7/7/17:
"Samara hosts 12 at C.G. until Mother Nature reigns...err...rains!":
GTA Friday Night Tennis took place up at The Cedar Grove Courts. As announced, "Hollywood" Frank Samara showed up to host the session. But not all would go to plan.
Samara pulled into the lot at 6:40pm. At the time it was sunny, hot and quite humid. Courts One and Two were vacant. On Court Three, "Magic" Mike Mole was having a hitting session with "The Secret Weapon" Sairaj Srinivasan. And on Court Four, "Coach" Dino Celis was putting usual host "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan through the paces in another installment of The Coach's Clinic while "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan observed the activities.
At 6:45, both "The Bulgarian Bull" Jordan Bachvaroff and "The Olympian" Marie Salamon arrived separately. Five minutes later, "Bravo" Brenda Jordan did the same. And still another five minutes after that, "Big George" Jorge Solano and "Dominant" Dawn Peterson arrived separately.
It was at this same time (6:55) that "The Ambidextrous Machine" Herb Reiner arrived with his wife Kate. Herb stepped onto Court One hoping to hit with someone. Samara, who was now holding Court Two (as he saw the crowd of GTA faithful building rapidly), told Mr. Reiner that he was not someone that he would like to hit with as Frank's entire game is predicated on hitting the ball where his opponent is not...he gets frustrated trying to hit it back to someone. Thankfully, Jordan was kind enough to come over to Court One to hit with Herb.
At 7pm, "Instant" Moka Pathan stepped onto Court Two. Soon after, Kris (who had been in a four-way hitting session on Court Three that also included his son Sairaj and then Mole and Solano on the other side of the net), came over to Court Two looking for a Singles One-Setter against Pathan while he asked Samara to take his place on Court Three.
Within the span of five minutes, we had a Women's Doubles One-Setter (Jordan/Peterson versus Srinivasan/Salamon) underway on Court Four, the Doubles One-Setter on Court Three and the Singles One-Setter on Court Two.
At 7:25, both Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan and "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega arrived separately. They had to sit on the bench alongside Court Four for a while.
At 7:35, GTA Champion: "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes arrived and took a place on the bench just as Cabanatan and Ortega had been invited by Kris over to Court Two for some Doubles action.
Five minutes later, "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan arrived and took a seat alongside Nate on the bench. Another five minutes after that, it began to drizzle.
And at 7:50, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak pulled into the lot just as many of us were walking onto it (abandoning the courts) as the drizzle escalated to a steady rain. While some opted to cut their action short, the Doubles One-Setter on Court Two played through the rain until it came to its proper conclusion at 7:55.
By 8pm, all attendees had left to go their separate ways as the rain had sufficiently soaked the courts and there would be no hope of a dry-down later in the night. So we ended up with a relatively low turnout of twelve official competitors. Had the rain held off for at least another hour, we would have had 15 players...or perhaps even more.
Let's get to the scores!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Doinks Srinivasan/Marie Salamon over Brenda Jordan/Dawn Peterson, 6-1! No Aces. They got this underway on Court Four at 7:05. Not sure when it finished as they went right into another would-be One-Setter which we will get to later in this report.
Moka Pathan over Kris Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces. They played this on Court Two from 7:10 to 7:35.
Mike Mole/Jorge Solano over Frank Samara/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-3! No Aces. It went like this: Frank held serve (Sairaj hit a killer volley winner for 15-Love, but then he blew a volley for 15-All, it then went straight to Double Game Point with another winning volley by Sairaj along the way, it went to Game Point and then came the hold) and Jorge was broken (Double Fault for Love-30, but then it shifted to Game Point as he reversed the trend with an un-returned serve which was followed by a blown volley by Sairaj, then it went to Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce and Break Point again where Sairaj crushed an Overhead Smash winner for the break) to get off to a 0-2 start. Sairaj was also broken (Frank blew a volley and Jorge hit a winning volley on the way to Triple Break Point which would be cut down to Break Point as Jorge blew a volley along the way, but then Frank blew a volley to allow the break), but then so was Mike (Sairaj hit an excellent drop shot volley winner for Love-15 which was where Jorge scored with a winning lob for 15-All only to then have things go right to Double Break Point as Sairaj hit a sizzling winner along the way and then Jorge blew a volley to allow the break) as his team was down 1-3. But from there, Samara was broken at Love as the game was book-ended by a blown volley by Sairaj and a winner from Mike for the break, Solano held (Jorge made an excellent get/passing shot winner combo and then followed that with two un-returned serves to go up Triple Game Point which would then be cut down to Game Point as Frank hit a Backhand Volley winner and Jorge blew a volley along the way, but then the hold came before it could go to Deuce), Srinivasan was broken again (started with a Double Fault and then went straight to Triple Break Point where he hit a truly un-returnable serve to cut the deficit down to Double Break Point only to have the break come there) and Mole held (back-to-back winning volleys by Jorge made it 30-Love, it soon shifted to 30-All as Jorge blew a volley along the way, but then an un-returned serve set up Game Point which was followed by another un-returned serve to secure the hold) as his team just took four straight games to take the lead at 5-3. Hollywood was then broken (a blown volley by Jorge followed by an un-returned serve made it 30-Love only to have Sairaj blow a volley to make it 30-15 where another un-returned serve set up Double Game Point where another blown volley by Sairaj cut the lead to Game Point, it was then Deuce where Sairaj blew an Overhead attempt that sailed long and wide to set up Break/Match Point which was where Mike scored with a winning volley to cap the comeback) as the opposition took five straight games for a great come-from-behind victory! We played this one on Court Three from 7:10 to 7:45.
Doinks Srinivasan/Marie Salamon leading Brenda Jordan/Dawn Peterson, 3-1 (Incomplete when the ladies decided to play it safe and call it quits at 7:50 before the courts got even wetter and slicker)! No Aces.
Moka Pathan/Dennis Cabanatan over Kris Srinivasan/Edwin Ortega, 6-1! No Aces. This one got finished rapidly (and just in time before the rain got even worse) as it started on Court Two at 7:40 and was done by 7:55…just fifteen minutes long!
From there, everyone got the "F" out of Dodge!
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
862-596-3354
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