"Shiao-Celis in Mt.clair, Shah-Nate Final part of 12 at C.G.!":
GTA Tuesday Tennis took place at two locations: a late morning/early afternoon session at The Mountainside Park Courts (aka The Iris Gardens) in Montclair featuring a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match between Tony "Sure Shot" Shiao and "Coach" Dino Celis and the usual evening session at The Cedar Grove Courts which was hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara with assistance from "The K-Man" Kris Srinivasan and "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak (who sent in the scores that were completed after Samara's departure).
That Cedar Grove session featured the long-awaited Grove Cup Final Match featuring "The Sultan of Swing" Raj Shah going up against "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes. It seemed somewhat fitting that on such a historic night (Election Day) we had the culmination of a tournament that seemed as enduring as the Presidential campaign as it occupied much of the past season.
Let's first go to Dino's recap from Montclair before we detail how everything unfolded up at Cedar Grove.
The Mountainside Park Result:
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Dino Celis over Tony Shiao, 6-3, 6-4, to become the New # 6 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division! Tony: 2 Aces in the 1st Set!
From The Coach's Clipboard: We played from 11am to 12:30. The 1st Set was close until I was able to break his serve and then hold my serve to secure the set. In the 2nd Set, I was up 5-2 before Tony almost turned the match around with brilliant controlled tennis to pull to 4-5 and then he was serving to level the set and the match. However, he wasn't able to hold due to unforced errors and I was able to come out on top to take the set and the match.
Lots of credit goes to Tony for his hustle in the 2nd Set. He had some great forehand shots and one incredible offensive lob for a winner. It was a great hard-hitting match.
Samara's Notes: I thank Dino for his very timely reporting and congratulate him on a very impressive victory.
We now go to Cedar Grove to recap what took place there.
Samara pulled up to the courts at 6:50 and he had his daughter Angeliz and son Dante with him. Upon their arrival, they saw that Courts One and Two were already lost to outsiders while Court Four featured "J-Bach" Jordan Bachvaroff hitting against both "Dominant" Dawn Peterson and Natalia "Nitro" Sout.
Only Court Three remained vacant, so the Samara clan took it over in order to hold it for the upcoming Grove Cup Final Match.
Kris came across the street at 7:10 and Frank asked him if he could take the two young Samaras back over to his house so that they could use the bathroom as the night was much chillier than expected.
We had a peak temperature near 70 degrees earlier in the day, but it had dipped all the way down to 47 degrees by 8:15pm! We all know how those cold conditions can affect one's desire to make a visit to the john.
Kris was not only kind enough to do that for us, but he offered to let them stay at his house and watch TV rather than hang outside in the cold. Doinks played a most gracious host as well as she made them hot chocolate and gave them snacks. I thank both of them for their generosity and hospitality.
While Daddy Frank remained out on Court Three, he soon saw some familiar faces heading toward him at 7:15. It was Chris Barbieri and Andrea Lim. They are a very nice couple that have played tennis with us at Cedar Grove on and off through the last couple of seasons. Samara soon hit against both of them.
At 7:25, Fernandes arrived as did the GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro. At this time, a trade was made involving the two courts that were in play for the GTA.
Sout shifted over from Court Four to Court Three while both Bachvaroff and Peterson opted out of any further action (Jordan cited his ongoing knee issues, but he did hang around for a while) while Chiaro also joined her for some Mixed Doubles against Barbieri and Lim.
Meanwhile, Samara shifted over to Court Four for a hitting session with Fernandes to warm him up for the match against Shah.
At 7:30, Celis and Shah arrived at the same time. While Raj got ready, Frank continued to hit with Nate until 7:35 when Samara stepped off like Costanza to allow Shah to take his place. At 7:45, they got the match officially underway.
Meanwhile, Kris returned to the courts at 7:40. Ten minutes later, Pienciak made his arrival. And another five minutes after that, both "The Rainmaker" Richard Reicht and "Mr. 500" Levy Lorenzo each arrived separately.
It was somewhere around this time that both Courts One and Two were vacated. So these four gents headed over to Court One to have a fairly lengthy hitting session which became an official Doubles One-Setter at exactly 8:08.
It was also around this time that "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan arrived to make an extended cameo appearance to take a seat on the bench alongside Court Four to watch the Grove Cup Final. She had Natalia by her side.
At 8:30, Doinks came across the street to join them (also just to watch) and then "The Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli also arrived to ride the bench and do the same.
After finishing his Doubles One-Setter and then watching (scouting?) some of the Shah-Fernandes match, Chiaro left for further action up at The Wayne Bubble (for which nobody sent in any results, so they will have to remain as unofficial).
And it was also around this time when both "Teej" T.J. Shah and "Ragin" Rajan Shah arrived together in hopes of getting involved in the action. First, they had to have a fairly lengthy hitting session with one another on Court Two before finally seeing some official Doubles action on Court One (close to 9pm).
We ended up with a total of 12 official competitors for the evening…not too shabby when you consider that some of the GTA Gang were up at The Wayne Bubble while many more likely stayed home to watch the election coverage.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Chris Chiaro/Natalia Sout over Chris Barbieri/Andrea Lim, 6-3! No Aces. It was the official GTA Return of both Barbieri and Lim. They played this on Court Three from 7:40 to 8:02.
Grove Cup Final Match:
Nathan Fernandes over Raj Shah, 6-4, 7-5, to become the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the 2016 Grove Cup Champ and next Top Contender to the GTA Championship! No Aces. They got this match officially underway at 7:45.
1st Set: Nathan was broken (Love-15 where Raj blew an overhead for 15-All, then it was 15-30 where Raj made a great get that led to Double Break Point, it then went to Break Point where Raj made a winning volley for the break), Raj was broken (a truly un-returnable serve made it 15-Love, it was 15-All where Raj blew a volley to make it 15-30, it then went to Double Break Point where Nate hit a winning Backhand Volley for the break) and then Fernandes was the first to hold serve (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point where Nate blew a volley to make it Game Point, but then came the hold) to go up 2-1. Shah then held as well (Love-15, 15-All where Raj blew a volley to make it 15-30, but that was where a truly un-returnable serve made it 30-All and then an excellent, extended rally ended with an emphatic Backhand Volley winner by Raj to set up Game Point and then came the hold), but Nate the Great held again (15-Love, 15-All where another lengthy rally led to 15-30 and then a winning volley by Raj set up Double Break Point, it then went to Break Point where Nate hit a winner for Deuce and then another marathon rally set up Game Point where Nate blew a volley to bring it back to 2nd Deuce where an un-returned serve set up Game Point where Nate then hit an awesome passing shot winner to secure his hold) for 3-2. The Sultan of Swing also held again (Raj hit an excellent passing shot winner of his own for a 15-Love start and he followed that with a winning Overhead Smash for 30-Love, it was then 30-15 where an un-returned serve set up Double Game Point and then came the hold), but Nathan held yet again (15-Love where Raj hit a monster Overhead Smash for 15-All and then it went to Double Break Point where Raj blew a volley to bring it to Break Point and then he did the same thing again to make it Deuce and then an un-returned serve set up Game Point, it went to 2nd Deuce and Game Point again where Nate hit a winning lob to lock down another hold) for 4-3. Raj also managed another hold (Nate hit another winning lob to make it Love-15 and then it was Love-30 where another enduring rally led to 15-30 where Raj hit a powerful winner for 30-All only to have another extended rally make it Game Point and then it was Deuce where Nate hit a winning Overhead Smash to set up Break Point, but then came 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to knot the score once more at 4-4! But from there, Fernandes had yet another hold (Raj hit a winning Overhead Smash for Love-15, it went to Love-30 before it shifted to 30-All where Raj blew an overhead to set up Game Point where an un-returned serve secured the hold) while Shah was broken for the second time and this time around it was at Love after he hit a Double Fault on Triple Break/Set Point at exactly 8:33! Two minutes later, they got the next set underway.
2nd Set: This time around it was Nathan being broken at Love as Raj hit an awesome Overhead Smash winner to set up Love-30 where another marathon rally set up Triple Break Point which ended with a vicious volley winner by Raj, but then Raj was also broken as he blew back-to-back overheads to get off to a Love-30 start before he got to 15-30 where he blew yet another overhead to set up Double Break Point where he then hit another emphatic volley winner to cut that to Break Point, but then came the break for 1-1. Fernandes held (Love-30, 15-30 where Raj blew a volley for 30-All and then an un-returned serve set up Game Point, then it went to Deuce where Nate hit a drop shot winner to set up Game Point where he then hit another drop shot winner to secure the hold), but Shah was broken again (Nate hit a truly un-reachable drop shot return winner for Love-15, but then Nate blew a drop shot attempt for 15-All where Raj blew a volley for 15-30 only to then follow that with an amazing drop shot winner for 30-All, but then it went to Break Point and the break) to fall behind at 1-3. Nate the Great held again (back-to-back un-returned serves for a 30-Love start which was where Raj hit a winner to cut it to 30-15 where another un-returned serve set up Double Game Point which was where Raj blew a drop shot to allow the hold) and then The Sultan of Swing was broken at Love after Nate hit a killer drop shot winner for Love-15 where he then followed with a lesser, but still successful drop shot winner for Love-30 and now he fell fast behind at 1-5! Nathan was then broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love which was where he hit an emphatic winner for 30-Love which was where Raj hit a big-time Overhead Smash for 30-15 and that began the shift to Break Point where Raj then hit yet another powerful winner to earn the break) and Raj held (Raj hit yet another winner for 15-Love which was where Nate made a great get that led to 15-All and it went to 15-30 next where Raj hit an amazing winning lob for 30-All and it then went to Game Point where an un-returned serve secured the hold) to pull to 3-5. Fernandes was broken again (Love-15 where Nate made another amazing get to make it 15-All, it then went 30-15 and then to 30-All and then Break Point where Raj hit a winning Overhead Smash for the break) and then Shah held again (an awesome rally ended with an equally impressive winner by Raj for 15-Love and then it was like a Groundhog Day instant replay in the next rally which ended with a scorching volley winner by Raj to make it 30-Love, it was then 30-15 where another energetic yet extended rally to set up Double Game Point and then came the hold) to stay alive at 5-5! Finally, Nate the Great held serve (Raj hit a sizzling winner for Love-15 which he followed with another winner for Love-30, it was then 15-30 where Nate hit a very impressive volley winner for 30-All which was where Nate made a great get/passing shot winner combo to set up Game Point which he then followed with an exciting drop shot winner for the hold) and then The Sultan of Swing was finally broken (started with a Double Fault and then Nate hit an awesome winning lob for Love-30 which was where an un-returned serve made it 15-30 and then it went to 30-All and then Break/Match Point where Nate hit a reflex Backhand Volley winner to earn the hold and the win) to take a tough and hard-fought straight-set loss at 9:17!
The Skinny: This was an exciting match and a fitting end to a lengthy, but successful 2016 Grove Cup Tournament. Even though it was a straight-set affair, it stands a chance at being a Nominee for Singles Match of The Year at season's end. Both were broken early and then Nate led the way throughout the 1st Set where he was only broken that one time initially while Raj was broken twice. Fernandes then jumped out to a commanding lead in the 1st Set and would then be just a couple of points away from the win on multiple occasions. It seemed he was getting tight while Shah was getting loose and just swinging away like a puncher on the ropes just looking to score the surprise knockout. But Nate got his act together just in the nick of time…before heading into a possible Tiebreak and perhaps even a 3rd Set. Congratulations to Nathan on an impressive victory and also kudos to Raj for a spirited effort where he made sure that Fernandes did simply run away with this one…there would be a fight to the end instead.
The Consequences: Fernandes will be next to challenge Chiaro for the GTA Championship. They hope to get this match played in November and the mild weather conditions are helping that cause. It should be a great match.
T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah over Ryan Pienciak/Richard Reicht, 6-3! T.J.: 2 Aces on Ryan! They got this one underway on Court One at exactly 8:59. Not sure when it ended as I left before it finished and then they were onto this next one.
Ryan Pienciak/Richard Reicht leading T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 5-4 (T.J. was on serve and the Ryan/Richard combo had already had one Match Point, but could not seal the deal before this one ended prematurely at 10pm)! T.J.: 1 Ace on Ryan.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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