12/7/17:
"13 play at The Bubble!":
There was just one session of GTA Thursday 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.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
Senthil Kumar/Rich Liu over Joe Rodrigues/Syed Rashid, 7-5! Rich: 1 Ace on Syed! They played this one on Court Two from 9:25 to 10:05.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Nick Caputo/Ryan Sherry over Tom La/Frank Hohorst, 7-5, 6-3, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 129 and # 130 Ranked Teams respectively! Nick: 1 Ace on Frank in the 2nd Set. They got this one underway on Court Three at 9:27. Not sure when it ended as it went into an additional One-Setter that went unfinished…more on that one later in this report.
Pranav Sinha/Don Moya over Frank Samara/John Rizzo, 6-1! Don: 1 Ace on Frank. It went like this: Frank was broken (John hit a winning volley for 15-Love, but then he blew a volley for 15-All, then a Double Fault made it 15-30, then it was at Double Break Point where Don hit a volley winner for the break) and then Pranav held serve (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All and then Don hit a winning volley followed by a truly inspired Backhand Volley winner to make it Double Game Point, another Double Fault to cut the lead to Game Point, but then came the hold) to go up 2-0. John held (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, but then Pranav hit a winner and Don hit a winning volley to make it 15-30 where two consecutive un-returned serves shifted it to Game Point where Frank hit a winning volley to secure his partner's hold), but Don also held (Don hit another amazing Backhand Volley winner for 15-Love, then hit a corner Ace against Frank for 30-Love, it went to Triple Game Point, but then he hit a Double Fault to make it Double Game Point which was where Pranav hit a winning volley to secure his partner's hold) for a 3-1 lead. Samara was broken again (Love-15, an un-returned serve for 15-All and then Don hit a ripping return winner which soon sent the momentum to Double Break Point where Pranav hit a highly impressive winner for the break) while Sinha held again (started with a Double Fault, but then it was off and running to Double Game Point as he first had an un-returned serve and then Don hit two consecutive volley winners and then the hold came next) to increase his team's lead to 5-1. Rizzo was then broken at Love right after Don hit yet another winning volley to set up Triple Break/Match Point! We played this one on Court One from 9:35 to 9:55.
The Skinny: Moya hit the court with all guns blazing (he even had his forehand working for him on this occasion) and he was ably supported by Sinha who was also quite steady along the way. Meanwhile, Rizzo said he felt exhausted and like he was running around with "Fred Flintstone feet!" Samara was not much better in his efforts to move around the court. And thus, soon the sluggish sloths were swept off the court! Thankfully for them, things would improve throughout the evening.
Tony "Sure Shot" Shiao was a late arrival and he then took the place of Moya in this next one.
Frank Samara/John Rizzo over Tony Shiao/Pranav Sinha, 6-2! No Aces. Here's how it went down: John was broken (Frank blew what should have been a sure volley winner to make it Love-15, then at 15-All it was Pranav hitting a whipping winner which was followed by a nice get/lob combo by Tony to set up Double Break Point, it went to Break Point which was where Tony hit a winning volley for the break), Tony was broken (Pranav blew a volley for Love-15, an un-returned serve for 15-All, but then it went straight to Double Break Point where Tony blew a volley to break himself), but Frank was the first to hold serve (Love-30, 15-30 where John blew a drop shot attempt to set up Double Break Point which was soon bounced back to Deuce where Frank hit an excellent passing shot winner to set up Game Point where he then made a nice get/winner combo to lock down his own hold) to go up 2-1. Pranav was broken (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All and then on the way to Double Break Point where Frank once again badly blew a surefire volley winner to make it Break Point where he then hit a redemptive volley winner for the break) and Rizzo held (30-Love where Tony hit a winning Overhead Smash for 30-15, it then went to Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold) to make it 4-1. Shiao was then broken again (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, 15-30, another Double Fault to make it Double Break Point and then the break) to fall to 1-5, but then Samara was also broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All as Pranav hit a winner along the way, it then had the mini-shift to Break Point where Frank badly blew an overhead to break himself) to have his team's lead cut to 5-2. But then Sinha was broken again (it went 15-Love then point for point until 30-All as Tony hit a winning volley to start it off, John also hit a winning volley, Tony then blew a volley, then there was an un-returned serve and then Tony blew another volley for the mini-shift to Break/Match Point which is where this one ended) to take the loss. This one was also played on Court One and it lasted from 9:59 to 10:25.
The Skinny: Shiao jumped right into the fray with just the shortest of hitting sessions to get warmed up and it showed. Yes, he did have some impressive moments…but his unforced errors outweighed his winners. Sinha also slowed down a bit from his previous set. Meanwhile, both Samara and Rizzo got their respective acts together. Frank still hit some overcooked shots (as "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan often likes to say), but they were born from aggression…so at least there was now some spirit in his stride. He and John were both moving around the court much better in this one.
Joe Rodrigues over Senthil Kumar, 6-3! Joe: 1 Ace. This one took place on Court Two from 10:07 to 10:26. After the previous Doubles One-Setter on this court, the four players split up for Singles action as Court Four had become available once an outside foursome left it around 9:30. The other Singles One-Setter went as follows.
Syed Rashid over Rich Liu, 6-4! No Aces. This one got underway on Court Four around 10:10. Not sure when it ended as it was soon followed by a hitting session.
Frank Samara/John Rizzo over Joe Rodrigues/Pranav Sinha, 6-4! Pranav: 1 Ace on John. The dirty lowdown: Pranav held (Frank hit a drop shot winner and then John hit a winning volley for Love-30 only to then go off the rails as he then blew three consecutive volleys which caused him to let out a raucous roar as it was now Game Point and then came the hold) and then Frank was broken at Love as Joe hit a winning drop shot volley to set up Triple Break Point where Pranav then hit a winning drop shot for the break to make it 0-2! Joe was broken (Joe hit a net-cord-aided winner for 15-Love, a Double Fault to make it 15-All where he then hit an un-returned serve followed by a venomous volley winner by Pranav to set up Double Game Point where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash to make it Game Point, it then went to Deuce, Break Point where Pranav then blew a volley to allow the break) to allow the opposition onto the scoreboard, but then John was also broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love which was where Frank badly blew what should have been a surefire overhead winner to make it 15-All, then another un-returned serve established the path of point for point until 30-All where a rare Double Fault set up Break Point and then came the break) to fall to 1-3. Sinha was broken (Love-30 where Joe hit a winner to make it 15-30 where John hit a winner of his own for 30-All, it then went to Double Break Point where a T-line Ace against John cut it to Break Point, but then came the break) while Samara then held (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point as Frank hit a vicious volley winner to set that up and then he closed his hold with an un-returned serve) to level things at 3-3! Rodrigues held (two consecutive un-returned serves for 30-Love, it was then 30-15 where John blew a drop shot attempt to set up Double Game Point and then came the hold), but Rizzo then held at Love as he started off with an un-returned serve and then followed that with a drop shot winner and was then off and running to knot the score once more at 4-4! The Practitioner was broken again (Pranav hit a winning volley for 15-Love, it shifted to 15-30 right after Frank hit a drop shot volley winner, it then was 30-All where John hit a winning volley to set up Break Point and then came the break) and then Hollywood held again (Love-30 where Joe blew a drop shot attempt and then Frank made a spirited get/winner combo to set up Game/Match Point, but then it went to Deuce and Break Point where Frank made another great/get winner combo to make it 2nd Deuce where Frank then hit a winner to set up the 2nd Game/Match Point where John then finished things off with a winning volley) to get this one done just in time! We played this one on Court One from 10:28 to 11:01.
The Skinny: After the previous One-Setter, Shiao had noticed that Rodrigues and Kumar had just finished their Singles One-Setter on Court Two. Tony seemed keen on playing some Singles while Joe was now open to the idea of playing some Doubles. Senthil was willing to play more Singles, so it would soon be a Shiao-Kumar One-Setter on Court Two (which we will get to next) while we played the above Doubles One-Setter. When Rodrigues was on serve and at Double Game Point to go up 3-0, Rizzo chalked it up to losing steam and perhaps they were about to suffer another sound defeat like they did in their first One-Setter of the evening. But a combination of motivation and a second wind soon kicked in as Frank and John then crawled their way back into this contest. With a 5-4 lead, Rizzo made Samara aware of the fact that there was just four minutes left before 11pm (when all the action should cease or, at least, do so soon after). Of course, whenever you want to close things out quickly…you will usually then end up in a prolonged game. The final game was not only the best one of the set, but the entire evening (well, on Court One…can't speak for the other action elsewhere). It was a fun way to close out the night and even the team on the losing side could hold their heads up high for a fine effort as well.
Senthil Kumar over Tony Shiao, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. Shiao was up 5-1…not in the Tiebreak, but in the set itself! Kudos to Kumar for quite the comeback! They played this on Court Two from 10:28 to 11:10.
Nick Caputo/Ryan Sherry leading Tom La/Frank Hohorst, 4-3 (Incomplete when they stopped this action on Court Three at 11:07…not sure when it got underway as it immediately followed the full match they played earlier). No Aces.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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