12/13/17:
"12 (14?) play at The Bubble!":
There was just one session of GTA Wednesday Night Tennis as there were no results reported from The Cedar Grove Courts. "Hollywood" Frank Samara acted as the host (in terms of collecting the scores) of the Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble organized by "The Riz" John Rizzo.
While there were actually 14 competitors at The Bubble session, I only collected the scores that featured twelve of the players as I did not bother to attempt to grab the results from Court Two as first it was Ted Cedroski going up against Vlad Smolyanskiy in what we presume was at least two Singles One-Setters. So, whatever action Ted and Vlad were involved in will have to remain unofficial.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Women's Doubles Match:
Fadia Nicolas/Jeanette Pegg over Kathy Sheldon/Robin Wilson, 7-5, 6-2, to successfully defend their # 19 Rank in the Women's Doubles Division! In the process, Sheldon/Wilson entered the division as the New # 29 Ranked Team. No Aces. This was the first official action of the evening as it got underway on Court Three at 9:23. The 1st Set ended at 10:08 and the match had finished by 10:48.
Rafaelo Kazakov/Sean McHugh over Kevin Doyle/Sam Senowitz, 6-3! Sam: 4 Aces (2 on each)! They got this one going on Court One at 9:27. Not sure when this set ended as it went right into another one that was unable to be completed (we will note it at the end of this report).
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
John Rizzo/Don Moya over Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 6-1, 6-2, to successfully defend their # 57 Rank in the Doubles Division! No Aces. We did not gain access of Court Four until 9:33 (as this is the one court of the four occupied by others until 9:30 on Wednesday nights). After a seven minute hitting session, we began the match at 9:40 (and we went into it with the idea of it being a full match).
1st Set: Dino was broken (John hit an excellent passing shot winner and Frank blew an easy volley on the way to Triple Break Point, but then an un-returned serve followed by a blistering passing shot winner from Dino soon brought about a bounce back to Deuce, but then came another Break Point and then the break), Don held at Love as he started off with an un-returned serve and Frank blew another volley on the way to Triple Game Point where John hit a winning Overhead Smash to secure his partner's hold and Frank was broken (Don blew a volley for 15-Love, but then Don hit a winner for 15-All, it was then at 15-30 where an un-returned serve made it 30-All, then Break Point and another un-returned serve made it Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to start off down 0-3! John was also broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, but then Don blew a volley and the momentum soon shifted to 15-30 only to then shift again to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to allow the opposition onto the scoreboard, but from there Celis was broken again (John hit a winning drop shot return and then Don hit a drop shot winner for Love-30, a truly un-returnable serve made it 15-30 where Don hit a sizzling passing shot winner for Double Break Point where John had a highly impressive drop shot winner for the break), Moya then held again (an un-returned serve for 15-Love and a bit later it was a truly un-returnable serve to set up Triple Game Point, but then a Double Fault brought that down to Double Game Point where an un-returned serve secured the hold) and Samara was broken again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 as both John and Don blew consecutive volleys, it was then 30-All where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash to set up Game Point, it was then Deuce where Don hit a winner to set up Break/Set Point where he then made an excellent get winner/combo to end the set…which finished at exactly 10:05). There was a two minute break before the next set started. Samara and Celis would switch their service sides in this next set.
2nd Set: John held (John hit a winner and then Don made a great get/winner combo for 30-Love, it then shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce where an un-retuned serve set up another Game Point where Don whacked an excellent Backhand Volley winner to secure his partner's hold), Dino was broken (Love-15 where Frank hit a vicious volley winner followed by a whipping winner from Dino to shift it to 30-15, but then Don hit a blazing return winner for 30-All and then a Double Fault set up Break Point and then came the break) and then Don held (started with a Double Fault, an un-returned serve for 15-All, 15-30 and then a shift to Game Point with a winning volley from John along the way and then another volley winner by John to secure his partner's hold) as his team took another 3-0 lead. But then Frank finally held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point as John blew a volley along the way and then came the hold) to get on the board in this set, but then Rizzo held again (Love-15 where Don hit an emphatic Overhead Smash winner for 15-All only to then blow a surefire volley to make it 15-30 which was where Frank blew an overhead to bring it to 30-All where an un-returned serve set up Game Point and then another locked down the hold) to go up 4-1. Celis was broken again and this time it was at Love as he hit a Double Fault to make it Love-30 and then he hit another on Triple Break Point to break himself and fall to 1-5! Moya was finally broken as he started off with two consecutive Double Faults, then John hit a winning volley for 15-30 only to then blow a volley to set up Double Break Point where Don hit a winner to cut that to Break Point, but then came the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-2. Samara, however, was broken once more in the end (Love-15 where John blew a volley for 15-All where an un-returned serve made it 30-15 which was where Frank blew a volley to bring it to 30-All, it then went to Break/Match Point which was where the break came) to finish the match at exactly 10:32!
The Skinny: The match looks more lopsided than it felt…at least from my vantage point. The primary difference in the 1st Set was Moya always held serve while everyone else was broken. In the 2nd Set, Rizzo and Samara added their names to the list of at least having held serve once. Celis, who has quite the big serve, was never able to dial it in enough to hold at least once throughout the entire contest. Furthermore, his mobility is still limited from the knee surgery he had earlier this year. He is truly hitting some nice shots (both backhands and forehands), but until his agility returns to its previous levels…it is hard for him to split the court enough to keep things balanced against teams prepared to exploit that deficiency as it currently stands.
Frank Samara/John Rizzo over Don Moya/Dino Celis, 6-3! Don: 2 Aces (one on each); Dino: 1 Ace on John; and John: 1 Ace on Don! It went like this: Dino held serve (John made a great dig into a stabbing get/winner combo to start this one off at Love-15, it was then at Love-30 where Don hit a winning volley for 15-30, then it was Double Break Point where Dino hit the corner Ace against John to bring it to Break Point where Don hit a monster Overhead Smash winner to make it Deuce which was where Dino hit a scorching passing shot winner to set up Game Point and then came the hold), John held (Don hit a sizzling passing shot winner of his own and Frank blew a volley on the way to Triple Break Point, but then John hit a winner followed by an un-returned serve on the way to Deuce which was where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash to set up Game Point, then it was 2nd Deuce where Frank hit a volley winner more vicious than the previous Overhead to set up Game Point once again and then John hit a roller over the net for a winner and to secure his own hold), Don held (Love-15 where Don hit a winning lob for 15-All and then he hit a sideline Ace against John for 30-15, it then went to 30-All, Game Point and the hold) and Frank held at Love as it started with Don blowing a volley, Frank making a great get/winner combo which he then followed with an even better winner to set up Triple Game Point where he locked in the hold with an un-returned serve as we were all on serve at 2-2! Celis was the first to be broken (Love-15 where Don then hit an awesome Overhead Smash winner followed by a venomous volley winner to shift it to 30-15, but then Frank hit a winning drop shot return for 30-All and it then went to Break Point and the break) while Rizzo held again (15-Love where Dino hit a blast of a winner which then reversed the momentum as it would then go to 15-30, then it was 30-All where Dino hit a crushing return winner to set up Break Point, but then came the sideline Ace on Don to bring it to Deuce where back-to-back un-returned serves took it to Game Point and then the hold) for 4-2! Moya also held again (Don made a great get/winner combo for 15-Love, then John hit a drop shot winner for 15-All which was where Frank blew a volley for 30-15 where he was then punished with a T-line Ace from Don which set up Double Game Point and then came the hold) to pull to 3-4, but then Samara also held again (John hit a winning drop shot volley to set up Triple Game Point where perhaps an overeager Frank, in trying to hit a winner, slapped a shot into the top of the tape which then dropped down on his side of the net for Double Game Point, but then came the hold) while The Scorpion Dragon was then broken yet again (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, it went to 30-Love before shifting to 30-All, it then went to Game Point, but a Double Fault brought it to Deuce and then it was Break/Match Point where Don blew a volley to end this one just in time) to take the loss at 11:05 (we got this one underway on Court Four at exactly 10:34)!
The Skinny: Having time for one more set, we decided to switch up the teams and this match-up proved to be more balanced. Celis finally broke the curse of being the only one always broken on serve as he finally held to open the set. But that was where his good fortune ended as each member of the opposing team always held serve as did Dino's own partner. So, again, that was the main differential factor in this one. One funny thing to note is that John told Frank after Samara's hold at Love that it may very well be his last Love hold of the 2017 Season. Just one point away from a second straight Love hold, Frank may have been a bit too amped up when he hit that shot into the top of the net…thus denying himself the chance to prove Rizzo wrong. Oh well!
Rafaelo Kazakov/Sean McHugh tied with Kevin Doyle/Sam Senowitz, 6-6 (Incomplete when the session ran out of time)! No Aces. This one was also played on Court One. I thank Kevin for sending me their scores and other details.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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