10:30. As he ate a small breakfast, Frank and Vin took a break from hitting to sit and chat with him. Afterward, it was Samara and De Benedetto hitting against Celis.
"Big George" Jorge Solano stepped onto the North Court around 10:50 and started hitting with Dino against Frank and Vin. It looked like this would be the first Doubles One-Setter of the day, but when "Holy Moly" Mike Mole arrived at 10:55...Samara let him take his place.
At 11am, "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli arrived and it looked like he had brought a small posse with him. Actually, it turned out to be T.J Shah and Rajan Shah. As both have already registered for next week's Monk Memorial Men's Doubles Tournament, they wanted to get a feel for the courts at Albion Park.
Meanwhile, Spin was only there to make an extended cameo appearance as he is still trying to recover from a recent hip injury. He did play the night before up at The Cedar Grove Courts...and that only exacerbated his situation on this following morning.
The Shahs of Sunset hit Center Court to hit with one another while Samara and Martinelli went into their usual Hecklers mode for the action that was about to take place on the North Court right in front of them (The Wood and The Doc rode the bench right alongside N. Ct.).
At first, Solano seemed noticeably shaken by the constant hilarity emanating from the bench...but it was De Benedetto's game that seemed to suffer the most. Vin was a walking comedy of errors. He then referred to Frank and Spin as "The Bench People!"
Ultimately, it was all in good fun and it seemed that the lighter atmosphere led to more intense action as Mole and De Benedetto made a nice comeback against Celis and Solano as this would become a Tiebreak One-Setter.
Along the way, both "MC" Mike Carucci and "Chito" Nick Inciong each arrived at 11:10. Nick went straight out to Center Court to hit with The Shahs while Mike hung out with The Hecklers for a while before making it a foursome out on Center Court. They then had a very long hitting session that ran all the way until 12 noon before Nick had to call it a day.
It is a shame that this never turned into a One-Setter as Inciong would have been the ninth official competitor of the day. Instead, we had only eight players counted.
There were occasional bouts of drizzle along the way, but nothing could dampen the jovial spirit of the day. By the way, Nick registered for the Monk Memorial in person. He also did so on behalf of his good friend, "The Assassin" Alfred Chen.
Mole also registered and Carucci is willing to be an alternate/substitute if needed. This would give us the total of 12 players for Albion Park. In fact, we have to confirm if "DC3" David Cardenas will be moved from tentative to confirmed status. Otherwise, it will be Cardenas out and Carucci in as far as the Dirty Dozen at Albion are concerned.
Let's now get to all the Albion action!
The AP Results:
Dino Celis/Jorge Solano over Mike Mole/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. The partial breakdown: Dino and Jorge were up 4-1 only to lose the next four games to go down 4-5! Mike was now on serve with the lead in his team's favor. They took it to Game/Match Point, but then it went to Deuce and then Break Point where Jorge hit a big-time winner of an Overhead Smash for the break to make it 5-5! Celis then held for 6-5, but De Benedetto then had a Love hold to force the Tiebreak! In the Breaker: Jorge was broken on his lone serve after Vin hit a drop shot winner. Them Mike held the first of his two serves with an un-returned serve, but was then broken on his second for 2-1. Dino held both of his serves. The first was after a winning Overhead Smash by Jorge and the second was the result of an un-returned serve. It was now 3-2 in his team's favor. When Vin hit a Double Fault on the first of his two serves, his team had then fallen to 2-4 at the changeover. He then held his second to pull to 3-4. Solano held the first of his two serves after Vin blew an overhead and then he held his second as well as it was now Match Point (the 2nd M.P. overall) in Jorge's teams favor as the service returned to the opposition. Mole held both of his serves and each one was a Match Point situation. Celis had 6-5 and one last Match Point to seal the deal before things could potentially be evened up at the would-be second changeover. Instead, an exciting (though not all that long) rally ended with Dino hitting a shot that would be a rolling dribbler over the net for the win! Spin did not want to see it end that way. His constant catcalls of "Federer!" to Dino did not have their intended effect after all...LOL! They played this on the North Court from 11:07 to 12:03! The victory came on the 4th Match Point overall.
Frank Samara/Mike Carucci over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-2! No Aces. It went like this: Frank was broken (Frank blew an overhead for Love-15, an un-returned serve made it 15-All, Rajan hit a scorching winner of a return for 15-30, an un-returned serve made it 30-All, Rajan made a great get that led to Break Point, it then went to Deuce, Break Point again and the break), Rajan was broken (Love-15 where T.J. hit a winning volley for 15-All, but then it was straight to Double Break Point as Frank had a winner along the way, an un-returned serve made it Break Point, but then came the break) and then Mike was the first to hold serve (T.J. blew a volley for 15-Love, it was then 15-All where T.J. blew another volley on the way to it going to Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point) to go up 2-1. T.J. was broken (Mike hit a very nice winner for Love-15, it then went to Love-30 and then the shift came to 30-All as T.J. hit a winning lob along the way, but then Mike hit a nice winning return for Break Point and then came the break), Samara held (Mike hit a winning Overhead Smash for 15-Love, then it went to 15-All before it went to Double Game Point as an un-returned serve set that up and then another un-returned serve secured the hold) and R. Shah was broken again (T.J. hit a winning volley for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All, then it was 30-15 where Frank hit a blast of a passing shot winner for 30-All and then T.J. blew a volley to set up Break Point where Frank then hit an even tighter angle passing shot winner blast for the break) to go down 1-5! Carucci was broken (a winning lob from Raj and then back-to-back winning volleys by T.J. set up Triple Break Point where Frank hit another passing shot winner to make it Double Break Point, but then a Double Fault caused the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-2, but then TJS was broken again and this time it was at Love as Rajan blew an overhead to get the game started and then Double Fault on Triple Break/Match Point ended this one in unceremonious fashion! This one took place on Center Court from 12:07 to 12:37.
The Skinny: Once it became obvious that the North Court would be vacant, Spin invited the guys over to that court so the action could be closer to him. But Samara declined the invitation and said they were perfectly fine over on Center Court. Martinelli's reply was something along the lines of "sure, he can take it but he can't dish it out!" Still, The Doc was able to do some long-distance heckling. As for The Shahs, they were not rattled by the man known simply as Spin. They have very impressive game as they have both played for the Clifton High School Tennis Team. Perhaps there was some rust factor as they just needed to up the consistency level a bit.
Frank Samara/Mike Mole over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-1! No Aces. Here's how it went down: T.J. was broken (T.J. hit a winning volley for 15-Love, then 30-Love where a Double Fault made it 30-15 and then Frank hit a winner for 30-All, Double Fault for Break Point and then another Double Fault for the break), Mike was broken (a truly un-returnable serve for 15-Love, then 30-Love and then back-to-back Double Faults to make it 30-All, Game Point, Double Fault for Deuce where Rajan made an awesome get that led to Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then the break), Rajan was broken (15-Love then 15-All where back-to-back Double Faults set up Double Break Point and then came the break), but Frank was the first to hold serve (un-returned serve for 15-Love, 30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point where Mike made a great get that led to T.J. blowing the volley and allowing the hold) to go up 3-1! TJS was broken again (Love-15 where Rajan hit a winning lob for 15-All, but then it went straight to Double Break Point as Mike hit a winner along the way, an un-returned serve brought it down to Break Point, but then came the break), Mole held (un-returned serve for 15-Love, 15-All, Double Fault for 15-30, it then shifted to Game Point where another un-returned serve secured the hold) and R. Shah was broken again (Mike hit a monster winner to set up Triple Break/Match Point where a Double Fault led to a Love break and a loss) to end it! We played this one on Center Court as well and it lasted from 12:40 to 1:07.
We now head to Holster Park for the result from Gen.
The HP Result:
Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 6-4! No Aces. This lasted from 5pm to 5:40.
Gen's Notes: We started hitting at Holster at 4:30. We started the One-Setter at 5pm. Afterward, we hit for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for reporting that result in a very timely manner.
While there were no official Cedar Grove Results on court for the GTA, there is now resolution to a match that had begun there. So it officially closes now.
M2 Quarterfinal Match:
Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah over Dwight Thomas Sr./Dwight Thomas Jr., 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 (3rd Set via a forced forfeit), to become the New # 8 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division while advancing to the Semifinals of The M2 Men's Doubles Tournament! Dwight Sr.: 1 Ace on Chris in 1st Set!
The Skinny: After taking a while to get the match started in the first place (as scheduling conflicts ruled the day), they were finally able to play those first two sets...but then there was no time to play the 3rd Set that same night. From there, the scheduling conflicts only grew worse. A decision had to be made and it went in favor of the team that had greater availability (i.e. more open dates) than the other. This was not a matter of playing favorites and the decision was not taking lightly as we hate to see matches (especially tournament matches) end in this manner.
On the bright side for the team known as The Dwights, the fact that this match now comes to an official conclusion in mid-September...it means they will be active on the ranks of the Doubles Division (as well as individually in the Non-Competing Men's Division) until mid-April of the 2017 Season!
As for Chiaro/Shah, they now advance to the Semis where they will face longtime friendly rivals - Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan!
Samara signing off!
"Samara hosts 8 at AP, Gen hosts 2 at HP, M2 forfeit!:
There were two sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the usual morning one at Albion Park in Clifton (hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara) and a late afternoon/early evening one at Holster Park (hosted by "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan).
And now for how the session at Albion unfolded.
Samara pulled up to the curb at 10:10. Walking up from the courts was "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto (who had been there since 9:45) and he looked desperate for some tennis action.
On the South Court, there were two outsiders and these guys seemed to have had a fairly lengthy Singles Match against one another. They ended up leaving at 11:35.
So Samara stepped onto the North Court with De Benedetto as they entered into a hitting session.
"Coach" Dino Celis was the next to arrive at the courts at 10:30. As he ate a small breakfast, Frank and Vin took a break from hitting to sit and chat with him. Afterward, it was Samara and De Benedetto hitting against Celis.
"Big George" Jorge Solano stepped onto the North Court around 10:50 and started hitting with Dino against Frank and Vin. It looked like this would be the first Doubles One-Setter of the day, but when "Holy Moly" Mike Mole arrived at 10:55...Samara let him take his place.
At 11am, "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli arrived and it looked like he had brought a small posse with him. Actually, it turned out to be T.J Shah and Rajan Shah. As both have already registered for next week's Monk Memorial Men's Doubles Tournament, they wanted to get a feel for the courts at Albion Park.
Meanwhile, Spin was only there to make an extended cameo appearance as he is still trying to recover from a recent hip injury. He did play the night before up at The Cedar Grove Courts...and that only exacerbated his situation on this following morning.
The Shahs of Sunset hit Center Court to hit with one another while Samara and Martinelli went into their usual Hecklers mode for the action that was about to take place on the North Court right in front of them (The Wood and The Doc rode the bench right alongside N. Ct.).
At first, Solano seemed noticeably shaken by the constant hilarity emanating from the bench...but it was De Benedetto's game that seemed to suffer the most. Vin was a walking comedy of errors. He then referred to Frank and Spin as "The Bench People!"
Ultimately, it was all in good fun and it seemed that the lighter atmosphere led to more intense action as Mole and De Benedetto made a nice comeback against Celis and Solano as this would become a Tiebreak One-Setter.
Along the way, both "MC" Mike Carucci and "Chito" Nick Inciong each arrived at 11:10. Nick went straight out to Center Court to hit with The Shahs while Mike hung out with The Hecklers for a while before making it a foursome out on Center Court. They then had a very long hitting session that ran all the way until 12 noon before Nick had to call it a day.
It is a shame that this never turned into a One-Setter as Inciong would have been the ninth official competitor of the day. Instead, we had only eight players counted.
There were occasional bouts of drizzle along the way, but nothing could dampen the jovial spirit of the day. By the way, Nick registered for the Monk Memorial in person. He also did so on behalf of his good friend, "The Assassin" Alfred Chen.
Mole also registered and Carucci is willing to be an alternate/substitute if needed. This would give us the total of 12 players for Albion Park. In fact, we have to confirm if "DC3" David Cardenas will be moved from tentative to confirmed status. Otherwise, it will be Cardenas out and Carucci in as far as the Dirty Dozen at Albion are concerned.
Let's now get to all the Albion action!
The AP Results:
Dino Celis/Jorge Solano over Mike Mole/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. The partial breakdown: Dino and Jorge were up 4-1 only to lose the next four games to go down 4-5! Mike was now on serve with the lead in his team's favor. They took it to Game/Match Point, but then it went to Deuce and then Break Point where Jorge hit a big-time winner of an Overhead Smash for the break to make it 5-5! Celis then held for 6-5, but De Benedetto then had a Love hold to force the Tiebreak! In the Breaker: Jorge was broken on his lone serve after Vin hit a drop shot winner. Them Mike held the first of his two serves with an un-returned serve, but was then broken on his second for 2-1. Dino held both of his serves. The first was after a winning Overhead Smash by Jorge and the second was the result of an un-returned serve. It was now 3-2 in his team's favor. When Vin hit a Double Fault on the first of his two serves, his team had then fallen to 2-4 at the changeover. He then held his second to pull to 3-4. Solano held the first of his two serves after Vin blew an overhead and then he held his second as well as it was now Match Point (the 2nd M.P. overall) in Jorge's teams favor as the service returned to the opposition. Mole held both of his serves and each one was a Match Point situation. Celis had 6-5 and one last Match Point to seal the deal before things could potentially be evened up at the would-be second changeover. Instead, an exciting (though not all that long) rally ended with Dino hitting a shot that would be a rolling dribbler over the net for the win! Spin did not want to see it end that way. His constant catcalls of "Federer!" to Dino did not have their intended effect after all...LOL! They played this on the North Court from 11:07 to 12:03! The victory came on the 4th Match Point overall.
Frank Samara/Mike Carucci over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-2! No Aces. It went like this: Frank was broken (Frank blew an overhead for Love-15, an un-returned serve made it 15-All, Rajan hit a scorching winner of a return for 15-30, an un-returned serve made it 30-All, Rajan made a great get that led to Break Point, it then went to Deuce, Break Point again and the break), Rajan was broken (Love-15 where T.J. hit a winning volley for 15-All, but then it was straight to Double Break Point as Frank had a winner along the way, an un-returned serve made it Break Point, but then came the break) and then Mike was the first to hold serve (T.J. blew a volley for 15-Love, it was then 15-All where T.J. blew another volley on the way to it going to Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point) to go up 2-1. T.J. was broken (Mike hit a very nice winner for Love-15, it then went to Love-30 and then the shift came to 30-All as T.J. hit a winning lob along the way, but then Mike hit a nice winning return for Break Point and then came the break), Samara held (Mike hit a winning Overhead Smash for 15-Love, then it went to 15-All before it went to Double Game Point as an un-returned serve set that up and then another un-returned serve secured the hold) and R. Shah was broken again (T.J. hit a winning volley for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All, then it was 30-15 where Frank hit a blast of a passing shot winner for 30-All and then T.J. blew a volley to set up Break Point where Frank then hit an even tighter angle passing shot winner blast for the break) to go down 1-5! Carucci was broken (a winning lob from Raj and then back-to-back winning volleys by T.J. set up Triple Break Point where Frank hit another passing shot winner to make it Double Break Point, but then a Double Fault caused the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-2, but then TJS was broken again and this time it was at Love as Rajan blew an overhead to get the game started and then Double Fault on Triple Break/Match Point ended this one in unceremonious fashion! This one took place on Center Court from 12:07 to 12:37.
The Skinny: Once it became obvious that the North Court would be vacant, Spin invited the guys over to that court so the action could be closer to him. But Samara declined the invitation and said they were perfectly fine over on Center Court. Martinelli's reply was something along the lines of "sure, he can take it but he can't dish it out!" Still, The Doc was able to do some long-distance heckling. As for The Shahs, they were not rattled by the man known simply as Spin. They have very impressive game as they have both played for the Clifton High School Tennis Team. Perhaps there was some rust factor as they just needed to up the consistency level a bit.
Frank Samara/Mike Mole over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-1! No Aces. Here's how it went down: T.J. was broken (T.J. hit a winning volley for 15-Love, then 30-Love where a Double Fault made it 30-15 and then Frank hit a winner for 30-All, Double Fault for Break Point and then another Double Fault for the break), Mike was broken (a truly un-returnable serve for 15-Love, then 30-Love and then back-to-back Double Faults to make it 30-All, Game Point, Double Fault for Deuce where Rajan made an awesome get that led to Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then the break), Rajan was broken (15-Love then 15-All where back-to-back Double Faults set up Double Break Point and then came the break), but Frank was the first to hold serve (un-returned serve for 15-Love, 30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point where Mike made a great get that led to T.J. blowing the volley and allowing the hold) to go up 3-1! TJS was broken again (Love-15 where Rajan hit a winning lob for 15-All, but then it went straight to Double Break Point as Mike hit a winner along the way, an un-returned serve brought it down to Break Point, but then came the break), Mole held (un-returned serve for 15-Love, 15-All, Double Fault for 15-30, it then shifted to Game Point where another un-returned serve secured the hold) and R. Shah was broken again (Mike hit a monster winner to set up Triple Break/Match Point where a Double Fault led to a Love break and a loss) to end it! We played this one on Center Court as well and it lasted from 12:40 to 1:07.
We now head to Holster Park for the result from Gen.
The HP Result:
Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 6-4! No Aces. This lasted from 5pm to 5:40.
Gen's Notes: We started hitting at Holster at 4:30. We started the One-Setter at 5pm. Afterward, we hit for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for reporting that result in a very timely manner.
While there were no official Cedar Grove Results on court for the GTA, there is now resolution to a match that had begun there. So it officially closes now.
M2 Quarterfinal Match:
Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah over Dwight Thomas Sr./Dwight Thomas Jr., 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 (3rd Set via a forced forfeit), to become the New # 8 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division while advancing to the Semifinals of The M2 Men's Doubles Tournament! Dwight Sr.: 1 Ace on Chris in 1st Set!
The Skinny: After taking a while to get the match started in the first place (as scheduling conflicts ruled the day), they were finally able to play those first two sets...but then there was no time to play the 3rd Set that same night. From there, the scheduling conflicts only grew worse. A decision had to be made and it went in favor of the team that had greater availability (i.e. more open dates) than the other. This was not a matter of playing favorites and the decision was not taking lightly as we hate to see matches (especially tournament matches) end in this manner.
On the bright side for the team known as The Dwights, the fact that this match now comes to an official conclusion in mid-September...it means they will be active on the ranks of the Doubles Division (as well as individually in the Non-Competing Men's Division) until mid-April of the 2017 Season!
As for Chiaro/Shah, they now advance to the Semis where they will face longtime friendly rivals - Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan!
Samara signing off!
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