9/1/17:
"Samara hosts 4 (1 new) at PAC, Doinks/Senthil host 11 at C.G.!":
There were two concurrent sessions of GTA Friday Night Tennis: one at The Park Ave. Courts hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara and also the usual one at The Cedar Grove Courts hosted by both "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan and "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar.
We will first detail the comings and goings in Nutley before we head up to Cedar Grove.
When Samara pulled into the parking lot at Park Ave. at 7:40 and then started heading toward the courts, he saw that once again all four courts were full (as they were on Wednesday night). Over on Court One (the court closest to the entrance gate), he saw two familiar faces along with a new face.
It was "Fantastic" Fausto Murg flying solo hitting against both "ADP" Austin DePol and a new competitor whose name is Tim Nguyen (I will give him the moniker of "TNT"). Like Austin, Tim is very nice and also quite excited at the prospect of playing in a league that offers additional competitors beyond the meet-up group.
Frank asked Fausto if they needed a fourth or if someone else was on the way and Mr. Murg said that he was actually going to have to leave by 8pm. He had only come to the courts to practice his serve and was unaware of the fact that there was going to be a session as he had not heard from "Kaptain" Keith Lewkowitz and "Richie" Rich Liu.
He did, however, still have some time to hit. So Samara took his side in hitting against DePol and Nguyen. They even played one game...a lengthy one with Austin serving. It ended up going to multiple Deuces before DePol was finally able to hold.
Fausto then had to get ready to go. While chit-chatting with Frank, Samara sent a text message to "MC Quick" Mike Carucci since it was Mike who had sent a message to Frank earlier in the day inquiring about the starting time of the Nutley session. Mike's rapid reply was that he was already on his way.
So Murg left at 8pm while De Pol and Nguyen had started a couple of Singles games against each other. When Carucci arrived at 8:10, Austin and Tim finished out that one game and then scrapped what could have been a One-Setter in favor of Doubles.
Samara decided that the most even sides would be if he teamed with Nguyen to take on Carucci and DePol. He also proposed that they play a full 2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match unless a fifth wheel arrived somewhere along the way. Everyone involved agreed to the terms and conditions. And after a ten minute hitting session, the match was underway.
A fifth wheel never arrived. Also, for the first half hour of the match, all the other courts had cleared out entirely...we had the whole place to ourselves! Around 8:45, two guys arrived and took Court Four all the way on the other end. And that would be it for the entire night! I guess the Friday night of Labor Day Weekend coupled with the US Open led to a lower than normal turnout not just for the GTA, but tennis in general.
I also neglected to mention that for a short while there on Court Three there was a guy hitting against a tall, blonde Russian girl (hopefully not his girlfriend or there is truly no justice in this world) who would have made "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli's head start spinning like he was in "The Exorcist!" LOL!
Let's get to the on-court action!
The PAC Result:
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Mike Carucci/Austin DePol over Frank Samara/Tim Nguyen, 6-4, 6-4, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 85 and # 86 Ranked Teams respectively! It was the official GTA Debut of Tim Nguyen. No Aces. It should be noted that for the following sets, it originally was not my priority to note who hit what winners where and when...but the action got so good that I did start at least noting the moments that were either pivotal or simply amazing.
1st Set: Austin held at Love, Frank held serve (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and the hold), Mike held at Love, but Tim was the first to be broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point and the break) to go down 1-3. DePol was broken (started with a Double Fault, 15-All and then two more Double Faults to set up Double Break Point, but then the bounce back to get to Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point where Frank hit the first truly amazing winner of the night as he hit a swinging forehand from the far right corner of his half of the court to go completely cross-court to the opposition's far right corner and just clip the baseline before bouncing out of reach) and then Samara held again (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point which was then reduced to Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold) to level things at 3-3. Carucci was broken (Triple Break Point, Double Break Point and then the break) to lose the lead for his team at 3-4, but Nguyen was broken again and this time it was at Love to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! ADP rebounded with an impressive hold (15-Love, 15-All then straight thru Double Game Point for the hold) and Hollywood then picked the wrong time to be broken for the first time (Triple Break/Set Point where Frank hit another wild winner similar to the previous one except this time it just caught the edge of the sideline and then bounced away from the ever-fast Carucci and that brought it down to Double Break/Set Point and then another save for Break/Set Point and yet another save to bring it to Deuce, but then came the 4th Break/Set Point and finally the break) to drop the set at 8:50 (we had begun this one on Court One at 8:20). One minute later, the next set got underway.
2nd Set: Mike was broken in a crazy battle (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce and then all Break Points until 5th Deuce where Mike hit a net-cord-aided winner for Game Point where Frank hit a highly impressive running volley winner to make it 6th Deuce, Game Point again and then a Double Fault for 7th Deuce and then Break Point where Tim hit a very nice winning volley of his own for the break), but Tim was also broken (the rally of the match up until that moment led to Love-15 and then Frank blew an easy volley to make it Love-30, it went to 15-30, but then Double Break Point and the break). Austin was broken (back-to-back winning volleys by Frank for Love-30, 15-30, Double Fault for Double Break Point which was then another excellent and extended rally which led to Break Point and then came the break), but so was Frank (Tim blew an easy volley to make it Love-15 and then Mike blew an overhead and Frank followed with his third truly wicked winner of the match to shift things to 30-15 only to have them shift once again to Break Point and then the break) as it was 2-2 as nobody could hold serve in this set. That trend continued as Carucci was broken again (15-Love where Frank hit another "living on the edge" style winner for 15-All and then it went point for point until 30-All as Austin had hit an awesome Overhead Smash winner along the way as well and then it went to Break Point and the break), but so was Nguyen (Love-15 where Frank whipped out a fully wound Windmill Overhead Smash that had Austin ducking for cover and it was a winner for 15-All as Frank felt guilty for not going for a similar shot on the previous point, it then went to 30-15, 30-All where Frank hit his second Windmill winner to make it Game Point, Deuce where Tim hit an emphatic winner for Game Point again, then it was 2nd Deuce where Austin hit one of the sweetest volley winners one would ever want to see to set up Break Point where Mike got in on the winner action with a walloping Overhead Smash to earn the break) for 3-3! DePol was broken again (Double Fault for Love-30 where Mike hit an excellent volley winner for 15-30, Double Fault for Double Break Point and then another Double Fault to break himself), but so was Samara (15-Love then point for point to Game Point as both Mike and Tim hit excellent volley winners along the way, but then came Deuce and then Break Point where Frank hit a drop shot that would have been a winner against many only to have Mike hit a mishit volley that confused everyone...including himself...that came back over the net to become his own drop shot winner for the break) to now get to 4-4 without a hold of serve. MC Quick decided to end that trend as he then held serve (Frank hit a drop shot that truly seemed to be a sure winner only to have the lanky and surprisingly speedy make an awesome get/winner combo which he followed in the next point with a winning Backhand Volley to make it 30-Love only to have back-to-back Double Faults level the game at 30-All, it was Game Point where Austin had a rare blown volley for Deuce and then it was all Game Points through to 3rd Deuce, then Game Point where Tim blew an overhead to allow the hold) and then TNT was broken and blown up as he got off to a 15-Love start only to have Mike hit an excellent passing shot winner to reverse the momentum and shift things to 15-30 where Austin had his second rare blow volley of the evening to make it 30-All only to redeem himself with a truly special passing shot volley winner to set up Break/Match Point where Mike finally and firmly ended matters with a monster of an Overhead Smash for the win exactly at 9:35!
The Skinny: This was truly an excellent straight-set match. The difference in the 2nd Set was just that one hold of serve by Carucci who continues to show improvement with each outing. DePol will definitely be a force to reckon with...especially when he has the chance to get up to the net and control the point with volleys and overhead smashes. His serves, when on, are another effective weapon in his arsenal. He had many winning volleys and overheads along with un-returned serves that went un-noted above. Nguyen earns the moniker of TNT for his explosive style and great get-making. He just needs to find a little more consistency in his game to become truly dangerous. It was a lot of fun and we found ourselves fortunate to be the only four in attendance on such a lovely night in Nutley.
But it was also a lovely evening in Cedar Grove as well, so now we turn this report over to Doinks and Senthil.
The Cedar Grove Results:
Kris Srinivasan/Syed Rashid over Jose Gonzales/Frank Hohorst, 6-3! No Aces (apparently).
Levy Lorenzo/Tito Castolo over Mike Mole/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-5! No Aces (apparently).
3 out of 5 Sets Doubles Match:
Mike Mole/Senthil Kumar over Arthur Fontanilla/Justin Berardo, 6-0, 6-4, 6-2, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 87 and # 88 Ranked Teams respectively! It was the official GTA Return of Justin Berardo. No Aces (apparently).
The Untangled Web: Justin is returning to the GTA after a long layoff due to a leg injury.
Senthil Kumar/Justin Berardo over Mike Mole/Arthur Fontanilla, 6-2! No Aces (apparently).
Samara's Notes: I thank both Doinks and Senthil for reporting these results in a very timely fashion. And it is good to see that Justin is back in action.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
862-596-3354
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