GTA Thursday Night Tennis took place at The Cedar Grove Courts and was hosted by "The K-Man" Kris Srinivasan.
Earlier in the day, "Hollywood" Frank Samara nicknamed the day as "Tricky Thursday". It actually turned into Turbulent Thursday with high winds and rapidly dropping temperatures throughout the evening. Thankfully, that did not diminish the turnout or the enthusiasm of those who participated in the session.
We now turn this report over to The K Man!
It was yet another lovely night to play tennis with relatively warmer temperatures despite it being a bit windy. The rains that might have possibly affected the possibility of us playing tennis ended up not being a factor as the courts remained completely dry. The Public Works Department worked hard to clear the debris and leaves in the area except for the tennis courts, but it was not too bad on Courts 3 and 4.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Nathan Fernandes/Doinks Srinivasan over Kris Srinivasan/Dan Martinelli, 7-5! Spin: 2 Aces on Nate!
It turned out to be a close match staying even at 3-All with everyone holding their serves before I was broken. Soon we were down 3-5 and a fired-up Spin saved a Match Point against us with a bullet-like Ace on the sideline. This was his second Ace and a sweet one on many counts. Nate was warned before he was dished out one and, for an agile sprinter like Nate, he didn't get to move as the lightning-speed serve was in and out in a flash. It was a good point for us to win to stay in the set and go further to win the game, following up with another game under our belt to tie it 5-All. It was then that I messed up two punching volleys to spoil all the hard work.
Doinks was pretty good as she played her shots freely, but it was her serve that she held with such ease that its rankling me…:-). Spin was equally effective on his first two services holding both at Love. The bitter fight was in the second half, but there really were some plays that had many shots played by all the four players in tandem making the atmosphere that much more exciting.
On the adjacent court, Jordan Bachvaroff was very nice to play with Herb Reiner. After a hitting session, they did play Singles, but lost count of the score. Jordan was leading 5-3 or something like that, but he did go a little easy on Herb. Herb, for his part, looked sharp and it was good to see him play again like old times.
Nathan Fernandes/Kris Srinivasan over Raj Shah/Jordan Bachvaroff, 7-5! No Aces.
It was another good match where Nate almost single-handedly won it all for us. Raj was aggressive and played a solid game. Jordan played very well when the ball was on his forehand side, but Nate dealt with him beautifully with his slices and net play that gave very little time for Jordan to react. I was the weakest link, but it helped that I held in all my service games.
Dave Zhu/Levy Lorenzo over Abhilash Gadi/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1! No Aces (apparently).
It was a warm-up for Abhi. But the aggressive play of Dave combined with Levy's steady hand was a bit too much for Doinks and Abhi as the errors they made proved to cost them games and the set.
Dave Zhu/Abhilash Gadi over Levy Lorenzo/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-4! No Aces (apparently).
They mixed the teams up and this match turned out to be close and exciting. All the players looked happy having given a good accounting of themselves.
Kris Srinivasan/T.J. Shah over Dennis Cabanatan/Rajan Shah, 6-2! No Aces.
This match could have been even a lot tighter if Dennis and Rajan had broken us on a couple of occasions. Despite the score, it was a well-played match. Teej did miss his racquet (the one he broke the strings on the other night), but still he was his usual self most of the time. It was the slices that he couldn't get right. Dennis was amazing, but missed out on some crucial points. So was Rajan who had lovely shots, but had some weak backhand misses.
With 24 minutes left, Raj Shah decided to play a Singles One-Setter against Nate to get an idea as to how to deal with him in the Grove Cup Finals. The "idea man" was almost quickly swept off the court by Nate before seeing a revival. Upon the stroke of 10pm, Raj lost his serve after having a Game Point just a moment earlier to put Nate in the driver's seat…but the match would remain incomplete.
Nathan Fernandes leading Raj Shah, 5-3 (Incomplete at 10pm)! No Aces (apparently).
Overall, it turned out to be a good session…somewhat subdued by a relatively lesser crowd, but made up for big-time by the boisterous Spin. A good chat after the session amongst 6 remaining players highlighted a good coverage of Spin's cats and Tinder! Cheers!
Samara's Notes: Oh boy! Is Spin picking up more cats via Tinder? Or perhaps it is a different type of feline he is looking for? ;-) In any event, I appreciate all that Kris does for the GTA up at Cedar Grove…especially on the evenings where I cannot be present.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
No comments:
Post a Comment