"Spin hosts 4 at AP, Ortega-Gero in Wayne, Kris hosts 6 at C.G.!":
GTA Easter Sunday Tennis took place at three locations: Albion Park in Clifton ("Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli acted as the host as Samara took the day off from hosting), The Nellis Drive Courts in Wayne (outside of The Wayne Bubble…featuring a GTA Intermediate Invitational First Round Match between "Eddie O" Edwin Ortega and "Bee Gee" Brad Gero, reported by Edwin) and The Cedar Grove Courts (with usual host, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan once again doing the duties…and "The Legendary" Chazz Weldon directly sending in his scores as well).
We first go to the man known as Spin for a couple of scores along with his commentary before we grab the scores from Edwin and Chazz and then turn this report over to Kris.
It was very mild and breezy. I had promised Jen Elgart that I'd be there by 10:15. She got there just moments before I did. We hit and then Dino Celis arrived. Next were Vinnie De Bendetto and then Mike Mole. Dino brought breakfast and shared it with Jen while the three guys (Vin, Mike and Spin) starved to death…no breakfast for us!
The Albion Park Results:
Dan Martinelli/Vinnie De Benedetto over Mike Mole/Jen Elgart, 6-1! Spin: 2 Aces (one on each, both very weak).
Mike Mole/Vinnie De Benedetto over Dan Martinelli/Jen Elgart, 6-0! Mike: 1 Ace on Spin; and Spin: 1 Ace on Vin (not a cheap one at all)!
Marie Salamon showed up later and hit with Mike. Jen, Spin and Vinny then left. It got quite warm out before we left around 12:30.dmartinell@aol.com
Samara's Notes: I thank Spin for acting as host and providing us with his write-up. Marie had reached out to me via text about the session while I was at church. Perhaps my reply had reached her too late because she may have gotten there sooner and could have been a part of the official action. I guess that's how the cookie crumbles…or how the Easter egg breaks. Oh well!
Also, I brought my kids with me to Albion Park at 2:35 hoping to make a late cameo appearance as well as to go play in the park, but none of our "peeps" were still there by that time.
We now head to Wayne for the result (along with some additional commentary) sent in by Edwin.
The Nellis Drive Result:
GTA Intermediate Invitational First Round Match:
Edwin Ortega over Brad Gero, 6-1, 6-2, to successfully defend both his # 23 Rank in the Advanced Division and his # 5 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to The Round of 16 of The GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament! In the process, Gero entered the division as the New # 37 Ranked Player. Edwin: 2 Aces!
The Edwin Editorial: The length of the match was about 1 hour, 15 min. Overall, it was a good match. A few times, Brad and I had some good rallies. Brad has a good swing, but coming from playing racquetball all these years and starting tennis again, he still has to adjust his swings. A few more sets and he will be a prominent contender. Thanks to Brad for coming out to play me at The Wayne Nellis Courts.
Samara's Notes: I thank Edwin for not only reporting the result, but providing some commentary as well.
We now grab a couple scores from Chazz before we turn this report over to Kris.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Chazz Weldon over Jay Phoenix, 6-3! No Aces.
Chazz Weldon over Jay Phoenix, 6-2! No Aces.
Chazz said that the two One-Setters were played from 11:30 to 1:05.
We now let The K take it away!
We were out for the day, so I was a bit late to show. It was good to see Spin and Dino on the sidelines. I was happy to see John Rizzo in action here for the second time around this season. He was playing Doubles with Janice Wang against Don Moya and his friend.
Samara's Notes: On the way back from attending the wake for Daniel Cooney in Caldwell, my kids and I did a drive-by cameo at The Cedar Grove Courts at 6:35. At that time, John, Don, Janice and "the unknown friend" were just getting out of their cars in the parking lot. I stopped to talk to John for just a bit. Since John never got the name of the friend and also due to the fact that Rizzo was so sore from a recent workout, we have chosen to let that action remain as unofficial.
I now turn this report back over to Kris.
Later, we got to see Dan Hwang and Rafaelo Kazakov. It kind of looked like the invasion of "The Bubble players" out in the open...:-).
We also had The Dwights here having a hitting session. So did Andrew Truong as he hit with me first and then Natalia Sout. The others in action here were Dennis and Minnie Cabanatan (his wife), Doinks (my wife) and Ryan Pienciak.
It was good to see Minnie playing with us and we hope to see more of her. She missed out on some attacking shots, but the more she plays, her level is going to go up and the best way to do that is to make use of the good weather and play with different players. Dennis was encouraging while mentoring her.
Ryan Pienciak/Doinks Srinivasan over Dennis Cabanatan/Minnie Cabanatan, 6-2! No Aces.
Dennis Cabanatan/Doinks Srinivasan over Ryan Pienciak/Minnie Cabanatan, 6-3! No Aces.
Dennis Cabanatan/Minnie Cabanatan tied with Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 5-5 (Incomplete)! No Aces.
Dan Hwang over Ryan Pienciak, 6-2! No Aces (apparently).
We did get to see some substantial GTA Tennis on this glorious Easter Sunday evening in Cedar Grove. Cheers!
Samara's Notes: Always so appreciative of what Kris does for our league up at Cedar Grove. It is just a shame (and not his fault) that things were not a bit more organized up there as we could have had many more players included in the official action. But that is the way things go sometimes.
The day felt like a summer preview weather-wise, so I hope many got out to enjoy it no matter what they did. The kids and I ended up having an impromptu field trip of sorts in between our time at Albion Park and then later heading to the wake as we took a trip to Lambert Castle and then drove up to Garrett Mountain where we were able to get inside of (and all the way to the top of) the Lambert Tower. They had a great time and it was my first time inside of the tower (I had been to the castle before).
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
862-596-3354
No comments:
Post a Comment