10/26/17:
"Samara hosts 9 at C.G.!":
There were just one session of GTA Thursday Night Tennis and it was the usual one at The Cedar Grove Courts with "Hollywood" Frank Samara acting as the host. A slight dip in the temps caused a major dip in the turnout as we went from having 28 official competitors on Wednesday night to just nine players the next night!
While it may have been windy elsewhere, the air was relatively still and calm at the courts. Still, there was definitely a chill in the air…but once you got moving out on the courts, it felt refreshing and reinvigorating. It was the type of evening where you could just play all night long and not get all that sweaty or exhausted.
When Samara pulled into the lot at 7:20, only Court Four was occupied. Four of our players were out on it as GTA Champion: "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes and "Del Brotro" Mike Mole were hitting against "The Bulgarian Bull" Jordan Bachvaroff and the usual host of the Cedar Grove sessions, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan. They got a Doubles One-Setter going with those same teams just five minutes later.
At that same moment, "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli rolled into the lot and then took a seat next to Frank on the bench outside the fence of Court Four. And then The Hecklers got going. The Wood and The Doc would have been happy to just bust balls all night long. They would eventually be pulled into the action, however.
There would never be any non-GTA players at the courts the entire evening. At 7:45, "The Levitator" Levy Lorenzo arrived. The chilly conditions seemed to affect him much more than they did the quite comfortable and relaxed Hecklers on the bench. Levy was pacing back and forth trying to stay warm.
When the first One-Setter ended at 7:55, Frank and Spin told Levy to take the place of Kris (who was willing to step off for others at that time) as he seemed to need to get moving the most. Then when we had "The Rogue" Rob Gawley arrive at 8pm, we now had our second foursome for some action over on Court Three.
We decided to have it be The Foundation (Samara/Martinelli) versus Kris and Rob. We got that Doubles One-Setter officially underway at exactly 8:07.
Talk about timing! Just three minutes later, "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan made her way across the street only to find that she was now "the ninth wheel" and would have to wait quite a while as both One-Setters were still in the early stages. She was pacing back and forth, practice swinging and doing whatever else she could to stay warm out in the parking lot. We were worried that she was going to turn into a "Doinksicle!" LOL!
When the second Doubles One-Setter of the night finished on Court Four, Levy was nice enough to sit the next one out and take a seat on the bench to let Doinks come in and play. And then when the third One-Setter ended on Court Three exactly at 9:01 (a 56 minute set!), Spin stepped off like George Costanza to allow Levy back into the action.
And those were the only nine players we had the entire evening. There were no cameo appearances either…so let's get to the action!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Nathan Fernandes/Mike Mole over Jordan Bachvaroff/Kris Srinivasan, 6-2! Mike: 1 Ace on Kris (a funny one because it occurred just as Jordan let out a big burp…perhaps it distracted his partner, Kris, so we called it "The Burp Ace!" LOL!). This was contested on Court Four from 7:25 to 7:55.
Nathan Fernandes/Levy Lorenzo over Jordan Bachvaroff/Mike Mole, 6-2! Mike: 1 Ace on Nate. Also conducted on Court Four, this one lasted from 8:02 to 8:40.
Frank Samara/Dan Martinelli over Kris Srinivasan/Rob Gawley, 6-4! No Aces. It went like this: Spin was broken (Love-15 shifted straight to Double Game Point where Rob hit a drop shot winner for Game Point, then it went to Deuce, Break Point where Kris blew an overhead to bring it back to 2nd Deuce which was where Kris hit a blistering return winner to bounce it back to Break Point only to have an un-returned serve send it to 3rd Deuce, Break Point again where another un-returned serve now made it 4th Deuce, Break Point again and yet another un-returned serve as Rob netted yet another return attempt which now brought it to 5th Deuce and then still one more Break Point where Rob redeemed himself with another drop shot winner to get the break…shocked I remembered all the winners in this one!) and then Rob held at Love after he started off with a truly un-returnable serve and then Frank blew a volley to set up Triple Game Point and then came the hold for a 2-0 lead. Frank held serve (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, then 30-Love, 30-15 where Kris blew an overhead to make it Double Game Point where another un-returned serve secured the hold) and then Kris was broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love and then point for point until 30-All, Break Point where Kris blew another overhead to basically break himself) as the set was leveled at 2-2. Martinelli was broken again (Kris hit a vicious volley winner for Love-15 and then Spin made a great get in the next point which led to it becoming 15-All and then an un-returned serve made it 30-15 where Frank then blew a volley to make it 30-All and then it was Game Point where Kris had back-to-back winning volleys to take it to Deuce and then Break Point where he finished things off with a winning Overhead Smash to get the break as it suddenly became "The Kris Show!"), but Gawley was also broken and this was a game that went so long that I could only remember the early and late winners (Kris continued his hot streak in the early stages of this one with a laser-like passing shot winner and a whopper of a winner on the way to Triple Game Point, then it was Double Game Point where a Double Fault made it Game Point, then it went to Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point, 3rd Deuce and then all Break Points to 6th Deuce where Frank hit a winner to set up the next Break Point where Spin then hit a winner to finally get the break) and tie things up again, this time at 3-3! Samara held again (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, 15-All, a Double Fault for 15-30 where Rob hit a nice winner to set up Double Break Point where Frank made a great get/winner combo to take it down to Break Point where Frank followed with another winner to bring it to Deuce and then came Game Point where Frank secured his own hold with a dramatic drop shot winner as it seemed like Mr. Samara and Mr. Gawley were trying to one-up one another with drastic slice shots constantly being pulled out of their respective "bag of tricks") to go up 4-3, but then Srinivasan held as well and it was at Love as he hit un-returned serves twice against Spin as now he was the returner who could not dial it in and now we knotted the score once more, this time at 4-4! The Doc finally held serve (Kris hit another missile-like passing shot winner for Love-15, it was then Love-30 before an un-returned serve shifted the momentum to 30-All which was where Kris hit a net-cord-aided return winner to set up Break Point where Spin feared he would be broken a third time, but he mustered up another un-returned serve to bring it to Deuce where perhaps the best rally of the match was played and it led to Game Point being set up where Frank locked down his partner's hold with a winning Windmill Overhead Smash) and then The Rogue was broken again (Love-15, 15-All and then onto Double Break/Match Point where Kris scored with his third highly impressive passing shot winner of the set to reduce his team's deficit to Break/Match Point but then came the break) to take a tough loss! Court Three hosted this one from 8:07 to 9:01…56 minutes long…the type of duration usually reserved for Tiebreaker One-Setters!
The Skinny: All four of us had triumphant moments to boost our egos only to then burst those balloons with errant shots of buffoonery! It was competitive yet fun…good-natured trash talking and laughs all around…the way we like it! Any true criticism was always self-directed as Frank often called himself a jerk-off (as usual) while Rob frequently said, "You suck, Gawley!" Good times!
Jordan Bachvaroff/Mike Mole over Nathan Fernandes/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1! No Aces. These four faced off on Court Four from 8:48 to 9:18. After this one, The Champ headed home.
Kris Srinivasan/Rob Gawley over Frank Samara/Levy Lorenzo, 6-3! No Aces. Here's how it went down: Frank was broken for the first time of the night (Kris hit yet another passing shot winner for Love-30, it went to Triple Break Point, Double Break Point and then the break), Kris was broken (Kris blew an overhead to make it Love-30, an un-returned serve made it 15-30, then Double Break Point and Break Point where Rob blew an overhead to allow the break), Levy was broken at Love after Kris hit a big-time Overhead Smash winner to set up Triple Break Point and then Rob was the first to hold serve (started with back-to-back un-returned serves and then Rob scored with an awesome passing shot winner of his own to set up Triple Game Point, but instead of getting what looked to be a certain Love hold, that lead was reduced to Game Point before finally getting the hold) for 3-1. Samara was broken again (Love-15 and then point for point until 30-All as Kris hit a winning return along the way, it then took a slight shift to Game Point where Kris scored with a well-executed drop shot winner to make it Deuce and then it went to Break Point where Frank scored with a surprising get/winner combo to bounce it back to 2nd Deuce, then came another Break Point where Frank hit a dramatic drop shot winner for 3rd Deuce, then Game Point, 4th Deuce, Break Point and finally the break) to fall to 1-4, but Srinivasan was also broken again (15-Love where Frank hit a highly effective passing shot winner of his own for 15-All and then a Double Fault made it 15-30, Double Break Point and then another Double Fault to break himself) to cut his team's lead to 4-2. Lorenzo was broken at Love yet again as Kris hit a drop shot winner to set up Triple Break Point and then Frank blew a volley to allow the break as their team fell to 2-5, but then Gawley was also broken in the longest game of the night where I only remembered the winners that took place before it went to Deuce (30-Love where Levy hit a sizzling return winner to reverse the momentum and then it went to 30-All where an un-returned serve set up Game/Match Point, then Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point, 4th Deuce, 3rd Game/Match Point, 5th Deuce, Break Point, 6th Deuce, Break Point, 7th Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-3. But then The Wood was broken for the third straight time (Rob hit a killer drop shot winner for Love-30, then Kris blew a drop shot attempt to make it 15-30, then 30-All where Frank blew a volley and that set up Break/Match Point and then came the break on the 4th M.P. overall) to get the big "L!" This was contested on Court Three from 9:04 to 9:46. Rob and Levy both left soon after.
The Skinny: The tone was a little more serious in this one as Levy doesn't bring the levity that Spin provides (he took his Heckler antics over to the next court, much to Jordan's dismay) and Frank seemed to lose the edge he had in the previous One-Setter. Levy also seemingly got cold having sat out for a while on the bench. Kris and Rob, however, gained some momentum in this one and also developed a higher level of teamwork as a result.
Mike Mole/Dan Martinelli over Jordan Bachvaroff/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2! Mike: 4 Aces (two on each and the first one each was dubiously disputed by both as Doinks and Jordan offered up the excuse of "I wasn't ready!" when really they should have been…LOL!). Down 2-5, Jordan was broken at Love to end this one. He said he could not concentrate due to the chicanery offered up by the man best known as simply Spin! This one occupied Court Four from 9:23 to 9:50. Jordan left soon after.
That left five of us behind: Kris/Doinks, Mike, Spin and me. We had a bull session that ran until 10:45. It was filled with non-stop laughter. One memorable moment was when Spin wanted to say that he likes skinny chicks, but instead said that he likes "chinny sticks!" We then joked that it sounded like a good name for a new snack. If they ever hit the market, please notify us…as they owe us royalties! LMAO!
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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