11/3/17:
"7 play at PAC, 9 play at C.G.!":
There were two sessions of GTA Friday Night Tennis: one at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara (in terms of reporting the results for the GTA), but the session came together due to the efforts of "Richie" Rich Liu and his Meet-Up Group and "The Riz" John Rizzo coordinating things behind the scenes. The other was the usual one at The Cedar Grove Courts with "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan acting as host, but with scores also reported by "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan and the GTA Champion: "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes.
First, it is off to Nutley we go!
When Samara pulled into the parking lot off of Park Ave. at 7:25, he first saw that Liu was arriving at the same time. The next thing he noticed was only half of the four courts were full.
Earlier in the evening at 7pm, Rizzo had sent a text message to Samara to tell him that the lights had come on thanks to Rich having called his contact at the Nutley Parks and Recreation Dept.
Well, since that time, John was able to gain control of Court One and he ended up in hitting sessions with both Arunraj "Air" Nair and "Muha" Muhammad Haque. Courts Two and Three were both vacant while two other guys had Court Four (and they left at 8pm).
Samara was willing to sit out the first one, but Haque said he would like to wait for others first. So Frank took the side of Arunraj to start hitting against John and Rich and that led to the first One-Setter of the night. Rich said he knew that "Fantastic" Fausto Murg should also soon be on his way.
Murg did not arrive until 8:10. By that time, the second One-Setter of the evening had already started eight minutes prior with Muhammad taking Frank's place. Samara had been holding Court Two and he soon would enter into a hitting session with Murg on that court.
Fausto then took the place of John in the third One-Setter leaving Rizzo and Samara to have a bull session on Court Two. At 9pm, Dino "The Dragon" Celis was something of a surprise arrival. That led to Dino hitting against both Frank and John on Court Two.
At exactly 9:33, Celis had the chance to get involved in the fifth Doubles One-Setter of the night and that gave us a total of seven official competitors. After the session ended, four of us (Frank, John, Rich and Dino) went to grab a bite to eat at Nutley Diner (instead of the usual Franklin Steakhouse).
The diminished turnout was likely due to the surprise change of weather that took place as the afternoon morphed into the evening as high winds and chilly temperatures took over what had been an unseasonably warm day. With the fall feeling finally arriving, there may soon be a change of venue for future Friday night sessions.
And now let's get to the action!
The Park Ave. Courts Results:
John Rizzo/Rich Liu over Frank Samara/Arunraj Nair, 6-2! No Aces. It went like this: Rich held at Love after starting off with two consecutive un-returned serves, Frank held serve (an un-returned serve followed by a victorious volley from Arunraj made it 30-Love which was where John hit an awesome passing shot winner for 30-15, but then another un-returned serve set up Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point), John held (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, then 15-All where an un-returned serve succeeded by a winning Overhead Smash from Rich in the next point soon set up Double Game Point where another un-returned serve secured the hold), but Arunraj was the first to be broken (John hit a drop shot winner to make it Love-15 and it was off and running to Triple Break Point which then got cut down to Game Point where Frank hit a winning Backhand Volley to bring it to Deuce, then it was Break Point again where an un-returned serve made it 2nd Deuce, Break Point again where Frank blew a drop shot attempt to end up breaking his partner) for 1-3. Liu held again (Love-15 where Arunraj blew a volley for 15-All, then a Double Fault for 15-30 which was where Rich hit a sizzling passing shot winner for 30-All and then it was Game Point where Arunraj blew another volley to allow the hold) to increase his team's lead to 4-1, but then Samara also held again (Arunraj hit a vicious volley winner which was then followed by two consecutive un-returned serves to set up Triple Game Point and then Rich made a great get/passing shot winner combo followed by a winning passing shot return from John and then another passing shot winner from Rich made it Deuce where Rich then blew a volley to set up another Game Point where another un-returned serve secured the hold) to pull to 2-4. But from there, Rizzo also held again and this time it was at Love as he started off with two consecutive un-returned serves and then Rich hit a winning Backhand Volley on Triple Game Point to secure his partner's hold and then Nair was broken again and this time it was at Love when this battle ended on Triple Break/Match Point with Rizzo/Liu taking the last eight straight points of the contest! We played this one on Court One from 7:34 to 8:01.
The Skinny: Rich said he wanted to read how John's serve was virtually un-returnable. Rizzo readily acknowledged how the windy conditions were helping his cause as his usual low-slant flat delivery was providing even less bounce than normal. In all fairness, Liu and Samara also served quite well. In fact, the primary difference in this contest was the fact that three players each held twice while Nair was twice broken. Arunraj had not played for a couple of weeks and still had some rust to shake off...as he would proceed to do as the session unfolded.
John Rizzo/Rich Liu over Arunraj Nair/Muhammad Haque, 6-3! Arunraj: 1 Ace on Rich! Here's the basic breakdown: Muhammad held, John held, Arunraj held, but Rich was the first to be broken (30-All and then a Double Fault to set up Break Point and then came the break) for 1-3! From there, it was all Rizzo/Liu as Haque was broken, Rizzo held again, Nair was broken, Liu held and Muha was broken again to end it as The Riz and Richie Running Things took five straight games for a nice comeback! This one was also played on Court One and it lasted from 8:02 to 8:32.
Rich Liu/Arunraj Nair over Fausto Murg/Muhammad Haque, 6-1! Arunraj: 1 Ace on Muhammad (on a second serve)! Court One was once again the scene of the crime as this one started at 8:35 and ended at 8:57.
Fausto Murg/Arunraj Nair over Rich Liu/Muhammad Haque, 6-4! No Aces. Rich and Muhammad were up 3-0 where Liu admittedly "got cocky" as he thought his team was on their way to serving up a bagel. As Newman of "Seinfeld" once said, "not so fast, pretty boy!" Even Haque knew that was foolhardy sentiment as the match was still young. Soon enough, it was tied 3-3. Liu/Haque went up 4-3, but then Murg/Nair took three straight games to cap their comeback win! This was contested on Court One from 8:59 to 9:28. Everyone had their moments, but Muhammad managed to shine on many an occasion as he continues to make great strides in his overall improvement week after week.
Fausto Murg/Dino Celis leading Rich Liu/Arunraj Nair, 5-3 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! Fausto: 1 Ace on Rich; and Dino: 1 Ace on Rich! They got this one underway on Court One at exactly 9:33. Soon, it became a race against the clock! At 9:52, Murg/Celis were up 4-2. At 9:54, they then went up 5-2. But at 9:57, they dropped a game to make it 5-3! That was the pivotal moment as completion was now highly in doubt. Even worse, Dino was now on serve but at Break Point when we went to darkness...so it could have then gone to 5-4!
All in all (despite the diminished turnout), it was another fun session at The Park Ave. Courts.
We now will detail all that took place up at Cedar Grove with Kris providing the main report and there will be contributions from Gen and Nate along the way. Let The K take it away!
Friday night was quite windy and that surely deterred some of the players who had indicated earlier they would come to play. Gen will first report our "Battle of the Sexes" Match featuring Levy Lorenzo and I against Gen and my wife Doinks. It was a confident boosting match for them to prepare them for the coming Sunday Tinseltown Memorial Tournament (with a "Battle of the Sexes" format for the entire Quarterfinals).
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets:
Kris Srinivasan/Levy Lorenzo over Doinks Srinivasan/Genalin Capan, 7-5, 6-3! Kris: 1 Ace on Doinks in the 2nd Set.
Gen's Notes: We played this one from 8pm to 9:15. It was a fun and competitive match. It was also very windy that evening.
Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for contributing to this report. We now turn it back over to Kris.
I played one more set with Rafaelo Kazakov as we went up against Levy and Doinks.
Kris Srinivasan/Rafaelo Kazakov over Levy Lorenzo/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-3! No Aces.
It was a good match for us as Rafaelo did very well with good gets, slices and deep shots.
Nate and Natalia Sout had a good run on the other court going up against Ryan Pienciak and Edgar Valencia.
Samara's Notes: We go to Nate for that score now.
Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout tied with Ryan Pienciak/Edgar Valencia, 6-6 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: Nate initially did not report it since it was incomplete. I thank him for his contribution to this report as well. We now go back to Kris for the last word.
It was a bit cold and quite a windy night, but nevertheless the show must go on! Cheers!
Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kris for all he does for the league up at Cedar Grove.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
"7 play at PAC, 9 play at C.G.!":
There were two sessions of GTA Friday Night Tennis: one at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara (in terms of reporting the results for the GTA), but the session came together due to the efforts of "Richie" Rich Liu and his Meet-Up Group and "The Riz" John Rizzo coordinating things behind the scenes. The other was the usual one at The Cedar Grove Courts with "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan acting as host, but with scores also reported by "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan and the GTA Champion: "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes.
First, it is off to Nutley we go!
When Samara pulled into the parking lot off of Park Ave. at 7:25, he first saw that Liu was arriving at the same time. The next thing he noticed was only half of the four courts were full.
Earlier in the evening at 7pm, Rizzo had sent a text message to Samara to tell him that the lights had come on thanks to Rich having called his contact at the Nutley Parks and Recreation Dept.
Well, since that time, John was able to gain control of Court One and he ended up in hitting sessions with both Arunraj "Air" Nair and "Muha" Muhammad Haque. Courts Two and Three were both vacant while two other guys had Court Four (and they left at 8pm).
Samara was willing to sit out the first one, but Haque said he would like to wait for others first. So Frank took the side of Arunraj to start hitting against John and Rich and that led to the first One-Setter of the night. Rich said he knew that "Fantastic" Fausto Murg should also soon be on his way.
Murg did not arrive until 8:10. By that time, the second One-Setter of the evening had already started eight minutes prior with Muhammad taking Frank's place. Samara had been holding Court Two and he soon would enter into a hitting session with Murg on that court.
Fausto then took the place of John in the third One-Setter leaving Rizzo and Samara to have a bull session on Court Two. At 9pm, Dino "The Dragon" Celis was something of a surprise arrival. That led to Dino hitting against both Frank and John on Court Two.
At exactly 9:33, Celis had the chance to get involved in the fifth Doubles One-Setter of the night and that gave us a total of seven official competitors. After the session ended, four of us (Frank, John, Rich and Dino) went to grab a bite to eat at Nutley Diner (instead of the usual Franklin Steakhouse).
The diminished turnout was likely due to the surprise change of weather that took place as the afternoon morphed into the evening as high winds and chilly temperatures took over what had been an unseasonably warm day. With the fall feeling finally arriving, there may soon be a change of venue for future Friday night sessions.
And now let's get to the action!
The Park Ave. Courts Results:
John Rizzo/Rich Liu over Frank Samara/Arunraj Nair, 6-2! No Aces. It went like this: Rich held at Love after starting off with two consecutive un-returned serves, Frank held serve (an un-returned serve followed by a victorious volley from Arunraj made it 30-Love which was where John hit an awesome passing shot winner for 30-15, but then another un-returned serve set up Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point), John held (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, then 15-All where an un-returned serve succeeded by a winning Overhead Smash from Rich in the next point soon set up Double Game Point where another un-returned serve secured the hold), but Arunraj was the first to be broken (John hit a drop shot winner to make it Love-15 and it was off and running to Triple Break Point which then got cut down to Game Point where Frank hit a winning Backhand Volley to bring it to Deuce, then it was Break Point again where an un-returned serve made it 2nd Deuce, Break Point again where Frank blew a drop shot attempt to end up breaking his partner) for 1-3. Liu held again (Love-15 where Arunraj blew a volley for 15-All, then a Double Fault for 15-30 which was where Rich hit a sizzling passing shot winner for 30-All and then it was Game Point where Arunraj blew another volley to allow the hold) to increase his team's lead to 4-1, but then Samara also held again (Arunraj hit a vicious volley winner which was then followed by two consecutive un-returned serves to set up Triple Game Point and then Rich made a great get/passing shot winner combo followed by a winning passing shot return from John and then another passing shot winner from Rich made it Deuce where Rich then blew a volley to set up another Game Point where another un-returned serve secured the hold) to pull to 2-4. But from there, Rizzo also held again and this time it was at Love as he started off with two consecutive un-returned serves and then Rich hit a winning Backhand Volley on Triple Game Point to secure his partner's hold and then Nair was broken again and this time it was at Love when this battle ended on Triple Break/Match Point with Rizzo/Liu taking the last eight straight points of the contest! We played this one on Court One from 7:34 to 8:01.
The Skinny: Rich said he wanted to read how John's serve was virtually un-returnable. Rizzo readily acknowledged how the windy conditions were helping his cause as his usual low-slant flat delivery was providing even less bounce than normal. In all fairness, Liu and Samara also served quite well. In fact, the primary difference in this contest was the fact that three players each held twice while Nair was twice broken. Arunraj had not played for a couple of weeks and still had some rust to shake off...as he would proceed to do as the session unfolded.
John Rizzo/Rich Liu over Arunraj Nair/Muhammad Haque, 6-3! Arunraj: 1 Ace on Rich! Here's the basic breakdown: Muhammad held, John held, Arunraj held, but Rich was the first to be broken (30-All and then a Double Fault to set up Break Point and then came the break) for 1-3! From there, it was all Rizzo/Liu as Haque was broken, Rizzo held again, Nair was broken, Liu held and Muha was broken again to end it as The Riz and Richie Running Things took five straight games for a nice comeback! This one was also played on Court One and it lasted from 8:02 to 8:32.
Rich Liu/Arunraj Nair over Fausto Murg/Muhammad Haque, 6-1! Arunraj: 1 Ace on Muhammad (on a second serve)! Court One was once again the scene of the crime as this one started at 8:35 and ended at 8:57.
Fausto Murg/Arunraj Nair over Rich Liu/Muhammad Haque, 6-4! No Aces. Rich and Muhammad were up 3-0 where Liu admittedly "got cocky" as he thought his team was on their way to serving up a bagel. As Newman of "Seinfeld" once said, "not so fast, pretty boy!" Even Haque knew that was foolhardy sentiment as the match was still young. Soon enough, it was tied 3-3. Liu/Haque went up 4-3, but then Murg/Nair took three straight games to cap their comeback win! This was contested on Court One from 8:59 to 9:28. Everyone had their moments, but Muhammad managed to shine on many an occasion as he continues to make great strides in his overall improvement week after week.
Fausto Murg/Dino Celis leading Rich Liu/Arunraj Nair, 5-3 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! Fausto: 1 Ace on Rich; and Dino: 1 Ace on Rich! They got this one underway on Court One at exactly 9:33. Soon, it became a race against the clock! At 9:52, Murg/Celis were up 4-2. At 9:54, they then went up 5-2. But at 9:57, they dropped a game to make it 5-3! That was the pivotal moment as completion was now highly in doubt. Even worse, Dino was now on serve but at Break Point when we went to darkness...so it could have then gone to 5-4!
All in all (despite the diminished turnout), it was another fun session at The Park Ave. Courts.
We now will detail all that took place up at Cedar Grove with Kris providing the main report and there will be contributions from Gen and Nate along the way. Let The K take it away!
Friday night was quite windy and that surely deterred some of the players who had indicated earlier they would come to play. Gen will first report our "Battle of the Sexes" Match featuring Levy Lorenzo and I against Gen and my wife Doinks. It was a confident boosting match for them to prepare them for the coming Sunday Tinseltown Memorial Tournament (with a "Battle of the Sexes" format for the entire Quarterfinals).
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets:
Kris Srinivasan/Levy Lorenzo over Doinks Srinivasan/Genalin Capan, 7-5, 6-3! Kris: 1 Ace on Doinks in the 2nd Set.
Gen's Notes: We played this one from 8pm to 9:15. It was a fun and competitive match. It was also very windy that evening.
Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for contributing to this report. We now turn it back over to Kris.
I played one more set with Rafaelo Kazakov as we went up against Levy and Doinks.
Kris Srinivasan/Rafaelo Kazakov over Levy Lorenzo/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-3! No Aces.
It was a good match for us as Rafaelo did very well with good gets, slices and deep shots.
Nate and Natalia Sout had a good run on the other court going up against Ryan Pienciak and Edgar Valencia.
Samara's Notes: We go to Nate for that score now.
Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout tied with Ryan Pienciak/Edgar Valencia, 6-6 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: Nate initially did not report it since it was incomplete. I thank him for his contribution to this report as well. We now go back to Kris for the last word.
It was a bit cold and quite a windy night, but nevertheless the show must go on! Cheers!
Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Kris for all he does for the league up at Cedar Grove.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
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