"Frank/John host 10 at The Wayne Bubble!":
GTA Tuesday Night Tennis only took place at The Wayne Bubble as The Cedar Grove Courts were likely still wet from the torrential all-day rains that did not end until the afternoon.
The late evening session at The Bubble was hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara and a familiar face. This man has recently lost a lot of weight. Perhaps he is the alter ego of someone we already know.
Is he from the Bizarro World? Is he from Parts Unknown?
Well, at least for the time being, this man will be known as "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito. Maybe sometime in the near future this altered entity will return to his original state (of being, not location).
Incognito and Samara arrived together at The Bubble at 8:45 just as "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle was doing the same. From there, they had to wait in the lounge area until three of the four courts would clear at 9pm.
GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro arrived at 8:50 and hot on his heels was "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar.
"Sadistic" Syed Rashid arrived at 8:55. Five minutes later, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak did the same.
At that time, Chiaro, Kumar and Pienciak took Court One (with Chris hitting against both Senthil and Ryan) while Samara, Incognito, Doyle and Rashid took Court Two.
Court Three would still be occupied until 9:45 and Court Four remained vacant at this time.
The three players on Court One would soon be joined by Scott Whisten. Those four then played three Doubles One-Setters with the two teams being switched up for the last one.
Court Two also featured three Doubles One-Setters with all three keeping the same teams.
The last two arrivals of the evening were "RK Fire" Rafaelo Kazakov and Vik Kukar. They started hitting on Court Four until "Drill Instructor" Don Moya directed them to shift over to Court Three after those four guys vacated it at 9:45. Rafaelo and Vik played a Singles One-Setter followed by an incomplete one.
We ended up with a total of just ten official competitors…which is somewhat low given the potential turnout of the Night Owls Group on a Tuesday evening. And considering the fact that outdoor tennis was not a viable option, we were expecting more players to attend.
Still, it was a fun session where the number of participants was even and it all went fairly smoothly.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
Frank Samara/Syed Rashid over John Incognito/Kevin Doyle, 6-0! No Aces. The basic breakdown: Syed held serve (started with a Double Fault, but then went straight to Double Game Point and the hold), John was broken (15-Love went right to Double Break Point, then Break Point and the break), Frank held at Love, Kevin was broken at Love after hitting a Double Fault to set up Triple Break Point, Rashid held again (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and then the hold) and Incognito was broken again (started up 30-Love, but then it went right to Break/Match Point and the break) to take the shutout loss! We played this on Court Two from 9:15 to 9:35.
The Skinny: We did do the changeovers every two games, but I only wrote down the flow of the games (rather than also adding who hit what winners) in order to save time. Rashid has improved as he is now much more consistent than he was in the past. Doyle readily admits it takes him a while to warm up and get going. Incognito is still shaking off rust, though his movement is much better now. Samara felt fortunate that the intense heel pain he was experiencing the evening before had subsided greatly. As such, he was able to make many gets whenever necessary.
Senthil Kumar/Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Scott Whisten, 6-3! Ryan : 2 Aces on Scott; and Chris: 1 Ace on Senthil! It was the official GTA Debut of Scott Whisten. They got this one underway on Court One at 9:30. I failed to note the end time, but it was likely somewhere around 10pm as they then went into another one with the same teams.
Frank Samara/Syed Rashid over John Incognito/Kevin Doyle, 6-0! No Aces. The simple summary: Frank held serve (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and then the hold), Kevin was broken (Love-15, 15-30, Double Break Point and then the break), Syed held (15-Love, 15-All and then straight to Double Game Point, Double Fault for Game Point, but then the hold), John was broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point and then the break), Samara held at Love and Doyle was broken again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 then shifted again to Break/Match Point and then came the break) to take another shutout loss! Court Two also hosted this one which lasted from 9:36 to 9:59.
Vik Kukar over Rafaelo Kazakov, 6-4! No Aces (apparently). It was the official GTA Return of Vik Kukar. This one got going on Court Three sometime after 9:45. Not sure when it ended as they went into another set that would end up being incomplete.
Senthil Kumar/Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Scott Whisten, 6-1! No Aces. They finished this one on Court One at 10:30. Then they switched the teams for the next one.
Frank Samara/Syed Rashid over John Incognito/Kevin Doyle, 7-5! No Aces. The quick and dirty lowdown: Syed was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, then Break Point and the break) and John held serve (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point, then Game Point and the hold) to get off to a 2-0 start. Like his partner, Frank was also broken for the first time on the night (Love-15, 15-All and then right to Double Break Point and the break) to now find his team down 0-3! Kevin was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break) and Rashid held (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then it was 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to pull to 2-3. Then, what may have been the pivotal game came next with Incognito on serve as it went 15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point, 4th Deuce, Break Point and the break to level things at 3-3! Samara held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and then the hold) to take a 4-3 lead for his team, but then Doyle finally held and it was at Love to knot the score at 4-4! Sadistic Syed was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30 and then a Double Fault set up Double Break Point and the break came next), but Mr. Arizona was then broken at Love to tie things up once more, this time at 5-5! Hollywood held again (30-Love shifted to 30-All, then came Game Point and the hold), but Kevlar Kevin was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break/Match Point and then Break/Match Point which ended ugly as Frank mishit a sloppy Overhead Smash that sent the ball crashing down on top of the net tape where it then took a weak bounce off of it and then fell to the surface of the court out of the reach of everyone for a very weak winner…but still a winner, nonetheless!) to take a tough loss! This one occupied Court Two from 10pm to 10:53.
The Skinny: Despite the loss, both Incognito and Doyle felt much better about their respective improved efforts. Kevin felt like he was at least able to leave the session with his head held high. It was much more competitive than the previous two shutout One-Setters and, as a result, it also ended up being a lot more fun.
Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar over Ryan Pienciak/Scott Whisten, 6-2! No Aces. This was contested on Court One from 10:33 to 10:55. Afterward, Chris and Ryan had a hitting session with one another.
Vik Kukar leading Rafaelo Kazakov, 4-1 (Incomplete when they wrapped things up around 11pm)! No Aces (apparently). This one also took place on Court Three.
Best wishes,
Frank Samara
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