12/15 Results.

12/15/16:

"Frank/John host 14 at The Bubble!:"

There was just one session of GTA Thursday Night Tennis: the Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble.  Co-hosts and cohorts "Hollywood" Frank Samara and "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito arrived together at 8:40.

Most of the players came fast and furious soon after that.  We ended up with a total of fourteen official competitors....and that included "Drill Instructor" Don Moya who was able to get involved in the action this time around.

Let's get to those scores now.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

2 out of 3 Set Doubles Match:
Syed Rashid/Mike Sindler over Kevin Doyle/Sean McHugh, 6-0, 6-0, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 46 and # 47 Ranked Teams respectively!  No Aces.  They were the first foursome to take a court (Court Four at 9:05).  After a ten minute hitting session, they got this underway at 9:15.  Not sure when it was over as they would then play a One-Setter where they switched up the teams (which we will get to later in this report).

Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak over Senthil Kumar/Tom La, 7-6 (7-4)!  Tony: 1 Ace on Senthil (on the very first point of the match)!  These guys got out onto Court Three a little later than the four guys on Court One.  After a fairly lengthy hitting session, they got this one started at 9:27.  Senthil reported that he and Tom were down 2-5 before taking four straight games to go up 6-5.  Tony and Ryan won the next game to force the Tiebreak.  In the Breaker, Shiao/Pienciak were down 1-4 before winning six straight points to take the TB and the match!  Not sure when this one finished as it went right into this next one.

Senthil Kumar/Tom La over Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak, 6-2!  No Aces.  Also not exactly sure when this one got done on Court Three, but it was likely close to 10:45. 

Frank Samara/John Incognito over Rafaelo Kazakov/Ryan Sherry, 6-3!  Ryan: 1 Ace on John; and Frank: 1 Ace on Rafaelo.  We decided to do the changeovers, but I only took enough time to note the flow of the games (not who hit what winners when): John held at Love, Rafelo held serve (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold), Frank held (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point), but Ryan was the first to be broken (Love-15, 15-All but then straight to Double Break Point, the break came on Break Point) to go down 1-3.  Inconito held again (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, then Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to go up 4-1, but Kazakov also held again (started with a Double Fault and went right to Triple Break Point only to rebound and get to Deuce where he hit a nice sideline Ace against John to set up Game Point and then came the hold) to pull to 2-4.  Samara also held again and this time it was at Love after starting off with a corner Ace against Rafaelo to increase his team's lead to 5-2, but then Sherry also held at Love to pull to 3-5!  But Mr. Arizona then held a third straight time (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game/Match Point and the hold) to get the win!  We played this one on Court Two from 9:42 to 10:12.

The Skinny: This was a close contest and the true difference maker was the fact that Ryan only held serve once while everyone else held serve twice (and John did it a third time).  But that was more likely due to Sherry getting off to a slow start (as evidenced by his second service hold which came at Love).  He has a big serve and all-around solid game (especially his fast-paced forehand strokes) and is a solid addition to the league.  He is also a very nice guy and may likely continue with us next season outdoors at Cedar Grove and possibly other locations as well.

Dennis Cabanatan over Don Moya, 6-3!  Dennis: 2 Aces!  This One-Setter got started on Court One at 9:55.  Not sure when it finished as then they went into a Super Tiebreak scenario while waiting to get invited into some Doubles. 

Samara's Notes: I said it in the Tuesday Night Results report and I will say it again here...the fact that Cabanatan has now defeated a top competitor like Anish Mehta in three consecutive One-Setters and then another solid player in Moya tells me that Dennis deserves a shot to make the leap toward the upper ranks of the Advanced Division next year...and as early in the season as possible, preferably.

Frank Samara/John Incognito over Rafaelo Kazakov/Ryan Sherry, 6-2!  No Aces.  Once again, we made the changeovers, but I only noted the flow of the games.  And it went like this: Ryan held at Love, Frank held (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point, cut down to Deuce, Game Point again, 2nd Deuce, one more Game Point and then the hold), but Rafaelo was the first to be broken (started off with a Double Fault on the way to Triple Break Point, cut it down to Break Point, but then came the break) for 1-2.  John was also broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, the break came on Break Point) for 2-2, but from there Sherry was broken at Love, Samara held again (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point), Kazakov was broken again (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and then came the break) and then Incognito held at Love when this one was ended on Triple Game/Match Point!  We played this one on Court Two from 10:13 to 10:36. 

The Skinny: Rafaelo and Ryan switched up their return of service sides in this one with Sherry now taking serves on the Deuce court rather than the Ad court, but that proved to be a mistake as this one went much faster and easier for Frank and John than the first one did.

Mike Sindler/Sean McHugh over Kevin Doyle/Syed Rashid, 6-3!  No Aces.  Not sure when they started this one on Court Four, but it was over by 11:05.

Dennis Cabanatan/Ryan Sherry over Rafaelo Kazakov/Don Moya, 6-2!  Don: 1 Ace on Dennis (on a second serve)!  They played this one on Court Two from 10:41 to 11:02.

Ryan Pienciak leading Tony Shiao, 4-2 (Incomplete when they stopped it at 11:05)!  No Aces.  This one got underway on Court One at 10:46.

Senthil Kumar/Tom La leading Frank Samara/John Incognito, 3-2 (Incomplete when they stopped it at 11:05)!  Tom: 1 Ace on Frank.  In an effort to save time, we decided to forego the changeovers (so I memorized the flow of the games until the end of the abbreviated match).  It was going as follows: Senthil held (Triple Game Point was reduced to Deuce, but then came another Game Point and the hold), John held (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point, cut down to Deuce, but then another Game Point and the hold), Tom held (Love-15, service-line Ace on Frank for 15-All, 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) and Frank held (Senthil hit a return that rolled over the tape of the net for Love-15, it shifted to 30-15, then shifted again to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) as we were all on serve at 2-2.  It was now 11pm, so we decided to just play one more game to allow one team a moral victory in lieu of an official one.  Kumar held again (started off down Love-30 only to take it straight to Game Point and the hold) to break the tie!

Samara's Notes: When Senthil hit that return roller over the net to start me off down Love-15 on my service game, I thought that I would be doomed to be the first one broken of the four.  And with a couple of Break Points saved along the way, it came close.  It was an intense yet fun battle while it lasted.

And this was the session to officially end the 2016 Season...which was one of our all-time great seasons!  I thank all those who were a part of it.  And now we look forward to Sunday, February 26th 2017 when the 2017 Season will officially begin!   

All the best,
Frank Samara
 

12/14 Results

“John/Kevin host 8 at The Bubble!”:

                                          

GTA Wednesday Night Tennis took place at The Wayne Bubble with both “Mr. Arizona” John Incognito and “Kevlar” Kevin Doyle assuming hosting duties.

 

We will first go to Kevin’s recap of the results and then get the additional scores from John.

 

The Wayne Bubble Results:

 

We played three individual One-Setters on Court Two.

 

Kevin Doyle/Ted Cedroski over Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Ania Rachwal, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).

Kevin Doyle/Vladimir Smolyanskiy over Ted Cedroski/Ania Rachwal, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

 

Kevin Doyle/Vladimir Smolyanskiy over Ted Cedroski/Ania Rachwal, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

 

The Kevlar Commentary: Ania returned from an extended absence due to illness and held her own with the guys.

 

And now we go to John.

 

We played on Court Three.

 

John Incognito/Brenda Jordan over Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

 

John Incognito/Brenda Jordan over Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

 

Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker over John Incognito/Brenda Jordan, 6-0!  No Aces (apparently).

 

Samara’s Notes: As always, I thank both John and Kevin for reporting the results from these Bubble sessions for the benefit of the league.

 

Best wishes,

Frank Samara 

12/13 Results

12/13/16:

"Frank/John host 14 at The Bubble!:"

There was just one session of GTA Tuesday Night Tennis: the Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble.  Co-hosts and cohorts "Hollywood" Frank Samara and "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito arrived together at 8:40.

Most of the players came fast and furious soon after that.  We ended up with a total of fourteen official competitors.  "Drill Instructor" Don Moya was never able to get involved in any of the action.

"The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar has provided some details on his One-Setters along the way.

Let's get to those scores now.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

2 out of 3 Set Mixed Doubles Match:
Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon over Kevin Doyle/Dawn Peterson, 6-3, 6-2, to become the New # 31 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division!  No Aces (apparently).  They were the first foursome to take a court and, after a fairly lengthy hitting session, they got this underway on Court Two at 9:15.  It was over by 10:40.

Chris Chiaro/Ryan Pienciak over Lou La Forgia/Senthil Kumar, 7-5!  Lou: 1 Ace on Ryan.  Even though these guys got out onto Court One a little later than the Mixed Doubles tandems, they also got this one started at 9:15.  Not sure when it ended as it went right into this next one.

Chris Chiaro/Ryan Pienciak over Lou La Forgia/Senthil Kumar, 6-3!  No Aces.  Also not sure when this one got done on Court One as they then switched teams and played a third One-Setter which we will get to later in this report.

The Untangled Web by Senthil: In the first One-Setter, Ryan held one of his service games while I didn't hold my serve in either One-Setter.  A couple of times he brought his service game to Deuce, but couldn't hold.  Ryan played a defensive game to keep his unforced errors low. Chris and Lou had solid shot-making and made amazing winners the whole night.

John Incognito/Dennis Cabanatan over Anish Mehta/Frank Samara, 6-4!  No Aces.  We decided to do the changeovers, but I only took enough time to note the flow of the games (not who hit what winners when): Frank held at Love, John held serve (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point), Dennis held (Triple Game Point was cut down to Game Point, then there was a Double Fault for Deuce, but then came another Game Point and the hold) and Anish held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold) as we were all on serve at 2-2.  Samara was the first to be broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then it was 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break), but Incognito was also broken (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level things again, this time at 3-3.  Mehta was also broken (started with a Double Fault, 15-All, another Double Fault for 15-30, then Double Break Point and the break), but Cabanatan held again (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point and then the hold) to take a 5-3 lead for his team.  Hollywood fought to hold (Love-15, 15-All and then it went right to Double Break/Match Point, Break/Match Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to pull to 4-5, but then Mr. Arizona held as well (Triple Game/Match Point, Double Game/Match Point, it finally ended on Game/Match Point which was the 5th M.P. overall) to earn a hard-fought victory!  We played this one on Court Three from 9:44 (we only started hitting at 9:40) to 10:12.

The Skinny: This was a close contest and the true difference maker was Dennis as he was the only one to hold serve twice.  He has that lefty topspin kick serve that is hard to deal with and it proves to be quite an asset.

During all the above, "Sadistic" Syed Rashid and his buddy "The Sin Man" Mike Sindler were having an extended hitting session with one another on Court Four.  After the previous Doubles One-Setter, John and Frank wanted to make sure to get them involved in some official action.  So we shifted over from Court Three to Court Four with Incognito opting to team with Rashid while Samara would be paired with Sindler. 

This also allowed Mehta and Cabanatan the chance to face each other in Singles again (as they did in a One-Setter last Tuesday).  But first...

Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar, 6-4!  Ryan: 1 Ace on Senthil.  As stated earlier, not sure when this one started or finished on Court One. 

The Untangled Web by Senthil: The games went as follows - 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4 and then 6-4.  In the last game, Chris saved so many Match Points, but my unforced errors cost us the set.  I was unable to have solid returns on Lou's serves.

Samara's Notes: I thank Senthil for his contributions to this report.

Dennis Cabanatan over Anish Mehta, 6-2!  No Aces.  This One-Setter got started on Court Three at 10:14.  It finished with the exact same score as their encounter last week.  They then went into another one.  Since they never stated it to be a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match from the get-go, we are recording this as two separate One-Setters.

Dennis Cabanatan over Anish Mehta, 6-3!  Anish: 3 Aces!  This second one got done on Court Three just shy of 11pm.

The Skinny: Dennis said he was happy to only get Aced three times by Anish as he has a wicked serve.  In fact, Cabanatan was pleased to still have his left arm intact after returning so many of those booming serves.

Samara's Notes: The fact that Cabanatan has now defeated a top competitor like Mehta in three consecutive One-Setters tells me that Dennis deserves a shot to make the leap to the Advanced Division next year...and as early in the season as possible, preferably.

John Incognito/Syed Rashid over Frank Samara/Mike Sindler, 7-6 (8-6)!  No Aces.  Once again, we made the changeovers, but I only noted the flow of the games...except for a few key moments that occurred in the Tiebreak.  And it went like this: Frank held at Love, John was broken at Love and Mike went up 30-Love on serve which meant his team took the first ten points of the match!  It then went to 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold for a 3-0 lead.  Syed was broken (Love-15, 15-All and then straight to Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 1-4 as his team had only won two of the first 18 points thus far...it looked like they were heading toward Shutout City...and fast!  But then Samara was broken to allow the opposition onto the scoreboard (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point got reduced to Deuce, Break Point and the break), but Incognito was broken again (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 1-5!  Sindler was also broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point, but then a bounce back to Deuce, Break Point again and the break) and Rashid held (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point) to pull to 3-5.  The Wood was shockingly broken at Love and then Mr. Arizona held (30-Love, 30-15 and then Double Game Point would be cut down to Deuce, but then another Game Point and the hold) to keep things alive at 5-5!  When The Sin Man was broken again (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point and the break), it meant the opposing team had just won five straight games to now take the lead at 6-5!  But then Sadistic Syed was broken in an epic battle of a game (30-Love then went straight to Break Point, then Deuce and all Break Points all the way until 3rd Deuce, then Game/Match Point, 4th Deuce, another Break Point and finally the break) to seemingly lose the momentum and allow the Tiebreak!  In the Breaker: Frank was broken on his lone serve and then John was broken on his first but held his second serve for a 2-1 lead.  Mike held his first, but then hit a Double Fault on his second to hand a 3-2 lead over to his buddy Syed who then held the first of his two serves for 4-2 at the changeover.  He was then broken on his second to cut his team's lead to 4-3.  Samara then held both of his serves to bring the lead over to his team at 5-4.  And then came the rally of the match which drew the attention of the other players as they were leaving the courts.  It was a marathon rally that started off cautious, but grew more intense and fast-paced as it grew older and it finally ended with Incognito hitting a winning volley to hold the first of his two serves and tie things up at 5-5!  But he was then broken on his second serve as he served up a 6-5 lead and Match Point to Sindler.  He was broken on the first of his two serves for 6-6 at the second changeover.  Then came the second best rally of the match and it once again ended in favor of Incognito/Rashid with Rashid now taking over service with a 7-6 lead and Match Point (the 3rd M.P. overall).  It was another rally that looked to be developing into the third epic point of the Breaker (and the match), but was cut short when John hit a roller over the net that dropped out of reach for a winner and a heartbreaking ending for his perplexed opponents!  We played this on Court Four from 10:15 to 11:16...one hour and one minute long!

The Skinny: There is no official Comeback Set of The Year Award (though we sometimes recognize such things in H-Wood's Unofficial Awards for the year), but if there were...this would be a sure nominee (perhaps the outright winner).  For the first four games (maybe even the first six), Syed was going for his sweeping forehands.  The only problem was that he was sweeping most of them long and off the court.  The Bubble was taking a pounding from many of them.  But then he dialed it in and started hitting many winners as the other three players were pretty much consistent throughout the entire contest.  Rashid was the key reason for the shift of momentum (i.e. the comeback) in this one.  If he can just add some more consistency to his firepower, he will become dangerous.

In a season of so many great One-Set Doubles Matches, it is hard to know if this has enough going for it to be an official Nominee.  At the very least, it will garner an Honorable Mention.

And, in the end, this session was quite honorable as well...as the end of the season draws ever so near.   

All the best,
Frank Samara
 

12/11 Results.

12/11/16:

"John hosts 18 at The Bubble!:"

There were just two sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the two back-to-back Night Owl group sessions at The Wayne Bubble hosted by "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito as it was too cold for "Hollywood" Frank Samara to host the usual morning session at Albion Park in Clifton.  "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle also supplied some commentary for the matches that he was involved in at the earlier of the two Bubble sessions.

So let's go to the scores from John along with some words from Kevin.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

From the 3-5pm session:

Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over John Incognito/Marie Easton, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently). 

Vlad Smolyanskiy over Jeanette Pegg, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently). 

John Rizzo/Marie Easton over Vlad Smolyanskiy/Jeanette Pegg, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).

Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over John Rizzo/Jeanette Pegg, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

The Kevlar Commentary: John is really playing well, by the way, as he is moving well and gets to everything.  His foot is feeling better (it seems) and he is in good spirits.  But Brenda really had her net game going and was basically unstoppable.

From the 6-8pm session:

Alfred Chen/Tom La over John Incognito/Nick Inciong, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

Tom La/Dan Hwang over John Incognito/Alfred Chen, 9-7!  No Aces (apparently).

Samara's Notes: The way John reported it, I do believe they decided to forego the Tiebreak and just win it by two games.  Now we go back to John.

Anish Mehta/Mike Sindler over Ryan Pienciak/Kathy Sheldon, 7-6 (8-6)!  No Aces (apparently).

Joe Rodrigues/Nick Inciong over Dennis Cabanatan/Syed Rashid, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

Ryan Pienciak/Mike Sindler over Anish Mehta/Kathy Sheldon, 6-0!  No Aces (apparently).

Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak over Anish Mehta/Mike Sindler, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently).

Joe Rodrigues/Dennis Cabanatan over Tony Shiao/Syed Rashid, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

Samara's Notes: I thank John for sending in those results.  I also thank Kevin for his additional commentary.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara


 

12/8 Results.

12/8/16:

"Frank/John host 17 (1 New) at The Bubble!:"

There was just one session of GTA Thursday Night Tennis: the Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble.  Co-hosts and cohorts "Hollywood" Frank Samara and "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito arrived together at 8:40.

Earlier in the day, Samara told Incognito that he suspected there would be a large turnout for this session...and he was right!

It was an impressive total of seventeen official competitors ("Drill Instructor" Don Moya was only able to make an extended cameo appearance as his playing services were never needed).

Let's get to those scores now.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Ryan Pienciak/Mike Sindler over Dino Celis/Senthil Kumar, 6-3!  No Aces.  The first foursome to be sent out onto the courts played this one on Court Two from 9:04 to 9:30.

Chris Chiaro/Syed Rashid over Tony Shiao/John Incognito, 6-4!  No Aces.  This one took place on Court One and lasted from 9:08 to 9:48.

Frank Samara/Dawn Peterson over Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon, 7-5!  Frank: 1 Ace on Kathy; and Dawn: 1 Ace on Sean!  We decided to forego the changeovers in order to save time, so I only memorized the flow of the games (not who hit what winner and when).  So it went like this: Sean held serve (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold), Frank held (started with a sideline Ace on Kathy and that sent him on his way to Triple Game Point which would be cut down to Game Point, but then came the hold), but Kathy was the first to be broken (Triple Break Point, Double Break Point and then a Double Fault for the break) to fall to 1-2.  Dawn held at Love to extend her team's lead to 3-1, but then McHugh held again (the opening point of this game was a marathon rally that ended up being the rally of the match and it ended Love-15, then Love-30 shifted to Game Point and the hold), but Samara was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point and the break) to tie things up at 3-3.  Sheldon then held (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted to Game Point and the hold) and Peterson was broken (Love-30, then 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 3-5 as the opposition had just taken four straight games!  But then The Shillelagh was finally broken (30-Love went straight to Break Point and the break) and then The Wood held (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point and the hold) to level matters once more, this time at 5-5!  Killer Kat was broken at Love and then Dominant Dawn held in quite a battle as she soon found herself down Triple Break Point which was where she nailed Sean with a big corner Ace for Double Break Point and then she followed that with a near ace against Kathy who just clipped the ball with the frame of her racquet and now it was Break Point, then Deuce, Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 3rd Deuce, 3rd Game/Match Point and finally the hold for the win!  We played this one on Court Three from 9:10 to 9:50.

Dino Celis/Senthil Kumar over Ryan Pienciak/Mike Sindler, 6-4!  No Aces.  They had this rematch on Court Two and it went from 9:32 to 10:07.

Lou La Forgia/Ryan Sherry over Dennis Cabanatan/Tom La, 6-3!  Dennis: 1 Ace on Lou.  It was the official GTA Debut of Ryan Sherry.  The final foursome of the night (though one more player was still on the way) found themselves on Court Four as this one began at 9:35 and finished at 10:15.

The Skinny: "Rippin" Ryan was a sub for the second Thursday night in a row, but neither Samara nor Incognito was there the week before to take his info.  He is a tall and lanky guy who hits the ball with a lot of power.  He can become a solid addition to the league if he decides to continue playing with us in the future.

John Incognito/Dawn Peterson over Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon, 6-1!  No Aces.  Again, the Mixed Doubles action was on Court Three and again they decided to forego the changeovers.  As such, this one only took 25 minutes to complete (9:53 to 10:18).  After this, Sean, Kathy and Dawn all decided to call it a night and head home.

Chris Chiaro/Pranav Sinha over Tony Shiao/Syed Rashid, 6-1!  No Aces.  This one got done on Court One even faster than that last one we reported from Court Three...just 17 minutes to finish (9:58 to 10:15)!  Pranav was the seventeenth and final official competitor of the session.

Ryan Pienciak/Mike Sindler over Dino Celis/Senthil Kumar, 6-1!  No Aces.  This rubber match was also played on Court Two and it lasted from 10:10 to 10:35.

Dennis Cabanatan/Syed Rashid over Tom La/Pranav Sinha, 6-3!  No Aces.  Court One hosted this one from 10:20 to 10:45.

Chris Chiaro/Tony Shiao over Lou La Forgia/Ryan Sherry, 6-4!  No Aces.  These four faced off on Court Four from 10:21 to 10:56.

Frank Samara over John Incognito, 6-3!  No Aces.  We made the changeovers but, in an effort to save time, I only noted the flow of the games (not the winners...save a couple possibly pivotal moments).  Here's how it went down: Frank was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Break Point where John hit a winning roller over the net for the break), John was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break), Samara was broken again (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, Break Point where John hit a net-cord-aided winner for the break) and Incognito was also broken again (30-Love went straight to Break Point and the break) as nobody could hold serve at 2-2.  Hollywood was the first to hold serve (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point and the hold), but Mr. Arizona was broken yet again (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 2-4.  Frank held at Love to take a commanding 5-2 lead, but then John caught a second wind and finally held serve (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point and the hold) to pull to 3-5.  Samara held once more (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, Game/Match Point and the hold) to get the win!  We played this one on Court Three from 10:23 to 10:55.

The Skinny: The now lighter and faster Incognito came out on fire as he made several great gets and was able to hang with Samara in the lengthy rallies.  When Frank was broken in his first two service games as the result of a roller and then a net-cord shot, he felt that John may have Lady Luck on his side and he got a little nervous.  But instead of getting tight, he got focused and cleaned up his game just a bit.  Meanwhile, Incognito simply ran out of gas as stamina remains a slight issue until he continues to get healthier.  It looked like Samara would be off and running from there.  But when John caught his breath on that last changeover, he also caught his second wind and was able to hold serve and at least make the contest a bit closer before its conclusion.  If Incognito stays on his current path of healthier eating and an increased amount of activity (playing tennis, working out, etc.), he may very well become a force to be reckoned with next season.

A couple of the match-ups on the other courts started One-Setters that had to be aborted so early as the clock struck eleven, that they were not even worth collecting the scores for as they would only have been a couple games in at the very least.

All in all, it was a solid session and a nice show of momentum even as we draw so near to the end of the 2016 Season.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara

12/7 Results

12/7/16:

"John hosts 4 at The Bubble!:"

There was just one session of GTA Wednesday Night Tennis: the Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble.  "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito acted as the host.

Even though eight players were in attendance, he was only able to report the scores of the action in which he was involved. 

So the other four players there (Rafaelo Kazakov, Ted Cedroski, Vladimir Smolyanskiy and Jeanette Pegg) will just have to have their action remain as unofficial.

John said the following three One-Setters were just that…separate One-Setters (and not a full 2 out of 3 Sets Match) as "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle was still getting over a lingering cold and "Bravo" Brenda Jordan continues to have issues with her arm.

Let's get to those scores now.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

John Incognito/Denise Savino over Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).

Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over John Incognito/Denise Savino, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

John Incognito/Denise Savino over Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).  Kevin and Brenda had jumped out to a 3-0 lead before John and Denise rallied for a comeback victory.

Samara's Notes: I thank John for reporting those results in a very timely fashion.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara
 

12/6 Results.

12/6/16:

"Frank/John host 11 at The Bubble!:"

There was just one session of GTA Tuesday Night Tennis: the Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble.  Co-hosts and cohorts "Hollywood" Frank Samara and "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito arrived together at 8:35.

It was a slow build to eleven official competitors as the last two members to arrive around 9:25 were "Steppin' to the AM" Anish Mehta and Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan.  And "Drill Instructor" Don Moya was only able to leave his post and play with the group around 10:25.

Let's get to those scores now.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Lou La Forgia/Senthil Kumar over Chris Chiaro/Joe Rodrigues, 6-3!  Chris: 2 Aces (one on each and back-to-back in the same game)!  They played this on Court Two from 9:25 to 10pm.

Frank Samara/Syed Rashid over John Incognito/Mike Sindler, 7-5!  No Aces.  We made the changeovers, but in an effort to save time...I only noted the flow of the game...not who hit what winners and when.  So it went as follows: Syed was broken (Triple Game Point was reduced to Deuce, then it was Game Point again, 2nd Deuce, Game Point again, Double Fault into 3rd Deuce, Break Point and then another Double Fault to break himself) and John held serve (Love-15 shifted straight to Double Game Point, but that got cut down to Deuce, but then another Game Point and the hold) for a 2-0 lead.  Frank held (Love-15 went right to Double Game Point and the hold) and then Mike was broken (30-Love, 30-15, Double Fault for 30-All, Game Point, Double Fault for Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level things at 2-2.  Rashid was broken again (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, but then came Break Point and the break) and Incognito held again (begins up 30-Love only to see it go right down to Break Point, but then it went to Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to bring his team up to 4-2.  Samara held again as well (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold) and Sindler was broken again (started with a Double Fault on a straight trek to Triple Break Point which would get brought down to Break Point, but then came the break) to knot the score once more at 4-4.  Sadistic Syed was broken yet again and this time it was at Love, but then Mr. Arizona was broken for the first time (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then it went to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce and all Break Points through to 3rd Deuce, another Break Point and finally the break) to tie it up again, this time at 5-5!  Hollywood held again (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point), but The Sin Man was broken once more and this time around it was at Love as this one ended on Triple Break/Match Point!  We played this one on Court Three from 9:26 to 10:22...just four minutes short of an hour!

The Skinny: This was a close contest throughout, but the pivotal game came when John was broken for the first time as that was the only true difference in this match as Frank always held while Syed and Mike were never able to muster a hold (despite bombing in some nice serves).  Incognito said that he felt like his timing was off, yet he made many great gets.  Rashid was also quite speedy in his movement around the court.  While Sindler was a steady presence at the net, it was Samara who was most effective there even though he only approached it in a shark-like fashion...whenever he smelled blood!

Dennis Cabanatan over Anish Mehta, 6-2!  No Aces.  This One-Setter was played on Court Four from 9:35 to 10pm.  After this one, they saw the other two courts (Two and Three as Court One remained vacant the entire session) were still occupied by Doubles action.  So they went into an unofficial Super Tiebreak until the opportunity arose for them to get involved in some Doubles as well.

Lou La Forgia/Senthil Kumar over Chris Chiaro/Joe Rodrigues, 7-5!  No Aces.  Chris and Joe had a 5-3 lead only to see Lou and Senthil then take four straight games for the comeback victory!  This one was also played on Court Two and it lasted from 10:03 to 10:38.

Anish Mehta/Mike Sindler leading Dennis Cabanatan/Syed Rashid, 6-6 (8-7)...Incomplete!  No Aces (apparently).  They got this one started on Court Three at 10:26 and they wrapped it up when John and Don announced it was 11pm and time to shut it down.  It is a shame they did...especially when you see what took place a little later on another court.

Don Moya over John Incognito, 6-2!  Don: 4 Aces!  After a hitting session that had also included Samara on Incognito's side before Frank got called to duty over on Court Two, this one was played on Court Four from roughly 10:40 to 11pm (give or take a little either way).

Chris Chiaro/Frank Samara tied with Lou La Forgia/Senthil Kumar, 5-5 (Incomplete)!  Chris: 1 Ace on Mike.  Since we did not get this one underway until 10:45, we decided to forego the changeover in an attempt to save time and possibly get one done in time (even though we knew that was likely to be Mission Impossible).  I memorized the flow of the games and wrote them down once we were done.  Here we go: Lou held serve (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold), Chris held (Love-15 once again went straight to Double Game Point, but the hold came as the result of a big Ace up the T against Senthil), but Senthil was the first to be broken and it was a battle (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then it went to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce and then all Break Points to 3rd Deuce, one more Break Point and finally the break) that put his team down 1-2.  Frank was also broken (Triple Break Point, the break came on Double Break Point) and then La Forgia held again (it looked like a ditto service performance as he once again took it from Love-15 to Double Game Point, but this time around the hold came on Game Point) to go up 3-2.  Chiaro also held again (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point), but then Kumar held at Love to restore the lead for his team at 4-3!  Samara managed to hold as well as it went from 15-Love to 15-30 to Game Point and the hold, but then The Lethal Lefty logged his third straight hold (15-Love, 15-All and onto Double Game Point and the hold) for a 5-4 lead.  At this moment, John called out to us to wrap it up as it was now 11pm.  We said we just wanted to play one more game as that way it would either be a 6-4 win for La Forgia/Kumar or it would end in a 5-5 tie.  Who knew that this next game would be a marathon?!?!  King Crush was on service and he started off just like Lou did as it went from 15-Love to 15-All and then straight to Double Game Point.  But here is where it took a different path as it was then cut down to Deuce and then it was all Game Points all the way to 4th Deuce, then one more Game Point and finally the hold at 11:11! 

The Skinny: Chiaro could not hand the opposition their first loss of the night (Rodrigues, by the way, had felt tired and asked Samara to replace him in this one), but at least he did not lose to them a third time.  La Forgia and Kumar were quite a force to be reckoned with on this particular night and Samara found that he had to quickly get into battle mode just to keep up with the other three guys on the court.  Thankfully, he did enough to hold up his end of the bargain.

The shame of it is the fact that had we known how long we were about to go on Court Two, the Tiebreak One-Setter on Court Three could have come to its proper conclusion.  It may have ended up becoming a likely Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.  Dennis said that Anish was about to go on serve, so it likely would have ended as a 9-7 Tiebreak.  But it is unfair to make that assumption, no matter how big the server is.  Too bad this one was aborted as abruptly as it was...potentially just one point away from its full finish.  Or it may have gone onto be an amazing 17-15 TB score.  Now we will never know.  Oh well!

Nonetheless, it was another fun and solid session up at The Bubble. 

All the best,
Frank Samara
 

12/4 Results.

12/4/16:

"Samara hosts 5 at AP, John/Kevin host 19 at The Bubble!:"

There were three sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the usual morning session at The Albion Park Courts hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara and then the two back-to-back Night Owl group sessions at The Wayne Bubble co-hosted by "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito and "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle.

We will first report the comings and goings at Albion and then list the results from The Bubble as reported by John and Kevin (with "RK Fire" Rafaelo Kavakov reporting his result directly). 

Samara rolled up to Albion earlier than expected at 10:10 (he had previously announced he would be arriving later this week...more in the 10:30 to 10:45 range) where he saw that all three courts were vacant.

As it was still quite chilly at that time of the morning (40 degrees and breezy, but the temps eventually climbed to a decent 48 degrees as the winds died down and it was sunny throughout the entire session), Frank chose to remain in his car.

But by 10:30, he started feeling antsy and he walked down to the courts and took South Court.  He then noticed that the Clifton Parks and Recreation Dept. had removed the leaf pile from the corner of South Court and dumped it just outside the courts.

Next to arrive at 11am was "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales.  Frank and Jose then had a lengthy hitting session as nobody else was arriving.  By 11:30, the two decided to hit until 11:45.  If nobody else had arrived by then, they would call it a day.

Soon enough, it was 11:45 and they were still the only two players in attendance.  They took a break and sat on the benches alongside the South Court.  Both of them checked their phones.

Jose read a text message that said Natalia "Nitro" Sout was on her way, but that she would not arrive until 12:30.  From there, Frank sent text messages to (in a quest to find a fourth player) to "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes, "Holy Moly" Mike Mole and "Coach" Dino Celis.

Celis was the next to arrive at 12:20.  Just ten minutes later, Fernandes did the same.  Dino and Nate then started hitting against Jose while Frank was writing some notes and checking his phone again.

By 12:35, they began a Doubles One-Setter on the South Court with Samara and Gonzales going up against Fernandes and Celis.  Of course, just five minutes after its start, Sout arrived.

And you know how tennis karma goes (not that Natalia deserved any of the negative kind)...but when you have a "fifth wheel" waiting to play, that One-Setter featuring the other four will last all day!  Or, at least it will feel that way.

It ended up becoming a Tiebreak One-Setter and one that will surely be a Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.  Just as it drew to a close at 1:23, "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli was then walking onto the courts to make an extended cameo appearance (having just played his weekly Sunday football game, he was in no condition for competition).

The next Doubles One-Setter of the day featured Dino and Frank versus Nate and Natalia as Jose willingly sat out to sit on the bench with Spin.

That second one only occupied the South Court from 1:33 to 1:56.  At that time, Frank had to leave.  As Samara headed off into the sunset, it was Gonzales and Sout hitting against Fernandes while Celis and Martinelli watched from the bench. 

Given the fact that it was a fairly nice day (especially for the fourth of December), the low turnout was somewhat surprising and definitely disappointing.  Still, it ended up being a fun session nonetheless. 

The Albion Park Results:

Frank Samara/Jose Gonzales over Nathan Fernandes/Dino Celis, 7-6 (12-10)!  Jose: 1 Ace on Nathan.  It went like this: Frank was broken at Love after Nathan hit a passing shot return winner and a winning Overhead Smash on the way to Triple Break Point and then Dino hit a passing shot winner for the break, Nathan held at Love after Dino hit a winner and then there were two un-returned serves on the way to Triple Game Point and then a third consecutive un-returned serve to secure the hold and then Jose soon found himself down Triple Break Point after Frank blew an overhead and Dino hit a whopper of a winner along the way.  This meant that the opposition had just won the first eleven points of the match!  Thankfully, Jose then hit back-to-back un-returned serves to cut that deficit to just Break Point only to have Dino hit another winner to earn the break and a 3-0 lead.  Dino then held serve (an un-returned serve and a victorious volley by Nate made it 30-Love, it was then 30-15 where Nate hit a winning Backhand Volley to make it Double Game Point and that was where Jose blew an overhead to allow the hold) for an even more commanding lead of 4-0.  Samara held to get his team on the scoreboard (Dino hit a winning roller over the net to make it Love-15 and then it went point for point until 30-All as Jose hit a winning Backhand Volley and Dino did as well, but then it went to Game Point and the hold) and then Fernandes was broken (a 15-Love lead shifted to 15-30 as both Frank and Jose hit winning volleys, but then Jose blew a drop shot attempt to set up 30-All but then it went to Break Point and the break) to have his team's lead cut to 4-2.  Gonzales held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point as an un-returned serve and an excellent extended rally were part of that shift and then another un-returned serve secured the hold) and then Celis was broken (Jose hit a winner and then Frank hit a winning volley to make it Love-30, then an un-returned serve made it 15-30, but then it went to Double Break Point and the break) to knot the score at 4-4!  Hollywood held again and this time it was at Love after he got things started with a winning volley and now his team took their first lead at 5-4 (as they took five straight games to get there)!  Nate the Great responded with a hold of his own (Nate hit a winning Overhead Smash for 15-Love, it was 15-All before it was on they way to Double Game Point after an un-returned serve and then came the hold) to tie things again, this time at 5-5!  Latino Heat held again (Dino blew a volley for 15-Love and then a big Ace up the T against Nate extended that lead to 30-Love, it was then Triple Game Point before going to Double Game Point where Dino blew another volley to allow the hold) to reclaim the lead at 6-5!  But Coach managed to hold as well (there were two un-returned serves on the way to Triple Game Point before Jose hit a passing shot winner to bring it down to Double Game Point which was where Nate whacked a winning Overhead Smash to secure his partner's hold) and now we were heading for the Tiebreak!  In the Breaker: Frank was broken on his lone serve as Dino hit a winning return right at his feet which were right on the baseline, but then Nathan was broken on both of his serves as Jose hit a winning drop shot return on the first one and then Nate blew an overhead on the second one to make it a 1-2 score.  Jose was also broken on both of his serves as the second one fell victim to a winning Overhead Smash by Nate to hand a 3-2 lead to his partner Dino who was now about to serve.  Dino held his first one for 4-2 at the changeover, but then he was broken on his second as Frank exacted a measure of revenge with a winning return of his own to cut the opposition's lead to 4-3.  Samara then held the first of his two serves to knot the score at 4-4, but was then broken on his second to hand a 5-4 lead over to Fernandes who was about to serve.  He held the first of his two serves for a 6-4 score and the very first Match Point of the contest.  He was then broken on his second, but it was still 6-5 and the 2nd Match Point in his team's favor as service shifted to Gonzales.  Jose held the first of his two serves for 6-6 at the second changeover, but he was broken on his second after Dino hit a vicious volley winner to give himself a 7-6 lead and the 3rd Match Point of the set and all in his team's favor.  He was broken on both of his serves and the second one fell victim to his own blown volley.  Hollywood now inherited an 8-7 lead from the opposition which meant it was the 1st Match Point in his team's favor and the 4th M.P. overall.  He also ended up being broken on both of them and the second one was the result of a wicked winner by Dino as now a 9-8 lead was offered up to his partner, Nate the Great.  This was now the 5th Match Point overall and the fourth for their team.  Nate was broken on his first for 9-9 at the third changeover.  He also ended up being broken on his second as Latino Heat now had a 10-9 lead to begin his service.  It was now the 6th Match Point overall and the second in his team's favor.  He was broken on the first of his two serves, but he held the second after Nate sailed an overhead long as his team was now down 10-11 with The Coach about to go on service!  This was now the 7th Match Point and the third that belonged to their opponents.  Dino's first serve led to a lengthy rally (one of the better ones of the match, actually) as nobody wanted to offer up an unforced error until Frank finally found a way to execute a drop shot winner just out of Dino's reach to finally end this TB at 12-10!  We got this one underway on the South Court at 12:35 and it ended exactly at 1:23!

The Skinny: As stated earlier in this report, this is a definite Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.  But it did not start off feeling that way.  In fact, it seemed it would be a quick blowout as Nate and Dino jumped out to a fast and dominant 4-0 lead!  The lengthy hitting session may have sapped some of the energy out of Frank and Jose.  Then sitting for a while in the chilly temps served to ice them as well.  When Samara first held serve to make it 1-4, Gonzales was thankful just not to get shut out...but this seemed to light a fire under The Wood.  Frank started playing with a combination of both anger and hunger and then that feeling became contagious as Jose also stepped up his game.  Suddenly, they had five straight games under their belts.  And that was when the overall level of this match was raised as the two teams went game for game as they headed into the Tiebreak!  The TB was quite the nail-biter and the only difference in the end was when each player was seemingly getting broken on both of their serves, but Jose managed to hold one of his two when it was needed most...and that was all it would take to eek out a hard-fought "W!"

Dino Celis/Frank Samara over Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout, 6-0!  No Aces.  Here's how it went down: Dino held (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All and Natalia hit an excellently timed lob return winner just over Frank's racquet along the way, but then Frank hit a nasty Overhead Smash winner to make it Game Point and then he hit a precise slice of a Backhand Volley winner to secure his partner's hold), Natalia was broken (Frank hit a winning volley for Love-15, but then he blew a drop shot attempt for 15-All, then a Double Fault made it 15-30, but then Frank blew a volley to make it 30-All and then he blasted a blown volley to set up Game Point, but then it went to Deuce where Dino scored with a scorching return winner to make it Break Point and then came the break), Frank held at Love after he hit two un-returned serves on the way to Triple Game Point and then he hit a missile-like passing shot winner that curved around Natalia's body to earn the hold and Nathan was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All as Nate had hit a winner along the way, but then Frank hit a winning volley to set up Break Point only to have Nate hit a crushing Overhead Smash winner for Deuce, but then it was Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Break Point yet again and finally the break) to fall to 0-4!  Celis held at Love after Frank got things started with an ugly winner of a mishit Overhead Smash and later set up Triple Game Point with a Backhand Volley winner which was even more of a precise slice shot than his earlier Backhand Volley winner and then came the hold and then Sout was broken once more (an un-returned serve for 15-Love which shifted to 15-30 after Dino hit another one of his knockout return winners which inspired Spin to call him a "tough guy" from the sidelines, it then went to 30-All, Break/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce where Frank hit a winning volley to set up the 3rd Break/Match Point and then that was where the end came) to take a somewhat surprising shutout loss!  We also played this one on the South Court and it lasted from 1:33 to 1:56.

The Skinny: While Samara was still taking notes of the prior Doubles One-Setter, it was Nate and Natalia hitting against Dino.  Suddenly (and without warning), Sout shifted over to the other side of the court to pair with Celis as she said Fernandes was "the young guy" and could handle it better.  We were almost going to run with the teams as such (as Samara would have simply joined Fernandes), but then we all agreed the most even pairing of teams was Nate and Nat versus Dino and Frank instead as the speedy and lanky Fernandes could cover much of the court for his teaming with Sout.  But Samara was on the money on this day (despite some overblown outbursts when he made some stupid unforced errors) and Celis seemed to raise the level of his game even higher in this one.  Fernandes and Sout played well, but the majority of the points just did not end in their favor. 

We now turn this report over to Kevin and John.  We go to Kevin's recap first since he was part of the earlier Sunday group (which is actually the 2nd Night Owls Group while the later group is the 1st Night Owls Group).  John was present for both groups. 

The Wayne Bubble Results:

We played on Court Two and did not switch sides. 

Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson over Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Jeanette Pegg, 8-6!  No Aces (apparently). 

The Kevlar Commentary: It was a tough set.  We were down 0-3 and things were looking pretty grim for us. Vladimir and Jeanette were their usual consistent hard-hitting selves.  I was a little slow to get going and wasn't providing Robin much support.  Also, Vladimir was coming to the net and poaching shots as Jeanette was setting him up with her hard and well-placed shots.  However, we hung tough and managed to win a couple games to close the gap.  Robin started feeling it at the net and began hitting some winners of her own.  She also made her usual share of really good "gets" as she once again demonstrated her running abilities.  But Vladimir really had his serves going well and both he and Jeanette continued their high level of play.  We were deadlocked at 6-All and decided to forego the Tiebreak and keep playing.  Robin's endurance became an asset at that point as Jeanette was slightly winded.  Fortunately, Robin and I were able to take the last two games, the set and match at 8-6!

Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kevin for not only the result…but his comprehensive commentary as well.  We now turn this report over to John for all the scores from the rest of the earlier session and then the later session.

From the 3-5pm session:

Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Brenda Jordan over John Incognito/Marie Easton, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently).

John Incognito/Brenda Jordan over Bill Bess/Marie Easton, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).  It was the official GTA Return of Bill Bess.

Bill Bess/Brenda Jordan over John Incognito/Marie Easton, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently).

From the 6-8pm session:

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Nick Inciong/Tom La over Senthil Kumar/Joe Rodrigues, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7), to become the New # 5 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division!  No Aces (apparently).

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak over John Incognito/Alfred Chen, 6-1, 6-3, to successfully defend their # 8 Rank in the Doubles Division!  No Aces (apparently).

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Mike Sindler/Pranav Sinha over Rafaelo Kazakov/Syed Rashid, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, as both teams entered the Doubles Division!  Mike and Syed: 2 Aces each!

Samara's Notes: I thank John for sending in those results.  I also thank Rafaelo for reporting his result directly.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara


 

12/1 Results.

12/1/16:         

"Kevin/Senthil host 8 at The Bubble!":                                          

GTA Thursday Night Tennis took place at The Wayne Bubble without the support of the usual hosts ("Hollywood" Frank Samara and "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito). 

Once again, "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle stepped up to report his Doubles action.  And "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar reported scores via John.

We will now go to the result from Kevin.  And then the scores from Senthil will follow.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

We started a little early and played a two set match that took almost two hours to finish.  So we were done a little early and left at that point.  So I only have my scores (I played three days in a row and was too tired to hang out).

2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:

Kevin Doyle/Dawn Peterson over Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon, 6-4, 7-5, to successfully defend the # 48 Rank in the Mixed Doubles Division while McHugh/Sheldon entered the division as the New # 54 Ranked Team!  Dawn: 2 Aces in the 1^st Set (one on each)!

We played on Court Two and switched sides only between the sets.  It was the usual tight games and close sets that occur when this foursome plays.

I have to say (and many others have also noticed) that Sean Mchugh's game has really improved.  He is very consistent and never makes it easy for his opponents.  I would also say that Kathy always is at her best when she teams with Sean.  She is even more consistent than usual and takes advantage of the many opportunities to use her lobbing skills.  She is perfecting her lobs to make use of the limited space around the courts in the bubble.  She also caught me twice on really good cross-court shots. 

However, Dawn and I played well as a team and, for last night at least, we always seemed able to make that "big shot" or that "good get" when we had to - even though almost every game was hard fought and close.  Sean and I were both able to hit the ball deep pretty much on a regular basis which also led to some long tough rallies.  No one gave an inch and it was a battle till the end.  Dawn had a couple of streaks where she really turned on that first serve and I told her we may have to change her GTA
moniker to "Ace' if she keeps doing that.

In the 2nd Set we were tied at 5-All with Dawn serving and had a really long tough game (11 Deuces!) with a couple of long rallies with a lot of running by all.  Both sides wanted that game badly, but we finally prevailed as Dawn held.  There were several close shots in that game and I thank everyone for their honesty in making the calls (not that I would expect anything else - I'm just saying).  We were then up 6-5 and hung on to win the final game of the set and match.  We were all tired after that and we left at that point even though it wasn't quite 11pm.

Samara's Notes: Again, I thank Kevin for the role of increased responsibility that he has taken on during these Bubble sessions.  His reporting (along with the very comprehensive commentary) is much appreciated.

And now we go to those scores from Senthil.

Senthil Kumar/Syed Rashid over Ryan Pienciak/Scott Whisten, 7-6 (7-5)!  Ryan: 3 Aces (2 on Syed and 1 on Senthil)!

Ryan Pienciak/Syed Rashid over Senthil Kumar/Scott Whisten, 6-4!  Ryan: 2 Aces on Scott!

Samara's Notes: I thank Senthil for his submission of scores as well.

Best wishes,

Frank Samara 

 

11/30 Results

11/30/16:         

"Kevin hosts 4 at The Bubble!":                                          

GTA Wednesday Night Tennis took place at The Wayne Bubble without the support of the usual hosts ("Hollywood" Frank Samara and "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito).  Incognito was there, but he has reinjured the heel of his left foot (and Samara has injured the heel of his right foot…LOL!).

John hung out until 10pm and then left the session.  There were only six players in attendance.

Once again, "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle stepped up to report his Doubles action.  Ted Cedroski and Vladimir Smolyanskiy engaged in some Singles action, but nobody collected or reported their scores.

We will now go to Kevin's recap of the results.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

We had our Night Owl action on Court Three.  We chose not to switch sides.

Brenda Jordan/Jeanette Pegg over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson over Brenda Jordan/Jeanette Pegg, 8-6!  No Aces (apparently). 

The Kevlar Commentary: Brenda's net play was devastating throughout as she spent the entire evening poaching balls from one side of the court to the other and hitting winners, either through or around her opponents. Her sore arm doesn't seem to affect her net play at all and the truth is that even her underhand serves (which she has to do because of her injury) are usually well-placed and quite tricky.  The combination of Brenda and the steady/mistake-free play of her team mate (Jeanette) were too much for Robin and I in the first One-Setter and we never got any traction.

The second One-Setter, however, was much more competitive even though Brenda's amazing net play continued.  The difference was that Robin, who has elevated her net play quite dramatically, established herself as a presence at the net.  She even held her own in a few volley wars with Brenda (which isn't easy).  Robin is getting comfortable at the net all of a sudden, and is showing great patience and awareness as she gains confidence there.  We used some strategy, as I tried to drive the ball deep to set up Robin at the net - and that made the second One-Setter much more competitive.  Jeanette also elevated her play in the second One-Setter by making some good shots to set up Brenda and also hitting some great lobs. 

The second One-Setter was tied at 6-All and we all decided to keep playing games as opposed to going to a Tiebreak.  Robin and I ended up winning the last two games which were both close and hard-fought.

Overall, it was really good and competitive tennis as Robin Wilson continues to elevate her game. S he already has nice ground-strokes and always moves well - but now, all of a sudden, she is becoming a force at the net as well.  It won't be long before she becomes a formidable presence in the GTA.  I also have to say that Brenda's overall level of play was amazing, especially when you consider that her arm is still injured.

Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kevin for the role of increased responsibility that he has taken on during these Bubble sessions.  His reporting (along with the comprehensive commentary) is much appreciated.

Best wishes,

Frank Samara 

 

11/29 Results.

11/29/16:         

"Frank/John/Kevin host 13 at The Bubble!":                                          

GTA Tuesday Night Tennis took place at The Wayne Bubble with the usual hosts ("Hollywood" Frank Samara and "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito), but "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle has been stepping up so much lately with his contributions to these reports…that he deserves a co-host credit as well. 

In fact, we will go to his recap first before listing all the other results.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

The action on Court Four was as follows (we switched sides only between the sets).

Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon over Kevin Doyle/Dawn Peterson, 7-5!  No Aces (apparently).

Kevin Doyle/Dawn Peterson over Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon, 7-5!  No Aces (apparently).

The Kevlar Commentary: Both sets were highly competitive.  Dawn and I fell behind 1-4 in the first one, but then we found our strokes and things evened out as we climbed back to 5-6.  But we had dug ourselves into too deep of a hole and ended up losing the last game (which alternated Ad's several times) and dropped the set, 5-7.

The intensity level was turned up a bit in the second one and things got a little vicious (in a nice way) as balls sometimes whizzed within inches of peoples faces.  Dawn had blood in her eyes and she was putting some pretty good mustard on her first serves and she had her ground-strokes humming.  Kathy and Sean were very consistent all night as they were getting to everything and relentlessly making tough shots on us.  Dawn and I jumped out to a 2-0 lead in this set which was soon cut to 3-2.  The lead then flip flopped and we ended up tied at 5-All.  Dawn and I vowed, at that point, to win the set - and luckily we ended up winning the final two games as Dawn held and we broke Sean.

We were then tied at 1 set each but didn't play a third set or a Super Tiebreak to make it a full match. The reason being was that two of the players (who I won't name) were too "tired" to continue.  Maybe they should get more sleep – or focus more on eating a healthy diet and then they might have the energy to finish a match.

 
But overall it was a lot of fun and very competitive throughout the two One-Setters.

Samara's Notes: I thank Kevin for submitting those results in a very timely manner.  I also greatly appreciate his commentary as well.  And given the fact that I then saw Kevin and Sean in an extended hitting session for the balance of the evening, I guess we can all guess who those two players were…LOL!  These two teams got their official action underway first as their first One-Setter began at 9:05.

Senthil Kumar/Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Syed Rashid, 6-3!  No Aces.  After a fairly lengthy hitting session where it was Chris and Ryan hitting against Senthil and Syed, they then switched up the teams and got this one underway on Court Two at 9:20.  Not sure when it ended as they followed it up with another One-Setter which we will soon report.

John Incognito/Pranav Sinha over Frank Samara/Scott Whisten, 6-2!  No Aces.  It went like this (I only noted the flow of the games, not who hit what winners): Pranav was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, Double Fault for Double Break Point and then the break), Frank was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, Break Point and then the break), John was broken (Triple Game Point got cut down to Deuce and then it went to Break Point and the break) and Scott was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then it was 30-All, Break Point and the break) as nobody could hold serve at 2-2.  Sinha was the first to hold serve (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, but then it went right to Double Game Point which was then cut down to Deuce and then it was all Game Points to 3^rd Deuce, one more Game Point and then the hold), but Samara was broken again (Triple Break Point was reduced to Break Point, but then came the break) to fall to 2-4.  And from there, Incognito held at Love and Whisten was broken again (started up 15-Love, then a Double Fault for 15-All, 15-30 and then another Double Fault to set up Double Break/Match Point, it ended on Break/Match Point) to take the loss.  We played this one on Court One from 9:30 to 9:55.

The Skinny: This was my first time getting to play with Whisten and he is a solid player and all-around nice guy.  I ended up giving him the moniker of "Sweet Spot" (I was going to go with "Sweet Touch", but we already have Tito "Touch" Castolo) as he does have a good touch game where he is very adept at hitting volleys and drop shots once he rushes the net.  But the "Sweet Spot" nickname is actually more fitting because he also has great anticipation and often puts himself in the right place (aka "spot") at the right time.  I've played with Pranav on only a couple of occasions in the past.  Not sure what moniker I gave him back then, but I will now call him "The Practitioner" as he is very precise with many of his shots that also feature much pace.  He also has an impressive serve when he is able to dial it in and get it in the box.  Incognito's recent weight loss has led to him making many more gets and lasting longer in the rallies.     

Senthil Kumar/Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Syed Rashid, 6-2!  Ryan: 1 Ace on Syed.  Not sure when this one started or finished on Court Two as Chris and Ryan then shifted over to Court Three (which had become vacant around 9:50) so that they could play a Singles One-Setter.  Meanwhile, Senthil and Syed opted to only have an extended hitting session on Court Two.

Chris Chiaro over Ryan Pienciak, 6-1!  No Aces.  Rough estimate on the time frame for this one on Court Three: 9:55 to 10:40.

Frank Samara/Scott Whisten over John Incognito/Pranav Sinha, 6-4!  No Aces.  Here's how it went down: John was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2^nd Deuce, Break Point and the break), Scott was broken (30-Love, Double Fault for 30-15 on the way to Break Point and then the break), but Pranav was the first to hold serve (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2^nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to go up 2-1.  Frank finally held as well (Love-30 shifted to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but Incognito then held (15-Love shifted right to Double Break Point, but then it went to Deuce, Game Point and the hold) for a 3-2 lead.  Whisten then held (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point, Deuce and then all Break Points until 3^rd Deuce, Game Point and then the hold) and Sinha was broken (started with a Double Fault, 15-All and then right to Double Break Point and the break) to lose the lead for his team at 3-4.  Samara was also broken (started up 15-Love only to have it go straight to Double Break Point and the break) to knot the score once more at 4-4.  But from there, Mr. Arizona was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) and then Sweet Spot Scott held in the best game of the match (started up 15-Love, it shifted to 15-30, then 30-All where the rally of the night featured Frank's greatest get of the evening which was not a winner but extended the rally that his team eventually won to set up Game/Match Point, it went to Deuce and then Break Point, back to 2^nd Deuce and then they clinched it on the 2^nd Game/Match Point) to seal the deal and get the "W!"  We also played this one on Court One and it lasted from 9:57 to 10:42.

The Skinny: John and Pranav switched up their return of service sides for this one and Incognito admitted afterward that it was a strategic mistake.  But credit goes to Scott who cleaned up his game somewhat in this 2^nd One-Setter and then Frank followed suit as well.

Both Pranav and Scott felt tired after this one.  Meanwhile, "Drill Instructor" Don Moya had some time to jump into some action late in the evening.  We decided to try to squeeze in one more One-Setter and we also decided to forego the changeovers in the hopes of getting it in and done.  Alas, it was not to be.

Frank Samara/Ryan Pienciak leading John Incognito/Don Moya, 3-2 (Incomplete when we had to shut it down at 11:02…we got this one underway on Court One at 10:47)!  John: 1 Ace on Frank.  The quick and dirty lowdown: Don was broken (Love-15, 15-All and then straight to Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) and Ryan held serve (Triple Game Point was reduced to Game Point, but then came the hold) for a 2-0 lead.  John held (Love-15, 15-All, Double Fault for 15-30, an impressive corner Ace against Frank for 30-All, then Game Point and the hold), but Frank was broken (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 then shifted again to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level things at 2-2.  But then Moya was broken a second straight time (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) for 2-3 and then we decided it was only right to call it a night!

The Skinny: Moya felt like he was finally getting warmed up just as we had to call it quits.  Pienciak felt exhausted after his earlier Singles One-Setter against Chiaro.  Meanwhile, Incognito seemed to up his level once again, but Samara seemed a little flat in this one after coming down from the previous victory in the One-Setter that had preceded this one.   Still, it was a fun way to close out a solid night of tennis.

Best wishes,

Frank Samara 

 

11/28 Results.

11/28/16:         

"Rodrigues-Phoenix, Delgado-Kazakov at C.G.!":                                          

GTA Monday Night Tennis took place at The Cedar Grove Courts, but without the usual hosts ("The K Man" Kris Srinivasan or "Hollywood" Frank Samara).  There were two full 2 out of 3 Sets Singles Matches ("J-Rod" Joe Rodrigues vs. Jay "The Rising" Phoenix, and "Lean Daddy" Dean Delgado vs. "RK Fire" Rafaelo Kazakov) as Jay and Rafaelo sent in the results.

Also, "Mr. 500" Levy Lorenzo sent in an update as he and Natalia "Nitro" Sout were only able to have a hitting session with one another. 

They both arrived at the same time around 8:10 and were hoping to have some Doubles at the conclusion of the Rodrigues-Phoenix match, but Jay was too tired to play and ended up leaving.  Joe stuck around for about 15 minutes longer to watch their hitting session.

Here are the scores of the two full matches.

The Cedar Grove Results:

2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:

Joe Rodrigues over Jay Phoenix, 6-4, 6-4, to successfully defend both his # 21 Rank in the Advanced Division and his # 2 Rank in the Intermediate Division!  No Aces. 

Jay has his say: We started about 7pm.  It was much more competitive than our match from two weeks ago.  This one featured numerous breaks of serves and many Deuce games, but he was just plain better on the big points.  I will to have to improve my game to beat him.

2 out of 3 Sets:

Dean Delgado over Rafaelo Kazakov, 6-3, 6-0!  Dean: 3 Aces (2 in the 1^st Set and 1 in the 2^nd Set)!  This does not count as a Rank Defense for Delgado as Kazakov is solely in the Intermediate Division.   

Samara's Notes: I do thank both Jay and Rafealo for submitting those results in a very timely manner.   

Best wishes,

Frank Samara 

 

11/27 Results.

11/27/16:

"Nate-Mole part of 8 at AP, Kevin/John host 21 (1 New) at The Bubble!:"

There were three sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the usual morning session at The Albion Park Courts hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara, but it carried over into the afternoon as it featured a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match featuring "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes against "Holy Moly" Mike Mole (score reported by Mole); and then the two back-to-back Night Owl group sessions at The Wayne Bubble with the first mostly hosted by "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle and the second hosted by "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito.

We will first report the comings and goings at Albion and then list the results from The Bubble as reported by John. 

Samara rolled up to Albion earlier than expected at 9:25 where he saw that all three courts were vacant.  As it was still quite chilly at that time of the morning (40 degrees and breezy, but the temps eventually climbed to a quite comfortable 50 degrees and it was sunny throughout the entire session), Frank chose to remain in his car.

But by 9:45, he started feeling antsy and he walked down to the courts and took South Court.  He then ended up playing janitor as he picked up all the empty plastic bottles left behind on the courts.

Next to arrive was "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto at 10am.  By the time he stepped onto South Court, "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales had pulled up to the courts as well.  Jose said that Natalia "Nitro" Sout was also on her way.

Until she arrived at 10:15, Frank and Vin both hit against a solo Jose.  Then Nat arrived and took his side.  By 10:25, we had a Doubles One-Setter underway.

"Chito" Nick Inciong stepped onto Center Court at 10:40.  He would not be "the fifth wheel" for long as "Big George" Jorge Solano arrived five minutes later.

Solano had been AWOL for close to two months as he was dealing with a bad case of tennis elbow.  He first went through a routine of stretching exercises over on the North Court before he called Nick over to hit with him. 

When the first Doubles One-Setter ended at 11:05, Samara called Solano and Inciong over to the South Court to face the winners, Gonzales/Sout.  Meanwhile, Frank and Vin sat on the bench like the losers they were...LOL!  Actually, they had no problem taking a break and watching the action unfold in front of them.

Mole arrived at 11:10 just as that second Doubles One-Setter was about to get underway.  Frank told Mike that he and Vin were willing to play more Doubles as soon as a fourth player arrived.

That fourth player would be "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes when he made his usual exclusive entrance from the field rather than from the street above at 11:35.  From there, Frank led Nate, Mike and Vin over to the North Court for the next Doubles One-Setter of the day.

When that one finished at exactly 12:13, Vin had to leave.  Frank told Nate and Mike that they could play Singles as Samara was looking to leave around 12:45 to attend the 2pm Charitable Fundraiser hosted by "Kenny Kool" Ken Barilari.

"Coach" Dino Celis arrived at 12:25.  Just three minutes later, the last Doubles One-Setter of the day on the South Court ended and everyone left the session except for Dino and Natalia hitting on that court while Nate and Mike's Singles action led to another full Challenge Match on the North Court.

Samara ended up leaving the session featuring eight official players (not counting Celis) by 12:40. 

The Albion Park Results:

Jose Gonzales/Natalia Sout over Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-5!  No Aces.  It went like this: Frank held serve (two un-returned serves and a blown volley by Jose led directly to Triple Game Point, but then Frank also blew a volley to make it Double Game Point and then came the hold) and Natalia was broken (Jose hit a winning volley for Love-15, then it went to 15-All before heading straight to Double Break Point as Vin hit a drop shot winner along the way, and then it was on Break Point where Vin hit another winner to get the break) for a 0-2 start.  Vinnie was then broken (Jose hit a winning Overhead Smash for Love-15, but then it shifted to 30-15 as Jose blew an overhead only to shift again to Break Point as Jose hit a winning volley and a winning Overhead Smash and then the break came after that) and Jose held (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 as Jose hit a winner and a winning lob, then Frank hit a winning return for 30-All, but then Jose hit a winner to set up Game Point and then he hit another winner to secure his own hold) to level things at 2-2.  Samara held again (Frank hit a winner and two un-returned serves to once again go up Triple Game Point, but then he hit a Double Fault to make it Double Game Point where another un-returned serve then secured the hold) and Sout was broken again (Frank made a nice get/winner combo for Love-130 which was where Jose hit a winning volley for 15-30 only to then have a Double Fault set up Double Break Point where Vin hit a winning passing shot return for the break) to fall to 2-4.  De Benedetto was broken again and this time it was at Love as Jose hit two winning volleys along the way (the second of which was highly impressive) and then Gonzales held again (an un-returned serve followed by a winning lob from Natalia and then a drop shot winner from her as well set up Triple Game Point which would soon be cut down by back-to-back winners by Frank...the second of which fooled everyone as he got quite a lot of zip on it as it seemed to be heading into the tape atop the net only to glide upward and over at the very last second as it then sailed its way between the two opposing players, but on Game Point the hold would come) to knot the score once more at 4-4!  Hollywood was broken for the first time as he blew an overhead, Jose hit a winning volley and Frank blew a volley to set up Triple Break Point, it then would be reduced to Deuce as Frank hit a drop shot winner along the way only to have Jose score with another very victorious volley for Break Point where he would then follow with another winning volley for the break) as his team lost their lead with the opposition now up 5-4!  But then Nitro was broken once more (Vin hit a winning drop shot return for Love-15 before it shifted to 30-15 as Jose hit a winning volley along the way only to have it shift again to Break Point as Frank made another great get/winner combo along the way and then came the break) to even the score again, this time at 5-5!  The Vin Man was broken yet again (Vin blew an overhead for Love-15 and it was off and running to Double Break Point as Jose made a speedy get/winner combo along the way, but then back-to-back winners from Frank brought it to Deuce only to then have Frank blow an overhead to set up another Break Point, it then went to 2nd Deuce where a Double Fault set up yet another Break Point where Jose scored with a drop shot winner for the break) and Latino Heat then held again (Jose hit a winning Overhead Smash for 30-Love, then Vin hit a winning volley for 30-15 only to have Frank blow a volley to set up Double Game/Match Point where Natalia scored with what turned into be a winning lob when Frank mistimed what would have been a winning Windmill Overhead Smash and instead it was just a whiff) to earn a hard-fought victory!  We played this one on the South Court from 10:25 to 11:05.

The Skinny: This one has to be considered somewhat of an upset as Samara/De Benedetto remain one of the higher-ranked teams in the Doubles Division.  It was quite a close contest throughout its entirety.  The one obvious difference is that while De Benedetto and Sout never held serve, Gonzales held every time and Samara held on his first two services but failed the third time around.  While it may not be reflected in the ranks of the Women's Division, Natalia has to be considered as a leading contender for Most Improved Women's Player of The Year.  And this one also has an outside shot at becoming a Nominee for One-Set Specialty Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.

Jorge Solano/Nick Inciong over Jose Gonzales/Natalia Sout, 6-3!  No Aces.  This one also took place on the South Court and it lasted from 11:11 to 11:46.

Nathan Fernandes/Vinnie De Benedetto over Frank Samara/Mike Mole, 6-2!  No Aces.  Here's how it went down: Frank was broken (Vin hit a winning drop shot return for Love-15, then an un-returned serve made it 15-All only to have it then go straight to Double Break Point as Frank blew a volley and Nate hit a winner along the way and then came the break), Nathan held (the rally of the match ended with an impressive Overhead Smash winner from Vin to make it 30-Love which was where Mike blazed a return winner that bounced off the nearest target...which was Vin...and then it went to 30-All in the next point where Nate then hit a winner to set up Game Point where Vin hit a vicious volley winner to secure his partner's hold) and then Mike was broken (un-returned serve for 15-Love, but then it went right to Double Break Point as Vin hit another venomous volley winner along the way and then came the break) to get off to a 0-3 start.  Vin was broken (two un-returned serves made it 30-Love, it was then 30-15 where Nate hit a volley winner for Double Game Point which was where Frank hit a winning volley of his own to cut that lead to Game Point and then it went to Deuce and then Break Point where Frank hit a winning drop shot return for the break) to allow the opposition onto the scoreboard.  But Samara was then broken at Love and Fernandes held again (Love-30 shifted to 30-All where Frank hit an accurate Backhand Volley winner that landed precisely in the back corner of the court to set up Break Point, but then it went to Deuce, Game Point where Nate hit a rare misfire of a blow overhead for 2nd Deuce, Break Point again, 3rd Deuce, Game Point and then the hold) to take a commanding 5-1 lead!  Mole then held (a truly un-returnable serve for 15-Love, then it was 15-All before Mike hit a whopper of a winner and another un-returned serve to bring it to Double Game Point and then came the hold) to pull to 2-5, but then De Benedetto held for the first time all day (an un-returned serve for 15-Love and then came the most exciting point of the match as Mike hit two would-be winners only to see the speedy Nate make awesome gets on both of them as they unexpectedly extended the point until Mike blasted an Overhead Smash winner to make sure it was out of everyone's reach...including Nate...and then it soon became 15-30 before it shifted in the other direction to set up Game/Match Point where Frank hit a return winner for Deuce, it went to 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, then the 3rd Game/Match Point where the hold finally came) to leave the session a happy man!  We played this one on the North Court from 11:43 to 12:13.

The Skinny: With his partner Nate on fire for most of the contest, Vin elevated his game as well.  Meanwhile, Frank and Mike each had moments where they looked like beasts only to then follow up with some ghastly errors.

Jose Gonzales/Jorge Solano over Nick Inciong/Natalia Sout, 6-2!  No Aces.  This one took place on the South Court from 11:51 to 12:28.

2 out of 3 Challenge Match:
Nathan Fernandes over Mike Mole, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 2 Rank in the Advanced Division!  No Aces (apparently).  This match began on the North Court at 12:15 and did not finish until 2:30!

The Holy Moly Memo: It was a great match with lots of breaks of serve.  I was leading 4-1 in the 3rd Set, but Nate came back to win it (he took five straight  games).  He played good defense and I made too many mistakes.

Samara's Notes: I thank Mike for reporting that result in such a timely fashion.  It sounds like this could be yet another Nominee for Singles Match of The Year at season's end.  And with this near-miss, Mole once again enters himself into the conversation of likely Nominees for Most Improved Player of The Year at season's end as well. 

We now turn this report over to Kevin and John. 

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Brenda Jordan/Robin Wilson over Jeanette Pegg/Marie Easton, 6-2!  It was the official GTA Debut of Marie Easton.  No Aces (apparently).

Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Brenda Jordan over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).

Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Robin Wilson, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

The Kevlar Commentary: In all of the matches, Brenda was her usual steady self with particularly aggressive net play.  Vladamir was also very steady and had his serve going really well.  And I have to say that Robin Wilson is improving at a very dramatic pace.  As usual she can get to everything, but also her net play was much improved and that was against pretty tough opponents.

Samara's Notes: Kevin collected all but one score from the 2nd Night Owls Group session (though their session comes first on Sundays, now 3 to 5pm instead of 4 to 6pm) and I thank him for his timely reporting of it.  John sent in that additional result (which immediately follows) and then all the scores from the 1st Night Owls Group session from 6 to 8pm.

We now turn this report over to John.

I made it to The Bubble around 4pm. Kevin collected all the scores for the 3-5pm group except for this next one.

Don Moya/Jeanette Pegg over John Incognito/Marie Easton, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

And then we had the 6-8pm group.

Dino Celis/Tony Shiao over John Incognito/Nick Inciong, 7-6 (7-3)!  No Aces (apparently).  We trailed (down 2-5) before coming back to take it to a Tiebreak, but could not close it out.

Dennis Cabanatan/Nick Inciong over Dino Celis/Pranav Sinha, 6-1!  No Aces (apparently).

Senthil Kumar/Tom La over Alfred Chen/Dan Hwang, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently).  Senthil asked to note that Dan played with a shoulder injury.

Dennis Cabanatan/Tom La over Senthil Kumar/Pranav Sinha, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently).

Dennis Cabanatan over Pranav Sinha, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).

Syed Rashid/Mike Sindler over Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).

Syed Rashid/Sean McHugh over Mike Sindler/Kathy Sheldon, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

Don Moya/Kathy Sheldon leading Tony Shiao/Sean McHugh, 4-2 (Incomplete when they ran out of time)!  No Aces (apparently).

Samara's Notes: I thank John for his very timely reporting as well.  I am very pleased to see all of the results that have been pouring in from The Bubble as of late.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara


 

11/26 Results.

11/26/16:

"11 (2 New) play impromptu session at C.G.!:"

There was an impromptu session of GTA Saturday Tennis at The Cedar Grove Courts that came together quite quickly and successfully.

"Dominant" Dawn Peterson issued an e-mail to the league Saturday morning seeking to put together a session at 11am.  She had already privately lined up some willing participants.

The first to respond was "Mr. 500" Levy Lorenzo who announced that he would love to play with her along with his son, Levy Jr. (aka "LL Cool Jr."), who was visiting from Brooklyn for the Thanksgiving weekend.

"The Argentine Machine" Fernanda Toker then sent a reply stating that she could get there around noon.

Later e-mails went back and forth that included Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan, Natalia "Nitro" Sout and "Holy Moly" Mike Mole.  As it turns out, however, Dennis was later unable to attend the session while Mike did get involved in some official action but also only had a one hour hitting session with Natalia.

Without "Hollywood" Frank Samara or the usual host there, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan, this session ended up being quite a success.

And this is how the relatively new e-mail address that "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar created should function.  All you have to do is to send a reply to the Google groups address from which all the group e-mails generate and it serves as a "Reply to All" without the prior problems we had with such a lengthy mailing list.

It is a shame that this only started being used successfully so late in the season, but it proves to be a promising development for next season and the other seasons to follow.

We now list contributions from Lorenzo, Toker, "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan, "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales and "RK Fire" Rafaelo Kazakov . 

Let's now recap all the action that transpired up at Cedar Grove.

The Cedar Grove Results:

Jose Gonzales/Levy Lorenzo Jr. over Rafaelo Kazakov/Melvin Hyman, 6-2!  Jose: 2 Aces; and Levy: 1 Ace.  It was the official GTA Debut of Levy Lorenzo Jr.

Levy Lorenzo/Brenda Jordan over Mike Mole/Dawn Peterson, 8-6!  No Aces. 

Levy's Letter: We opted to continue playing until one team won by two games (no Tiebreak).  We were leading 4-0, but they caught up to take the lead at 5-4.  We took the next two games to go up 6-5 before it tied up again at 6-6.  We then took the last two games.

Jose Gonzales/Kevin Doyle over Levy Lorenzo Jr./Alex Roumi, 7-6 (7-3)!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Debut of Alex Roumi.

Mike Mole/Brenda Jordan over Levy Lorenzo/Dawn Peterson, 6-2!  No Aces.

Levy Lorenzo Jr./Doinks Srinivasan over Rafaelo Kazakov/Fernanda Toker, 6-3!  Levy: 1 Ace.

Doinks' Diary: I chose to play with Levi Jr. since my left knee was still hurting.  He plays an aggressive game and has some good ground-strokes.

Jose Gonzales/Fernanda Toker over Levy Lorenzo Jr./Alex Roumi, 6-1!  No Aces.

Toker's Take: I was able to get the e-mail address of Alex who is friends with Mel Hyman as he expressed interest in becoming part of the league (Doinks also supplied the same).

Samara's Notes: I thank all involved for both their reporting and recruiting efforts.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara

11/25 Results.

11/25/16:         

"John hosts 4 at The Bubble!":                                          

A special session of GTA Friday Tennis took place at The Wayne Bubble as "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito acted as the host of a booked session for four players and sent in the results.

And here they are!

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Dennis Cabanatan/Don Moya over Anish Mehta/John Incognito, 6-2!  Dennis: 1 Ace on Anish.

Dennis Cabanatan/Don Moya over Anish Mehta/John Incognito, 6-4!  No Aces.

John Incognito/Don Moya over Anish Mehta/Dennis Cabantan, 6-3!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I do thank John for submitting those scores in a very timely manner.    

Best wishes,

Frank Samara 

 

11/23 Results.

11/23/16:         

"John hosts 12 at The Bubble!":                                          

GTA Wednesday Night Tennis took place at The Wayne Bubble as "Mr. Arizona" John Incognito acted as the host of the second Night Owls Group and sent in the results.

And here they are!

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Levy Lorenzo/Ray Spadaro over Ted Cedroski/Jeanette Pegg, 6-3!  No Aces (apparently).  It was the official GTA Return of Ray Spadaro.

Levy Lorenzo/Ted Cedroski over Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Ray Spadaro, 7-6 (7-3)!  No Aces (apparently).

John Incognito/Don Moya over Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak, 7-6 (10-8)!  No Aces (apparently).  After having been down 2-5, John and Don rallied back to eventually force the Tiebreak!  In the Breaker, they ended up winning it on the 5th Match Point!

Samara's Notes: That sounds to me like a definite Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of the Year at season's end.

Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak over John Incognito/Don Moya, 7-5!  No Aces (apparently).

Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Robin Wilson, 6-2!  No Aces (apparently).

Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Brenda Jordan over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

Brenda Jordan/Jeanette Pegg over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-4!  No Aces (apparently).

Samara's Notes: I do thank John for submitting those scores in a very timely manner.  Also, it is good to see "Stingray" Ray Spadaro back in action after serious neck surgery almost one year ago. 

Best wishes,

Frank Samara