8/6/17:
"Kaz-Norm part of 12 (1 new) at AP, 4 play at NTC, 5 play at C.G.!":
There were three sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the usual morning one at The Albion Park Courts in Clifton hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara, an early evening one at Nutley Tennis Club hosted by "The Riz" John Rizzo and the usual evening one at The Cedar Grove Courts hosted by "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan.
We will first detail the comings and goings at Albion. We will then get the result from John at NTC and then the Cedar Grove scores from Gen.
Samara showed up a little earlier than usual (10:40) as he also had his children (Angie and Dante) with him for the second straight week. When he pulled up, he noticed that all three courts were already in use.
On the North Court, two elderly couples were engaged in some Mixed Doubles action (they were very friendly and ended up leaving at 11:05).
On Center Court, a Singles One-Setter was already in progress between "King Crush" Chris Chiaro and "Lean Daddy" Dean Delgado.
And on the South Court, a Grove Cup XX Round of 32 Match was also underway as it was "Big Kaz" Mike Kazlauskas going up against "Stormin" Norman Taclob. The 1st Set was already drawing close to its conclusion at this time.
"Vintage" Vinnie De Benedetto was waiting along the fence in the area between Center Court and the South Court. He said he had arrived around 10:30.
With the courts full, the kids headed out to the field to go fly a kite (literally...not figuratively...LOL!). At 11am, "Sue B. Newbie" Suzanne Bujara arrived and joined Frank and Vin along the fence waiting to play.
As stated above, the wait would not be long as the senior foursome vacated the North Court at 11:05. That led to Frank, Vin and Suzanne taking that court for a hitting session. When "Big George" Jorge Solano also arrived around that time, we thought it would be Jorge and Vin versus Frank and Suzanne. But Solano wanted to stretch first and also coordinate with Chiaro a time and place to play their Grove Cup XX Round of 32 Match.
Instead, we had at 11:10 the unexpected arrival of "Lightning" Lukasz Krzesiewicz who came down the hill and soon made it a foursome on the North Court as he would end up teaming with De Benedetto to take on Samara and Bujara.
Just minutes after that One-Setter officially got underway, "Latino Heat" Jose Gonzales made his way to the courts at 11:20. At first, he had a one-on-one hitting session with Jorge. But about five minutes later, it led to a Doubles One-Setter as Gonzales teamed with Delgado to take on Chiaro and Solano.
At that same time (11:25), both "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar and Fadia "Fani" Nicolas made their way down the hill toward the courts. Fadia (better known as Fani) has been on our mailing list for at least a couple of weeks now, but today was her first chance to play with us.
This gave us a total of twelve official competitors for the day (lighter than usual, but much better than last Sunday!) and it was a great day to play tennis as it was sunny with hardly any humidity as well. The only minor complaint that sometimes it was more than breezy as a swirling wind often had its way with the ball.
After all the official action wrapped up around 1pm, Senthil and Fadia had an extended hitting session on the South Court while Frank was joined by Dante and Suzanne was joined by Angie for a fun hitting session on the North Court. It was the best that the two young Samaras have ever played as they are finally starting to demonstrate some true future potential in tennis.
It should also be noted that a family of four (a dad and his three children - two daughters and one son) had a much sloppier hitting session on Center Court from 1:05 to 1:40, but they were also quite nice to deal with...a necessity as they often could not keep their balls on their own court (Angie and Dante may have hit two errant balls at most during that time).
Just as both hitting sessions wrapped up around 2pm and everyone left was getting ready to leave, "Coach" Dino Celis arrived at 2:05 to make a late cameo appearance. From there, Frank, Dino and Senthil had a bull session that ran until 2:30. Celis and Kumar likely lingered longer as the Samara family was hungry and left to go home and eat.
The Albion Park Results:
Grove Cup XX Round of 32 Match:
Mike Kazlauskas over Norman Taclob, 6-4, 6-3, to successfully defend his # 12 Rank in the Advanced Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the 20th Annual Grove Coup Tournament! No Aces.
The Skinny: Mike said they arrived at 9:45 and hit for a while. The match started somewhere around 9:55, perhaps 10am. The 1st Set finished at 10:55 and the match ended at 11:35. Norm held his own in the rallies, but the rust factor (he has hardly played this season) made an impact along with the fact that he was getting winded while the very fit Kazlauskas was taking it all in stride. Taclob may be able to stay away from the GTA (to take care of his two young children...which is very noble...so this is not intended as criticism) for extended periods of time and then return to team with his GTA Doubles Championship partner, Tito "Touch" Castolo, and have everything remain relatively A-OK. But playing Singles is a different beast and he can ill afford such a low activity level and still have a chance at advancing in such a talent-laden tourney. Two years ago, this would have been considered to be an upset. But with the ever-improving Big Mike Kaz coming up against a fading "Storm" in Norm, this result was not entirely unexpected.
The Consequences: Kazlauskas now finds himself in the Round of 16 where he awaits the winner of the match between Tony "Sure Shot" Shiao and "Magic" Mike Mole.
Chris Chiaro over Dean Delgado, 6-3! No Aces. This was played on Center Court from 10:36 to 11:06.
Vinnie De Benedetto/Lukasz Krzesiewicz over Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara, 6-3! Lukasz: 3 Aces (2 on Suzanne and 1 on Frank and they were all in a row all within the same game)! It went like this: Lukasz held serve (Frank hit a winning lob for Love-30, but then it went straight to Game Point where Lukasz blew an overhead to make it Deuce, but then an un-returned serve set up Game Point, 2nd Deuce where Vin hit a winning volley to get back to Game Point and then he hit another one to secure his partner's hold), Frank held (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, then Game Point where Vin hit a winning return for Deuce and then it was all Break Points until 4th Deuce, Game Point, 5th Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold...and I could no longer remember who hit what winners where and when once we went to multiple Deuces), Vinnie held (15-Love shifted to 15-30 as Frank made a nice get/winner combo, but then it shifted again to Game Point with an un-returned serve along the way, it went to Deuce where another un-returned serve set up Game Point once more and then came the hold), but Suzanne was the first to be broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, then 15-All and a Double Fault for 15-30, a shift to Game Point as Vin made a great get only to have Frank hit the easy winner from his perch near the net, but then it went to Deuce and then Break Point where Lukasz hit a drop shot winner for the break) for 1-3. Krzesiewicz was broken (Frank hit a passing shot winner for Love-15, 15-All, a Double Fault for 15-30 where Frank hit another passing shot winner to set up Double Break Point, then came Break Point where Frank hit a winning return for the break) to have his team's lead cut to 3-2, but Samara was also broken (Love-30, 15-30 where Suzanne blew a volley to make it Double Break Point where Frank then blew an overhead to break himself) to fall to 2-4. De Benedetto was also broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love and then it went point for point until 30-All as Frank hit a winner and Lukasz hit a passing shot winner along the way, but then it went to Break Point where Vin hit a winning volley for Deuce, but then came Break Point again and then the break) to have his team's lead reduced to 4-3, but Bujara was broken again (Vin hit a winning volley for Love-30, it then went to 15-30 and Double Break Point where Vin hit another winning volley for the break) to fall to 3-5. Lightning then struck fast and hard as first he hit an Ace up the T against Suzanne, then scored with an Ace that just touched the outside of the T-line against Frank and then he hit a serve that approached the service line and confounded Suzanne to jump out to a quick lead at Triple Game/Match Point, it then went to Double Game/Match Point, but then came the hold which was quite the impressive one to close this action out precisely at 12noon (this one got underway on the North Court at exactly 11:18)!
The Skinny: Except for the day before, Lukasz has not played much tennis as of late. There were occasional hints of rust in his game, but when he was on...he was on the money! As for the awesome service game to close things out, he said he did not know where that came from. Vin, despite an ongoing heel injury, moved much better on this day...the best he has moved in quite some time. Suzanne continues to show improvement in each successive outing.
Chris Chiaro/Jorge Solano over Jose Gonzales/Dean Delgado, 6-4! Jose: 1 Ace on Jorge. They played this one on Center Court from 11:30 to 12:08. Chris and Dean were both done after this one. Meanwhile, Jose and Jorge engaged in a lengthy hitting session.
Mike Kazlauskas/Senthil Kumar over Norman Taclob/Fadia Nicolas, 6-2! Mike: 1 Ace on Fadia; and Senthil: 1 Ace on Fadia! It was the official GTA Debut of Fadia Nicolas. This one took place on the South Court and lasted from 11:55 to 12:15. They took a brief breather and switched up the teams for another one which we will get to a little later.
Vinnie De Benedetto/Lukasz Krzesiewicz over Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. Here's how it went down: Frank held (Vin hit a victorious volley for Love-15, it then shifted to 30-15 as Frank hit a winner followed by a winning Overhead Smash, but then Vin hit another winning volley for 30-All, an un-returned serve set up Game Point where Frank blew a drop shot for Deuce and then it was all Break Points until 4th Deuce, Game Point and then the hold), Lukasz was broken (Lukasz hit a winner for 15-Love and then it went point for point until 30-All as Frank hit a winner of his own along the way and then came Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break) and Suzanne held (Double Fault for Love-30, it then shifted straight to Game Point as she first hit an un-returned serve, then she hit an impressive passing shot winner and then Frank made a great/get winner combo to set up the GP and then came the hold) for a somewhat surprising 3-0 lead! Vinnie held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point as Vin hit a winning volley along the way and also scored with an un-returned serve and then came the hold) to get his team onto the scoreboard, but Samara held (an un-returned serve to set up Triple Game Point, Vin then hit a winning return to make it Double Game Point and then Lukasz hit a nice passing shot winner to reduce the lead to Game Point, but then came the hold) to take a somewhat commanding lead at 4-1. Krzesiewicz then held (an un-returned serve and a "Vinnie volley" winner soon led to a lead at Triple Game Point, it was reduced to Double Game Point, but then came the hold) and then Bujara was broken and this time it was at Love as she once again hit a Double Fault to set up Love-30, but then on Triple Break Point it was Lukasz scoring with an awesome Backhand Volley winner for the break to reduce the opposition's lead to 4-3! But De Benedetto was then broken (Vin hit a winner for 15-Love and then it was point for point until 30-All as he hit an un-returned serve along the way and Frank also had a winner of his own and then it was Frank who scored with a running volley winner to set up Break Point which he then followe with an amazing passing shot winner for the break) to fall to 3-5! The Wood was finally broken in this one as Lukasz got the game started with a drop shot winner and soon it was Triple Break Point, it went to Double Break Point only to have Vin hit a drop shot winner of his own and then Lightning struck with another impressive service game as this one was at Love as he started off with an un-returned serve and Vin had a nice Backhand Volley winner to level things at 5-5! Sue B. Newbie was broken again (an un-returned serve followed by a winning drop shot volley from Frank made it 30-Love, then it shifted to 30-All, then Game Point, a Double Fault for Deuce and then another Double Fault to set up Break Point, it went to 2nd Deuce, but then another Break Point where Lukasz made a truly great get that was not a winner, but drew the error for the break) to then fall to 5-6! But Vintage Vinnie was broken as well (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, a shift to Game/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to tie it all up again, but this time at 6-6 and we were headed to the Tiebreak! In the Breaker: Frank held his lone serve and then Lukasz was broken on both of his serves to fall to 0-3! Suzanne was also broken on both of her serves as the second ended with a drop shot winner from Lukasz as his team pulled to 2-3. Vinnie was now on serve and he held the first of his two after Lukasz hit yet another winning drop shot for 3-3 at the changeover. Vin then scored with an un-returned serve to take a 4-3 lead for his team. Samara was broken on the first of his two serves to fall to 3-5, but then he held his second as that one went un-returned to bounce back up to 4-5. Krzesiewicz held the first of his two serves to make it 6-4 and set up the 3rd Match Point in his team's favor only to then hit a Double Fault to make it 6-5. Yet, it was still the 4th M.P. in his team's favor with service returning to Bujara. And she was then broken on that serve for a 7-5 TB score! We played this on the North Court from 12:03 to 1pm.
The Skinny: This was really a high-quality Doubles One-Setter as Vin's movement defied his ailment, Lukasz was continuing to find his rhythm and Suzanne played the best tennis we have yet to see from her. This may have an outside shot at being a Nominee for One-Set Specialty Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.
Senthil Kumar/Norman Taclob over Mike Kazlauskas/Fadia Nicolas, 7-5! Mike: 3 Aces (2 on Senthil and 1 on Norman)! This one occupied the South Court from 12:18 to 1:01. From there, Senthil and Fadia had a very lengthy hitting session with one another.
I also want to thank Suzanne for sticking around so long and engaging in a hitting session with me and my kids. She was a very supportive and calming presence for them and I believe those factors contributed to both of them playing their best tennis to date. Dante, in particular, showed substantial improvement as he is now starting to hit shots over the net while he stands just in front of the baseline. Angie, who is always very competitive, often scored with winning volleys as she chose to play closer to the net.
We now head to NTC for The Riz Report.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Dan Hwang/Paul Daddio over John Rizzo/Alfred Chen, 9-7, 3-6, 9-7, to become the New # 65 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division! No Aces.
The Riz Report: We decided to play out the games (in the 1st and 3rd Sets) Wimbledon-style with no Tiebreaks. It was fun and as equally balanced as it could get. That last set we led 3-1 only to then be down 3-5. Then we led 6-5 and 7-6 only to go down 7-9!
Samara's Notes: I thank John for submitting that result in such a timely manner. That may be a possible Nominee for Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.
We now head up to Cedar Grove for the results from Gen.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Jose Gonzales/Chazz Weldon over Arthur Fontanilla/Genalin Capan, 6-3! Jose: 1 Ace on Arthur; and Arthur: 1 Ace on Jose. We played this one on Court Three from 7:15 to 7:48.
Jose Gonzales/Chazz Weldon over Mike Mole/Genalin Capan, 6-0! No Aces. This one was played from 7:50 to 8:10.
Gen's Notes:After the first One-Setter, Arthur had a hitting session with Guy Dupoux on Court Four. Then after the second One-Setter, Jose and I took the same side of the court and hit against Mike for another 25 minutes before calling it a night.
Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for hosting up at Cedar Grove and submitting those results in such a timely manner.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
862-596-3354
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