10/18/16:
"Mazur-Guzman in E.R., Samara hosts 16 at C.G.!":
There were two sessions of GTA Tuesday Night Tennis: East Rutherford where "Automatic" Anna Mazur and "The Natural" Natalie Guzman played a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match (thankfully, this was not played in an ER…the E.R. in the headline stands for East Rutherford); and The Cedar Grove Courts session which was hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara with assistance from the usual host, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan.
We will first go to the recap from Anna before we detail all the comings and goings up at Cedar Grove.
The East Rutherford Result:
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Anna Mazur over Natalie Guzman, 6-2, 6-2, to successfully defend her # 6 Rank in the Women's Division! No Aces (apparently).
Anna's Annotations: We had an excellent match. We played it from 6:40 to 8pm. Natalie keeps getting better each time I see her. We had a great time and a good workout.
Samara's Notes: I thank Anna for her timely reporting, congratulate her on her victory and also offer kudos to Natalie for a fine effort.
We now head up to Cedar Grove.
Samara arrived somewhat late at 7:25. At the time, all four courts were full.
On Court One was the Asian couple that refused the invite from Kris to get involved with us a week or so ago. On Court Two was a lone guy practicing his serve. As it turns out, Kris knows him somewhat. His name is George.
On Court Three, "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas was hitting against both "Big Kaz" Mike Kazlauskas and "The Rainmaker" Richard Reicht.
And on Court Four, there was a Doubles One-Setter already in progress featuring the GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro teaming with "J-Bach" Jordan Bachvaroff against "Instant" Moka Pathan and "The Secret Weapon" Sairaj Srinivasan.
The Asian couple soon left Court One at 7:30, so Samara headed straight there to hold it for GTA players. He had an invite to make it a foursome for some Doubles on Court Three, but Frank thought it was a higher priority to hold courts as he was fairly sure more GTA players would soon be on their way. Reicht was nice enough to leave the hitting session on Court Three to join Frank on one for a hitting session.
At 7:35, that first Doubles One-Setter on Court Four ended. At that time, it was decided that Kuzavas and Kazlauskas would then play the winners, Chiaro/Bachvaroff.
At 7:40, Kris came across the street along with his wife "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan. Arriving at the same time was "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak.
At this point, there was a lot of debate and shuffling around…but we ended up having Moka and Sairaj stick together but go to Court One. They would face Ryan and Richard.
Samara then went with the Srinivasans to Court Three as soon it would be Frank and Kris hitting against Doinks. And when "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli arrived at 7:55, he headed toward Court Three to team with Doinks against Frank and Kris. That got underway exactly at 7:57.
Just a few minutes later at 8pm, Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan arrived and found himself to be the odd man out for a while. Around this same time, that guy George left Court Two - so Samara suggested that Cabanatan take over the court and he did.
Ten minutes later, he would be joined by "Eddie O" Edwin Ortega and they had a hitting session with each other until they would later be called into Doubles action.
The sixteenth competitor and final arrival to the session was Sachiko "Sachi" Tokuda at 8:40.
Let's now get to the action.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Chris Chiaro/Jordan Bachvaroff over Moka Pathan/Sairaj Srinivasan, 7-5! Jordan: 1 Ace on Moka. Jordan estimated that this one got started on Court Four around 6:50. It ended at 7:35.
Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas over Chris Chiaro/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-2! No Aces. Court Four also hosted this one which began at 7:40. Not sure when it was finished as it went right into a rematch One-Setter.
Moka Pathan/Sairaj Srinivasan over Ryan Pienciak/Richard Reicht, 6-2! No Aces. They got this one done on Court One, but not sure when…only know that it began at 7:46.
Frank Samara/Kris Srinivasan over Dan Martinelli/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1! No Aces. It went like this (and to save time, I did not note who hit what winners and when and where): Kris held at Love, Spin was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Fault for Double Break Point and then the break), Frank held (30-Love shifted to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) and Doinks was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and then the break) for a 0-4 start! K. Srinivasan held again despite starting off with a Double Fault and having it go all the way to Triple Break Point, but then it shifted to Deuce, Game Point and the hold for an even more commanding 5-0 lead. Martinelli then held to get his team on the scoreboard (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Double Fault for Break/Match Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but Samara held again except this time it was a struggle as it went point for point until 30-All, Game/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point, 4th Deuce and it finally ended on the 3rd Game/Match Point which was the 4th M.P. overall! We played this on Court Three from 7:57 to 8:33.
Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas over Chris Chiaro/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-4! Jordan: 1 Ace on Marijus. Not sure when this one got underway on Court Four, but it was finished at 8:50. After this one, both Mike and Chris had to leave. But Marijus and Jordan stayed behind to have a hitting session with one another until they eventually got invited back into Doubles action.
Jose Gonzales/Ryan Pienciak over Edwin Ortega/Dennis Cabanatan, 6-1! No Aces. This one was played on Court One from 8:30 to 8:50. They then played a rematch which we will get to a little later in this report.
Kris Srinivasan/Dan Martinelli over Frank Samara/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2! Spin: 1 Ace on Doinks. Here's how it went down (again, I did not note the winners in order to same): Kris held at Love, Doinks held (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, then onto Double Game Point and the hold), Spin held at Love, but Frank was the first to be broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point and then the break) to go down 1-3. K. Srinivasan held again, but this time around it was an epic battle as he got off to a Love-30 start, went to 15-30, Double Break Point which got cut down to Deuce, and then it was all Game Points all the way to 5th Deuce, Game Point again and then finally the hold and then D. Srinivasan was broken (Love-30 went straight to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to fall to 1-5! Martinelli was broken (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game/Match Point, Game/Match Point, Deuce, big sideline Ace against Doinks to set up the 3rd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point and then a Double Fault to break himself!) to have his team's lead cut to 5-2. But Samara was broken again (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point which was then cut down to Deuce, Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, the 2nd Break/Match Point is where this one ended and it was the 5th M.P. overall) to take the loss…which he deserved to take! We also played this one on Court Three and it lasted from 8:36 to 9:19.
The Skinny: Not noting the winners and the blatant unforced errors (i.e. blown overheads and volleys) does not do this One-Setter true justice. Everything was going fairly smoothly until Samara missed a pair of his patented Windmill Overhead Smashes as both attempts resulted in shots that sailed way wide and then he muffed what should have been an easy put-away volley at the net. A more inept display from Samara we have not seen in quite some time! It seemed as if Martinelli felt sorry for his buddy as he, too, then began making some woeful errors. Well, it did not take long for Kris to join in on the awful antics as he also flubbed some surefire volleys as well. Doinks had her share of errors along the way, but all of hers were justifiable and reasonable…not insipid and indefensible! At a certain point in this comedy of errors, Frank suggested to the rest of the group that so many of these failed rallies were worthy of ESPN Sports Center's "Not 10" feature…which is basically the opposite of their "Top 10" segment. Instead of featuring the ten best plays of the day, the "Not 10" features the ten worst. And there were enough of these moments to monopolize one day's entire broadcast! From there on, anytime any of us made another sorry error…we sung (if you can call it that) the instrumental ESPN Sports Center theme song: "dunt, dunt, dunt…dunt, dunt, dunt!" Still, we had fun!
Jose Gonzales/Ryan Pienciak over Edwin Ortega/Dennis Cabanatan, 6-0! Jose: 1 Ace on Edwin. This rematch One-Setter also took place on Court One. It lasted from 8:51 to 9:11.
Marijus Kuzavas/Edwin Ortega leading Jordan Bachvaroff/Ryan Pienciak, 6-6 (7-6)…Incomplete, when the lights went off at 10pm! No Aces (apparently). This one got underway on Court Four at 9:15.
The Skinny: Yes, you read that score right. It was 7-6 as the score of the Tiebreak…which never got to the completed 7-6 score that most Tiebreakers do. Marijus and Edwin were just one point away from sealing the deal when the light timer at the courts had other plans!
Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan over Dennis Cabanatan/Sachiko Tokuda, 6-2! No Aces. Kris and Doinks were down 1-2 when they took five straight games for the win! This was played on Court Three from 9:21 to 9:42. They then decided to try to squeeze in another one where there would be no changeovers in order to save time. It still fell short.
Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan leading Dennis Cabanatan/Sachiko Tokuda, 3-2 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces. Once again, Kris and Doinks got off to a 1-2 start before they started to rally from behind. This one got underway on Court Three at 9:43. Seventeen minutes would likely only accommodate a shutout.
All in all, it was another exciting session…even if it somewhat fell short of expectations. When you consider the fact that earlier in the day we had a record-breaking (aka record-setting) temperature of 85 degrees and that the nighttime temps were even more enjoyable…we suspected even more GTA'ers would come out to play. Oh well.
Best wishes,
Frank Samara
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