10/14/16:
"Samara hosts 21 (2 New) 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 7:15. Upon arrival, he saw that Courts One, Two and Three were all vacant while on Court Four, "J-Bach" Jordan Bachvaroff was hitting with "The Rainmaker" Richard Reicht.
Frank, surprised with the low turnout, quickly headed out onto Court One to hold that one now as well (because past experience has proven that the courts can fill up very quickly at C.G.!).
Within minutes, both "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales and Jay "The Rising" Phoenix and Samara directed them to go to Court Four for some Doubles with Bachvaroff and Reicht while Frank would continue to hold Court One.
Also around this time, "The Sultan of Swing" Raj Shah also pulled into the parking lot...but he took some time inside his car to eat first and then later get changed to play tennis.
At 7:25, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak arrived and headed out onto Court One to hit with Samara while the two of them waited for a couple more players to enable some Doubles.
Well, ten minutes later, Kris and his son Sairaj came across the street to join Ryan and Frank out on Court One for some Doubles.
But at the same time, Santosh "Ever" Reddy and Tito "Touch" Castolo also arrived. And on top of that, another player was heading toward the courts.
Earlier in the day, Samara discovered via "The Argentine Machine" Fernanda Toker that she was involved in a Mixed Doubles Tournament run by Robbin "Extra B" Miller. She participates in this event every season. This year, Toker would be teaming with Castolo to take on Miller and "The K-Double" Ken Kim.
So now Ken was here, too. Both Robbin and Ken had intended to make their official GTA Debut a couple of seasons ago, but then Miller sustained a shoulder injury and it never happened.
The deal that Samara struck with both Toker and Miller was that a court would be reserved for their match provided that the result would also count for the GTA record books. Both were fine with this proposal.
Tito and Ken headed to Court Three to warm up while waiting for their respective partners to arrive.
Back to Court One, Samara decided to step off to allow Reddy to take his place in the action featuring Papa and Son Srinivasan (though Kris thought it best to pair Sairaj with Rick while he would team with Santosh).
Frank then shifted over to Court Two to ensure that the GTA would now have all four courts for play as the competitors were sure to keep coming. And that they did!
Toker and Miller both arrived at 7:50 and headed to Court Three to warm up for their match (which got underway at 8pm as originally scheduled). At the same time, Shah emerged from his car dressed for play and started hitting with Samara on Court Two.
Five minutes later, both "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan and Sachiko "Sachi" Tokuda made their way onto the courts. It looked like we might have Mixed Doubles on Court Two as Shah and Samara could be their partners, but Raj still wanted to hit a bit more.
When that first Doubles One-Setter on Court Four ended at 7:55, Reicht had to leave and the other three guys were hoping for someone to replace him. Well, five minutes later, the Doubles One-Setter on Court One was finished and Pienciak then shifted from Court One to make it a foursome on Four once again.
Shah and Samara then shifted to Court One for a Men's Doubles One-Setter while Kris shifted over to Court Two to hit against both of the ladies. And when "2 Tall" Dave Zhu arrived at 8:20, he enabled some Mixed Doubles to take place on that court. We now had all four courts fully engaged with official action.
Next, "Mr. 500" Levy Lorenzo made his way toward the bench outside the courts at 8:30 while waiting to be invited into the official action.
Five minutes later, both "Teej" T.J. Shah and "Ragin" Rajan Shah arrived and found themselves in the same situation. All three of them would not have to wait long as they were able to get into Men's Doubles action with Pienciak on Court One while the other three players were nice enough to step off and one of them (Jay) was leaving for the night anyway.
The final official player to arrive was "The West Wing" Rick Pienciak at 8:55 and that gave us a total of 21 official competitors for the evening!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Jose Gonzales/Richard Reicht over Jay Phoenix/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-4! Jordan: 1 Ace on Jose. This took place on Court Four and lasted from 7:25 to 7:55.
Sairaj Srinivasan/Ryan Pienciak over Kris Srinivasan/Santosh Reddy, 6-0! No Aces. Court One hosted this one from 7:40 to 8pm.
Ken Kim/Robbin Miller over Tito Castolo/Fernanda Toker, 6-4! No Aces (apparently). It was the official GTA Debut of both Ken Kim and Robbin Miller. This one got underway on Court Three at 8pm.
The Skinny: As stated earlier, this was originally intended to be a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match. But time constraints would not allow it. I'll let you know how Robbin ruled it later in the report, but for GTA purposes...it was decided it would be best to split it into separate One-Setters in order to allow both Ken and Robbin to officially (and finally) enter the league.
Tito Castolo/Fernanda Toker over Ken Kim/Robbin Miller, 6-2! No Aces (apparently). Not sure when this one started or finished on Court Two as they then went into the would-be 3rd Set. Had they kept their eye on the clock, a 10-Point Super Tiebreak may have been the best option. Ah, the luxury of hindsight!
Jose Gonzales/Ryan Pienciak over Jay Phoenix/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-3! Jose: 1 Ace on Jordan. This foursome faced off on Court Four from 8:03 to 8:35.
Raj Shah/Sairaj Srinivasan over Frank Samara/Santosh Reddy, 7-5! Raj: 2 Aces (one on each and in the same game); and Sairaj: 1 Ace on Frank! For some strange reason, Santosh suggested foregoing changeovers (we had plenty of time as we started this one on Court One at 8:05, but we went along with it), but I still took time to note the points every couple games or so. What follows is likely to be mostly correct: Sairaj was broken (Raj hit a drop shot winner and then a winning Overhead Smash and then Sairaj hit a winner to set up Triple Game Point, but then a Double Fault made it Double Game Point and then Santosh hit an awesome winner to cut that lead to Game Point where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash to make it Deuce and Frank followed that with another winning Overhead Smash for Break Point, it then went to 2nd Deuce and it was all Break Points all the way to 5th Deuce...so I definitely forgot some winners along the way there...and then came one more Break Point where Santosh hit a winning volley for the break) and then Santosh held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold...did not forget any winners in this game as there weren't any) for a 2-0 lead. Raj held (Love-30 shifted to Game Point with two un-returned serves along the way and then came the hold) to get his team onto the scoreboard, but Frank also held (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point and then cut to Deuce, Game Point and the hold in another game with no winners) for a 3-1 lead. Srinivasan held (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, but then straight to Double Game Point with an un-returned serve along the way and then another un-returned serve for the hold), but Reddy held again (Triple Break Point then went straight to Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce where Sairaj blew an overhead to set up Game Point and then Santosh hit a winning volley for the hold) to go up 4-2. Shah held again (Raj hit a winning volley for 30-Love, but then Sairaj blew an overhead to make it 30-15, then Raj hit another winning volley to go up Double Game Point and then Sairaj hit a drop shot winner to secure his partner's hold), but Samara also held again (Raj hit a winning drop shot return and then he followed that with a monster Overhead Smash to make it Love-30, but then Raj blew an overhead and Frank hit a vicious volley winner for 30-All, but then Sairaj hit a winner to make it Break Point, but then an un-returned serve made it Deuce, then came Game Point and the hold) for a 5-3 lead. The Secret Weapon held again (started with a Double Fault, an Ace up the T against Frank for 15-All, another Double Fault for 15-30 where Raj hit a drop shot winner for 30-All and then Santosh hit a net-cord return winner to make it Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce where Raj hit another drop shot winner to shift it to Game Point where Sairaj hit a scorching winner to secure his own hold) and then Ever Reddy was broken (Raj hit two winners on the way to Triple Break Point, but then Sairaj blew an overhead to make it Double Break Point, it then went to Break Point, but then came the break) to level things at 5-5! The Sultan of Swing held a third straight time (started with an Ace up the T against Santosh, then it was 30-Love where Santosh hit a blistering return winner for 30-15, but then there was an Ace up the T against Frank to set up Double Game Point, that got cut down to Deuce, but then came Game Point again and the hold) as his team took their very first lead at 6-5! And then Hollywood was broken for the first time (Frank hit a winner to make it 30-Love only to have the next point build to where Frank made an amazing get in the valley between Courts One and Two only to send it back to Raj where he put away the easy volley winner for 30-15 and then Raj hit another winner for 30-All, then came Break/Match Point, the break and the painful loss) to suffer the agony of defeat as his team had a Match Point while the opposition was down 3-5 only to allow them to then tally four straight games in their favor for an excellent comeback win! This one finished on Court One at 9:08, clocking in at one hour and three minutes...and that was without changeovers!
Dave Zhu/Sachiko Tokuda over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-3)! No Aces. Court Two hosted this one from 8:25 to 9:18.
Ryan Pienciak/Levy Lorenzo over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-3! No Aces. This foursome faced off on Court Four from 8:40 to 9:22.
Jose Gonzales/Jordan Bachvaroff over Raj Shah/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-4! Jordan: 1 Ace on Raj. This one got done on Court One as it lasted from 9:10 to 9:57.
Kris Srinivasan/Levy Lorenzo over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-2! No Aces. Court Four featured these four in action from 9:23 to 9:56.
Dave Zhu/Sachiko Tokuda over Rick Pienciak/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-4! No Aces. This was contested on Court Two from 9:23 to 9:59!
The Skinny: Ryan and Frank were watching the action unfold on all four courts and it was starting to look like none of the four matches would be finished in time as the 10pm lights-out was looming! That would likely be the first time in GTA history where we had four unfinished results in the same session at Cedar Grove. Then, suddenly, all the action started getting completed on-time...except for one!
Ken Kim/Robbin Miller tied with Tito Castolo/Fernanda Toker, 2-2 (stopped at 9:57 as they tried to decide how to handle the result of the match)! No Aces (apparently).
The Skinny: This match was a Quarterfinal in the Mixed Doubles Tournament that Robbin was running in her league. This Quarterfinal Round had a Saturday (i.e. the next day) deadline. Three of them could continue it the next day except for Tito. Miller then said it could go down as a draw, but I have to assume that either her team would advance since they were the tandem completely willing to finish it...unless she was going to have both teams be eliminated. I'm not sure of what her final ruling was, but as far as the GTA is concerned...they played two official One-Setters and then had an incomplete and unofficial set.
The bottom line is that it is nice to finally have both Robbin and Ken in our league and we hope to see more of them in the future.
All in all, it was another awesome session of GTA Friday Night Tennis at Cedar Grove. While the temps may have dipped into the deep chill zone, the action remained red-hot right until the end!
Best wishes,
Frank Samara
"Samara hosts 21 (2 New) 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 7:15. Upon arrival, he saw that Courts One, Two and Three were all vacant while on Court Four, "J-Bach" Jordan Bachvaroff was hitting with "The Rainmaker" Richard Reicht.
Frank, surprised with the low turnout, quickly headed out onto Court One to hold that one now as well (because past experience has proven that the courts can fill up very quickly at C.G.!).
Within minutes, both "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales and Jay "The Rising" Phoenix and Samara directed them to go to Court Four for some Doubles with Bachvaroff and Reicht while Frank would continue to hold Court One.
Also around this time, "The Sultan of Swing" Raj Shah also pulled into the parking lot...but he took some time inside his car to eat first and then later get changed to play tennis.
At 7:25, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak arrived and headed out onto Court One to hit with Samara while the two of them waited for a couple more players to enable some Doubles.
Well, ten minutes later, Kris and his son Sairaj came across the street to join Ryan and Frank out on Court One for some Doubles.
But at the same time, Santosh "Ever" Reddy and Tito "Touch" Castolo also arrived. And on top of that, another player was heading toward the courts.
Earlier in the day, Samara discovered via "The Argentine Machine" Fernanda Toker that she was involved in a Mixed Doubles Tournament run by Robbin "Extra B" Miller. She participates in this event every season. This year, Toker would be teaming with Castolo to take on Miller and "The K-Double" Ken Kim.
So now Ken was here, too. Both Robbin and Ken had intended to make their official GTA Debut a couple of seasons ago, but then Miller sustained a shoulder injury and it never happened.
The deal that Samara struck with both Toker and Miller was that a court would be reserved for their match provided that the result would also count for the GTA record books. Both were fine with this proposal.
Tito and Ken headed to Court Three to warm up while waiting for their respective partners to arrive.
Back to Court One, Samara decided to step off to allow Reddy to take his place in the action featuring Papa and Son Srinivasan (though Kris thought it best to pair Sairaj with Rick while he would team with Santosh).
Frank then shifted over to Court Two to ensure that the GTA would now have all four courts for play as the competitors were sure to keep coming. And that they did!
Toker and Miller both arrived at 7:50 and headed to Court Three to warm up for their match (which got underway at 8pm as originally scheduled). At the same time, Shah emerged from his car dressed for play and started hitting with Samara on Court Two.
Five minutes later, both "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan and Sachiko "Sachi" Tokuda made their way onto the courts. It looked like we might have Mixed Doubles on Court Two as Shah and Samara could be their partners, but Raj still wanted to hit a bit more.
When that first Doubles One-Setter on Court Four ended at 7:55, Reicht had to leave and the other three guys were hoping for someone to replace him. Well, five minutes later, the Doubles One-Setter on Court One was finished and Pienciak then shifted from Court One to make it a foursome on Four once again.
Shah and Samara then shifted to Court One for a Men's Doubles One-Setter while Kris shifted over to Court Two to hit against both of the ladies. And when "2 Tall" Dave Zhu arrived at 8:20, he enabled some Mixed Doubles to take place on that court. We now had all four courts fully engaged with official action.
Next, "Mr. 500" Levy Lorenzo made his way toward the bench outside the courts at 8:30 while waiting to be invited into the official action.
Five minutes later, both "Teej" T.J. Shah and "Ragin" Rajan Shah arrived and found themselves in the same situation. All three of them would not have to wait long as they were able to get into Men's Doubles action with Pienciak on Court One while the other three players were nice enough to step off and one of them (Jay) was leaving for the night anyway.
The final official player to arrive was "The West Wing" Rick Pienciak at 8:55 and that gave us a total of 21 official competitors for the evening!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Jose Gonzales/Richard Reicht over Jay Phoenix/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-4! Jordan: 1 Ace on Jose. This took place on Court Four and lasted from 7:25 to 7:55.
Sairaj Srinivasan/Ryan Pienciak over Kris Srinivasan/Santosh Reddy, 6-0! No Aces. Court One hosted this one from 7:40 to 8pm.
Ken Kim/Robbin Miller over Tito Castolo/Fernanda Toker, 6-4! No Aces (apparently). It was the official GTA Debut of both Ken Kim and Robbin Miller. This one got underway on Court Three at 8pm.
The Skinny: As stated earlier, this was originally intended to be a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match. But time constraints would not allow it. I'll let you know how Robbin ruled it later in the report, but for GTA purposes...it was decided it would be best to split it into separate One-Setters in order to allow both Ken and Robbin to officially (and finally) enter the league.
Tito Castolo/Fernanda Toker over Ken Kim/Robbin Miller, 6-2! No Aces (apparently). Not sure when this one started or finished on Court Two as they then went into the would-be 3rd Set. Had they kept their eye on the clock, a 10-Point Super Tiebreak may have been the best option. Ah, the luxury of hindsight!
Jose Gonzales/Ryan Pienciak over Jay Phoenix/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-3! Jose: 1 Ace on Jordan. This foursome faced off on Court Four from 8:03 to 8:35.
Raj Shah/Sairaj Srinivasan over Frank Samara/Santosh Reddy, 7-5! Raj: 2 Aces (one on each and in the same game); and Sairaj: 1 Ace on Frank! For some strange reason, Santosh suggested foregoing changeovers (we had plenty of time as we started this one on Court One at 8:05, but we went along with it), but I still took time to note the points every couple games or so. What follows is likely to be mostly correct: Sairaj was broken (Raj hit a drop shot winner and then a winning Overhead Smash and then Sairaj hit a winner to set up Triple Game Point, but then a Double Fault made it Double Game Point and then Santosh hit an awesome winner to cut that lead to Game Point where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash to make it Deuce and Frank followed that with another winning Overhead Smash for Break Point, it then went to 2nd Deuce and it was all Break Points all the way to 5th Deuce...so I definitely forgot some winners along the way there...and then came one more Break Point where Santosh hit a winning volley for the break) and then Santosh held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold...did not forget any winners in this game as there weren't any) for a 2-0 lead. Raj held (Love-30 shifted to Game Point with two un-returned serves along the way and then came the hold) to get his team onto the scoreboard, but Frank also held (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point and then cut to Deuce, Game Point and the hold in another game with no winners) for a 3-1 lead. Srinivasan held (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, but then straight to Double Game Point with an un-returned serve along the way and then another un-returned serve for the hold), but Reddy held again (Triple Break Point then went straight to Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce where Sairaj blew an overhead to set up Game Point and then Santosh hit a winning volley for the hold) to go up 4-2. Shah held again (Raj hit a winning volley for 30-Love, but then Sairaj blew an overhead to make it 30-15, then Raj hit another winning volley to go up Double Game Point and then Sairaj hit a drop shot winner to secure his partner's hold), but Samara also held again (Raj hit a winning drop shot return and then he followed that with a monster Overhead Smash to make it Love-30, but then Raj blew an overhead and Frank hit a vicious volley winner for 30-All, but then Sairaj hit a winner to make it Break Point, but then an un-returned serve made it Deuce, then came Game Point and the hold) for a 5-3 lead. The Secret Weapon held again (started with a Double Fault, an Ace up the T against Frank for 15-All, another Double Fault for 15-30 where Raj hit a drop shot winner for 30-All and then Santosh hit a net-cord return winner to make it Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce where Raj hit another drop shot winner to shift it to Game Point where Sairaj hit a scorching winner to secure his own hold) and then Ever Reddy was broken (Raj hit two winners on the way to Triple Break Point, but then Sairaj blew an overhead to make it Double Break Point, it then went to Break Point, but then came the break) to level things at 5-5! The Sultan of Swing held a third straight time (started with an Ace up the T against Santosh, then it was 30-Love where Santosh hit a blistering return winner for 30-15, but then there was an Ace up the T against Frank to set up Double Game Point, that got cut down to Deuce, but then came Game Point again and the hold) as his team took their very first lead at 6-5! And then Hollywood was broken for the first time (Frank hit a winner to make it 30-Love only to have the next point build to where Frank made an amazing get in the valley between Courts One and Two only to send it back to Raj where he put away the easy volley winner for 30-15 and then Raj hit another winner for 30-All, then came Break/Match Point, the break and the painful loss) to suffer the agony of defeat as his team had a Match Point while the opposition was down 3-5 only to allow them to then tally four straight games in their favor for an excellent comeback win! This one finished on Court One at 9:08, clocking in at one hour and three minutes...and that was without changeovers!
Dave Zhu/Sachiko Tokuda over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-3)! No Aces. Court Two hosted this one from 8:25 to 9:18.
Ryan Pienciak/Levy Lorenzo over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-3! No Aces. This foursome faced off on Court Four from 8:40 to 9:22.
Jose Gonzales/Jordan Bachvaroff over Raj Shah/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-4! Jordan: 1 Ace on Raj. This one got done on Court One as it lasted from 9:10 to 9:57.
Kris Srinivasan/Levy Lorenzo over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-2! No Aces. Court Four featured these four in action from 9:23 to 9:56.
Dave Zhu/Sachiko Tokuda over Rick Pienciak/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-4! No Aces. This was contested on Court Two from 9:23 to 9:59!
The Skinny: Ryan and Frank were watching the action unfold on all four courts and it was starting to look like none of the four matches would be finished in time as the 10pm lights-out was looming! That would likely be the first time in GTA history where we had four unfinished results in the same session at Cedar Grove. Then, suddenly, all the action started getting completed on-time...except for one!
Ken Kim/Robbin Miller tied with Tito Castolo/Fernanda Toker, 2-2 (stopped at 9:57 as they tried to decide how to handle the result of the match)! No Aces (apparently).
The Skinny: This match was a Quarterfinal in the Mixed Doubles Tournament that Robbin was running in her league. This Quarterfinal Round had a Saturday (i.e. the next day) deadline. Three of them could continue it the next day except for Tito. Miller then said it could go down as a draw, but I have to assume that either her team would advance since they were the tandem completely willing to finish it...unless she was going to have both teams be eliminated. I'm not sure of what her final ruling was, but as far as the GTA is concerned...they played two official One-Setters and then had an incomplete and unofficial set.
The bottom line is that it is nice to finally have both Robbin and Ken in our league and we hope to see more of them in the future.
All in all, it was another awesome session of GTA Friday Night Tennis at Cedar Grove. While the temps may have dipped into the deep chill zone, the action remained red-hot right until the end!
Best wishes,
Frank Samara
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