7/28/17:
"Samara hosts 17 (2 new) at C.G.!":
GTA Friday Night Tennis took place at The Cedar Grove Courts with "Hollywood" Frank Samara once again acting as host. It was another gray day full of humidity, though it was not quite as bad as the night before. And the chance of any showers had pretty much passed earlier in the day. Yet, the turnout was weaker. If it wasn't for "Ambassador" Rob Gawley, we would have only had 15 official competitors for the evening (more on that later).
Samara pulled into the parking lot at 6:50 with "The Levitator" Levy Lorenzo not far behind. All four courts were full already. Out on Court One, it was "The Ambidextrous Machine" Herb Reiner having his usual hitting session with his buddy, Miroslav "Mirav" Glavic.
On Court Two, "Big George" Jorge Solano was practicing his serve as he was waiting for his Grove Cup XX Round of 41 opponent, Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan to arrive.
On Court Three it was a family that included some small children. Thankfully, they left at 7pm.
And out on Court Four we had "Big Kaz" Mike Kazlauskas going solo in a hitting session against both "The Bulgarian Bull" Jordan Bachvaroff and "The Olympian" Marie Salamon. Levy soon took Mike's side in the hitting session and that would lead to a Doubles One-Setter.
Meanwhile, Samara replaced the family on Court Three in order to hold that court. Solano called Frank over to the fence to tell him that Cabanatan was running late and this was already their third reschedule of their match. Samara then left a message in the cell voicemail for Dennis and then sent a follow-up text message.
During all this, an interloper arrived while Jorge had stepped off the court and went back out into the parking lot to go into his car (presumably to reach Dennis). Frank knew it would not be a good look to try to hold two open courts, so he told the gentleman he could have Court Three. Samara then headed over to Court Two and Solano soon returned to that court as well. Meanwhile, the buddy of the guy on Court Three had also arrived and they started hitting with one another. Frank knew that he had seen these two guys at least twice before at Cedar Grove, so he was glad that he gave them the chance to play again.
By 7:20, neither Samara nor Solano had received any reply from Cabanatan. At that time, Frank sent a second text message to Dennis stating that he had now been withdrawn from the Grove Cup and that Solano would advance via a bye into the Round of 32 to face Former GTA Champ: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro. After all this, Frank and Jorge then entered into a lengthy hitting session.
At 7:40 (just a couple of minutes after their One-Setter had finished), Mike and Jordan came over to Court Two to ask Frank and Jorge if they could have it for some Singles action while Samara and Solano could go over to Court Four for Doubles. Frank and Jorge were absolutely fine with all this and the old "switcheroo" was made. While all this was happening, "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli made his arrival.
Soon we had Frank teaming with Marie to take on Levy and Jorge on Court Four. The logjam situation would soon begin as The Gawleys arrived at 7:45 (Rowdy Rob and Laura the Aura, the GTA Women's Champion) and they sat next to Spin on the bench alongside Court Four.
Five minutes later, Santosh "Ever" Reddy had also arrived. He joined the growing crowd at or around the bench. The posse of people grew even bigger when "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar arrived at 7:55.
It was right around this time when Rob thought that the guys on Court Three may be done as both were talking to one another for quite some time at the net. When he asked if they were done, they replied that they were just taking a break. Mr. Gawley then slipped into "ambassador" mode as he invited them to instead play some Doubles. They were agreeable to this scenario and they would soon face Rob and Santosh. And what initially looked to be somewhat lopsided instead ended up becoming quite the One-Setter. We will get to that later.
"2 Tall" Dave Zhu arrived at 8:20 and five minutes later, "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales did the same.
At 8:30, Cabanatan made a late arrival. He explained that he had just heard and/or seen all the messages a short while ago. Samara told him that there were no more viable excuses at this point. There were too many cancellations and it was unfair to Jorge to keep him waiting and/or rescheduling on all these occasions. But Mr. Solano was a gentleman and was open to once again scheduling the match for early Sunday morning instead. Frank said he was willing to withdraw the withdrawal as long as Jorge was OK with it. This was very much a class act and an example of fine sportsmanship on the part of Jorge as he could have simply stayed with the bye into the Round of 32.
I think it was around 8:35 when "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan made her arrival.
Somewhere after 9pm, "Coach" Dino Celis arrived to make an extended cameo appearance. We ended up with a total of seventeen official competitors, two of them new...thanks to the recruiting skills of "Squash Boy" Rob Gawley. Kudos to a job well done!
And now onto the action!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Mike Kazlauskas/Levy Lorenzo over Jordan Bachvaroff/Marie Salamon, 6-2! Mike: 1 Ace on Jordan. This one took place on Court Four from 7:05 to 7:38.
Levy Lorenzo/Jorge Solano over Frank Samara/Marie Salamon, 6-4! No Aces. It went like this: Frank held serve (Frank hit a winning drop shot and an un-returned serve on the way to Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point), Jorge held serve in an epic struggle (Love-30 shifted to 30-All as Frank blew a drop shot and Jorge hit a monster Overhead Smash, but then it went to Break Point, Deuce where Frank hit a winning volley to set up another Break Point and it would be all Break Points until 4th Deuce where Jorge hit a winner to reverse the momentun and earn his first Game Point where Levy would then hit a winner to secure his partner's hold), but Marie was the first to be broken (15-Love was where Levy hit a winning lob that reversed the momentum once again as it was now straight to Double Break Point where Jorge hit another winning Overhead Smash as this one earned the break) for 1-2. Levy held (from here on out, I no longer noted who hit what winners as once again my wet and sweaty hands were making things difficult...Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) to extend his team's lead to 3-1, but then Samara held again (Triple Break Point would go all the way to Deuce, then Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) and Solano was broken (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 shifted to Break Point and then the break) to tie things up at 3-3! Salamon was broken again (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break), but Lorenzo was also broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point and then the break) to knot the score once more at 4-4! Hollywood was then broken for the first time (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break) and then Big George held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game/Match Point and then the hold) to earn a hard-fought victory! We played this one on Court Four from 7:45 to 8:34.
Samara's Notes: This One-Setter ended up being a lot of fun as it was a mixture of competitive spirit and some lighthearted moments as well. All involved played quite well, but it only took a couple of errors here and there to turn things in the other team's favor. This was one of those One-Setters where nobody went away mad...not even the losers.
Jordan Bachvaroff over Mike Kazlauskas, 6-4! Mike: 1 Ace. This one got underway on Court Two at 7:45. Not sure when it ended as it went right into this next one.
Mike Kazlauskas over Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-1! No Aces. This one finished at 9:05.
Rob Gawley/Santosh Reddy over Mina Matta/Andrew Tadros, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of both Mina Matta and Andrew Tadros. This one was played on Court Three from 7:55 to 8:40.
Samara's Notes: Rob and Santosh jumped out to a 5-1 lead. This seemed to be a lopsided affair as Rob had to direct the competition through the scoring and rules of the match (they were more used to Singles and just hitting in general). But then Simone arrived. I believe she is Andrew's wife. She must have been their good luck charm because suddenly their fortunes changed and they rose to the challenge by eventually forcing a Tiebreak. It seems that all involved had a good time and we hope to see more of Mina and Andrew in the future. Afterward, Simone got involved in a hitting session with both Andrew and Mina...but they said she is not ready to compete just yet.
Senthil Kumar/Dave Zhu over Dan Martinelli/Laura Gawley, 6-2! Spin: 1 Ace on Dave on the very first point of the match! They played this one on Court One from 8:25 to 8:55. It was Mr. Zhu to the rescue as it had been a three-way hitting session for quite some time before his arrival.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Dennis Cabanatan/Marie Salamon over Jose Gonzales/Genalin Capan, 6-2, 2-6, 10-8 (STB)! In the process, both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 44 and # 45 Ranked Teams respectively! Jose: 3 Aces (2 on Marie and 1 on Dennis) in the 2nd Set! This took place on Court Four and lasted from 8:48 to 9:53.
Senthil Kumar/Dave Zhu over Jorge Solano/Santosh Reddy, 6-0! No Aces. This one got underway on Court One at exactly 8:58. Not sure when it finished as they went straight into another one where they switched up the teams. We will get to that one a bit later.
Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Frank Samara/Dan Martinelli, 6-3! Laura: 1 Ace on Frank. It went like this: Frank held serve (Love-15 shifted to Double Game Point with an un-returned serve along the way), Laura held (un-returned serve for 15-Love, a winning volley from Frank for 15-All and then it was point for point until 30-All, Break Point where Frank blew a volley to bring it back to Deuce, then Game Point and the hold), but Spin was the first to be broken and it was at Love for 1-2. Rob was also broken (here is where I decided to stop noting winners again...he started with a Double Fault and then it went point for point until 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level the score at 2-2, but then Samara was broken (30-Love went straight to Break Point and the break) for 2-3. Mrs. Gawley held in a battle (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point and then a big corner Ace against Frank for the hold) and then Martinelli was broken again (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 2-5. Mr. Gawley was also broken again (the rally of the match led to Love-15, it then went to 15-All, 15-30, a Double Fault for Double Break Point and then the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-3, but then The Wood was broken once more (the second best rally of the match led to 15-Love, then 15-All and onto Double Game Point, reduced to Deuce, Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, it ended on the 2nd Break/Match Point) to take the loss! We played this one on Court Three from 9:04 to 9:44.
Samara's Notes: Martinelli was still in gimpy mode, but was as game as ever. The Gawleys often worked him over, but in a competitive manner (they didn't drop shot him to death). This was actually a fun and competitive One-Setter. The Foundation can hold their heads high as they more than held their own against one of the greatest Mixed Doubles teams that the GTA has to offer.
Senthil Kumar/Jorge Solano leading Dave Zhu/Santosh Reddy, 4-3 (and it was at Deuce when it became Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Another steamy sauna-like night at Cedar Grove, but a whole lot of fun nonetheless.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
862-596-3354
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