6/8/17:
"Samara hosts 29 (1 new) at C.G. incl. MXD2 1st Rounder!":
There was GTA Thursday Night Tennis at The Cedar Grove Courts (hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara, who ended up showing up after all). This session also featured the first of The MXD2 Mixed Doubles Tournament Round of 14 Matches to be played as "T-Rez" Tommy Reskzowski teamed with "The Argentine Machine" Fernanda Toker to take on "The Accelerator" Abhilash Gadi and "Laidback" Laurie Boughton.
Samara somewhat surprisingly arrived at the courts at 7:30 to see all four full of GTA action (well, one court had just finished a One-Setter and it turned into a conversation as three players waited for a fourth to arrive). This was on Court One as GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro, "J-Rod" Joe Rodrigues and "The Bulgarian Bull" Jordan Bachvaroff were talking to "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli through the fence.
On Court Two, Frank saw William "Bombs Away" Bobila and Fred "Supa Dupa" Suba teaming together against "Magic" Mike Mole (more on his new moniker a little later) who was paired with an unfamiliar face. This new player is a friend of William and Fred's and his name is Edgar Inclan. It turns out the four of them had already played a One-Setter and then switched teams for this second one.
On Court Three, it was the team of "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes and "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan squaring off with "Ragin" Rajan Shah and "Teej" T.J. Shah.
And on Court Four it was The Main Event of the night, the MXD2 Round of 14 Match which had already gotten underway somewhere around 7pm after a 10 to 15 minute hitting session.
"Bravo" Brenda Jordan was on the bench alongside Court Four watching that match. She also gave a prior result to Samara. Right around this time, "Coach" Dino Celis arrived to make an extended cameo appearance for the balance of the evening (the same thing Spin was doing as he was resting up for his upcoming M2 Round of 13 Match on Friday night).
Frank shied away from becoming the fourth player on Court One in order to get caught up with all the scores and comings and goings at the courts.
At 7:35, "The Headhunter" Ralph Bernard arrived and became the fourth man on Court One. "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales arrived just a little too late for that opportunity. He was OK with it as he needed time to stretch anyway.
"The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan was the next to hit the scene when she crossed the street to the courts around 7:55…about the same time that "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle returned from getting some beverages between on-court action. Five minutes later, "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega arrived and joined the growing throng of people on that bench alongside Court Four (meanwhile, the bench alongside Court One was "Hecklers Central" with Frank, Spin, Dino and a revolving cast of characters along the way).
At 8:15, "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar and "The Sin Man" Mike Sindler arrived at the same time to see the backlog that was already taking place. Luckily, Samara convinced them to stay because Mike would be invited to action on Court One less than ten minutes later while Senthil would become a participant on Court Four five minutes after that.
At 8:25, "The Levitator" Levy Lorenzo also hit the scene. And five minutes after that, three more came: "Stealth" Omar Santos, "Drill Instructor" Don Moya and "J-Wow" Janice Wang.
And at 8:40, Tito "Touch" Castolo was the final arrival and would become the 29th official competitor of the session. Had Spin played, we would have hit 30!
It was an awesome session and here now is the official action.
The Cedar Grove Results:
William Bobila/Mike Mole over Fred Suba/Edgar Inclan, 6-0! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of Edgar Inclan. Not sure of the start or stop times, but it took place on Court Two.
Joe Rodrigues/Jordan Bachvaroff over Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan, 6-1! No Aces. Much like the previous score, do not know the start and stop times…but this one took place on Court One.
William Bobila/Fred Suba over Mike Mole/Edgar Inclan, 6-2! No Aces. This one finished on Court Two at exactly 7:37.
Nathan Fernandes/Kris Srinivasan over Rajan Shah/T.J. Shah, 6-3! Rajan: 1 Ace on Nate. Not sure when this one got underway on Court Three, but it finished at 7:50.
MXD2 Round of 14 Match:
Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker over Abhilash Gadi/Laurie Boughton, 6-3, 6-3, to successfully defend their # 8 Rank in the Mixed Doubles Division while also advancing to the Quarterfinals of the GTA MXD2 Mixed Doubles Tournament! In the process, Gadi/Boughton entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 35 Ranked Team. Tommy: 3 Aces (2 on Laurie, 1 on Abhi); and Abhi: 3 Aces (2 on Tommy, 1 on Fernanda)!
The Skinny: Brenda said that she saw the four of them hit for ten to fifteen minutes and then the match likely got underway on Court Four somewhere around 7pm. The 1st Set ended at 7:35. Two minutes later, they started the 2nd Set. The match finished at 8:25.
Edgar Inclan over Mike Mole, 6-3! No Aces. Court Two hosted this one from 7:40 to 8:10.
Chris Chiaro/Joe Rodrigues over Jordan Bachvaroff/Ralph Bernard, 6-4! Ralph: 1 Ace on Joe. After starting off down 0-1, Chris and Joe took it straight to 5-1 before having their lead cut to 5-4! Only then could they close it out and get the win. This battle occupied Court One from 7:45 to 8:15.
Jose Gonzales/Rajan Shah over Kris Srinivasan/T.J. Shah, 6-4! No Aces. Somehow, The K Man managed to separate The Inseparables! This took place on Court Three from 7:55 to 8:45.
Edwin Ortega/Doinks Srinivasan over Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. This Mixed Doubles action was hosted by Court Two from 8:15 to 9:10.
Chris Chiaro/Joe Rodrigues over Ralph Bernard/Mike Sindler, 6-2! No Aces. They got this one done on Court One within the time period of 8:25 to 9pm.
Senthil Kumar/Frank Samara over Nathan Fernandes/Levy Lorenzo, 6-4! No Aces. It went like this, but it should be noted that there were a couple of games…the sixth and seventh…where I could not note who hit what winners where and when as I had to catch up with the results coming in from other courts…and plus, time was of the essence: Nathan held serve (the first point of the match may have been the best one and it led to 15-Love and then it went point for point until 30-All as Nate hit a winning volley and Senthil hit an even more impactful one along the way and then it was Break Point where Levy hit a winning volley of his own to bring it back to Deuce and then Game Point where Frank blasted a short-angle return winner right off the court for 2nd Deuce, but it went back to Game Point and then the hold), Frank held (Senthil hit a winning volley for 15-Love, then 15-All before going straight to Double Game Point where another volley winner by Senthil secured the hold), but Levy was the first to be broken (a 15-Love start went straight to Double Break Point as Senthil scored with two big, winning Overhead Smashes along the way and then came the break) for 1-2. Senthil was also broken and it was at Love after Frank blew a volley to set up Triple Break Point and then Fernandes held again (Nathan made an absolutely great get that led to 15-Love, then 15-All went right to Double Game Point as Frank blew an overhead along the way, but then back-to-back blown volleys by Levy led to Deuce, but then came Game Point and the hold) to reclaim the lead at 3-2. Samara was broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) as his team fell to 2-4, but Lorenzo was broken again (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point and the break) and Kumar then held (Triple Game Point was reduced to Game Point only to have Senthil hit his most emphatic volley winner yet for the hold) to knot the score at 4-4! Nate the Great was broken (another winning volley by Senthil made it Love-15, it went to 15-All only to then go straight to Double Break Point, but then bounce back to Deuce and then another Break Point where Senthil yet again hit a winning volley for the break) and then Hollywood held (Love-15 where Frank hit a nice winner for 15-All which would then head straight to Double Break Point as Senthil blew an overhead along the way, but then the rebound to Deuce as Frank hit another winner during that ascension only to go back to Break Point yet again, then 2nd Deuce where Frank hit a surprising passing shot winner to set up Game/Match Point where Frank hit a "freeze ray" slice of a winner right down the middle that froze both Nate and Levy as each one thought the other should play it and that sealed the deal on a game of redemption for the man also known simply as The Wood) to get the win! We played this on Court Four from 8:30 to 9:20.
The Skinny: Nate was his usual get-making self and perhaps just slightly less consistent than usual. Levy actually made a few amazing gets that did not get noted above as they likely took place during the couple of games where such things did not get noted (though a couple occurred during losing efforts in those particular rallies). Frank was hot and cold (to be expected when one only plays a couple of times a week). It was actually Senthil who was The MVP in this one as he was such a steady force at the net with his well-placed and perfectly timed winning volleys and Overhead Smashes.
Tito Castolo/Janice Wang over Omar Santos/Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-0! No Aces. They started this one on Court Three at 9pm. Not sure when it ended as they went right into another one which we will get to later in this report.
Rajan Shah/Don Moya over T.J. Shah/Mike Sindler, 6-2! No Aces. This was contested on Court One from 9:05 to 9:37.
Edwin Ortega/Doinks Srinivasan over Jose Gonzales/Laurie Boughton, 6-3! No Aces. This Mixed Doubles action took place on Court Two from 9:15 to 9:42. After Jose left, Edwin continued hitting against both ladies until the lights went out for the night.
Chris Chiaro/Levy Lorenzo over Senthil Kumar/Kris Srinivasan, 6-3! Chris: 1 Ace on Senthil; and Senthil: 1 Ace on Levy! This foursome faced off on Court Four from 9:25 to 9:52.
Mike Sindler/Don Moya leading Joe Rodrigues/Mike Mole, 3-1 (Incomplete at 9:59 when all four decided to end it right there before the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
The Skinny: Mole hit a blasting forehand that befuddled Moya who thought it surely should have gone into the net. Well, it did…sort of…as it sizzled right thru the tight gap of space between the net cord tape and the detached net below. We on the sidelines point out what actually happened, but then joked that it was a magic shot. That led to us calling Mr. Mole, "Magic Mike!" He then said, "I like that one!" Well, of course he does. So, inside of just a few weeks, he has gone from "Holy Moly" to "Mr. Science" and now to "Magic Mike." Safe to say that like so many before him, he has been thoroughly corrupted by the GTA…LOL!
Tito Castolo/Janice Wang leading Omar Santos/Jordan Bachvaroff, 5-3 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Afterward, there was a brief bull session featuring most of the players that stuck around until the end. Despite the dropping temps, it was a fun evening that may have felt like April weather-wise…but it did seem like summer attitude-wise. I think we are in for an entertaining and eventful summer this season.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
862-596-3354
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