"Gen/Kris host 6 at C.G., John/Chris host 8 at The Bubble!":
GTA Thursday Tennis first took place at The Cedar Grove Courts (with both "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan and "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan acting as hosts) and then later in the evening it was The Night Owl session at The Wayne Bubble with both "The Riz" John Rizzo and GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro assuming hosting duties.
We will first go to the recap from Kris of the Cedar Grove results (with notes from Gen along the way) and then get the additional scores from The Bubble.
It is great to be back in action and the new season kicked off nicely in Cedar Grove, thanks to Gen. I got a message from Gen that that she was planning to play here at 3pm with Moka Pathan, Mike Mole and possibly "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli to join her.
As I had to pick up my son Jay and his friends from school, it was a delayed start for me. I did see Moka waiting in his car when I set off to pick up Jay after 3 and upon my return, there was Canadian Doubles going on between Gen, Moka and Mole. Spin was a no-show.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Kris Srinivasan/Mike Mole over Moka Pathan/Genalin Capan, 7-5! No Aces.
Gen's Notes: The three of us started hitting at 3:30 and then Kris joined us at 4:15. We began this One-Setter at 4:30 and it ended at 5:10.
The K has his say: It was a close set right through its entirety. Gen seemed to be in good form as she got going right off the bat. She took with ease some of Mike's aggressive topspin shots and her net volleys were solid. Moka did pretty good himself. Even though he didn't assert himself, Moka had some amazing shots. Mole was probably the best of the lot, serving well and his ground-strokes were clean and meaty. He also showed a lot of variety with soft touches and drop shots, mixing up the pace beautifully. I feel this season looks very promising for Mike the way he played. It was a mixed bag for me and I have yet to get the pace in my shots.
Brenda Jordan arrived in the early part of our match and she was soon joined by Dawn Peterson. Somebody had placed a dead duck in the adjacent court close to the net. After removing the carcass, Brenda and Dawn got into a hitting session. It was a good warm-up session for them as they got into action in the next and final One-Setter.
Kris Srinivasan/Dawn Peterson over Mike Mole/Brenda Jordan, 7-5! No Aces.
Moka was done for the day and Gen wanted to take it easy. So the remaining players got into a Mixed Doubles One-Setter with Dawn taking a chance on me...:-).
It turned out to be another close set after Mole and Brenda started off well. They peeled off 3 games from us to a solitary game in our favor before we showed up. Brenda was exceptionally good with her reflex shots and so was Dawn for us in packing the ball back. Mike was good, but some exaggerated serves and overly aggressive shots gave us some free points. I had some streaky shots (good ones though) going for myself. We had the momentum and were sitting on 2 Match Points to clinch it at 6-4! But silly errors from me (a poor overhead and a net volley) cost us the game. We were in familiar territory again tied at 5-All. Like in the previous set, we managed to pull off the last two games to finish the match and the day at 6pm.
All in all, it was a good start and both the sets were intense with fighting points. Cheers!
Samara's Notes: I thank both Gen and Kris for their very timely reporting. It is good to know that The K Man is ready to go as our usual host up at Cedar Grove. Once the lights come on (March 1st, thanks to Kris) and my schedule allows it, I will be happy to assist him in those efforts whenever I can.
We now head up to Wayne for the dual report from John and Chris. We go to Mr. Rizzo (hmm, I think I remember that name…LOL!) first.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
Sean McHugh/Ryan Sherry over John Rizzo/Kevin Doyle, 6-3! No Aces.
John Rizzo over Ryan Sherry, 6-2! No Aces. Despite the score, the set was close and the rallies were long.
Ryan Sherry leading John Rizzo, 3-0 (Incomplete)! We played it as a Best of 5 games half-set as we were running out of time.
Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar over Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak, 6-4! No Aces.
Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar, 6-4! Chris: 1 Ace on Lou.
Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar tied with Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak, 5-5 (Incomplete, ran out of time)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: As always, I thank both John and Chris for reporting the results from these Bubble sessions for the benefit of the league.
Best wishes,
Frank Samara
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