2/21/18:
"DePol-Mazur B.O.T.S. in Wood-Ridge, 9 compete at Bubble!":
There were two sessions of GTA Wednesday Tennis on a day where the peak temperature reached an amazing 80 degrees! And three would have been three if it were not for the rains that rolled through the area around 7:10/7:15pm which killed the chances of any evening session at The Cedar Grove Courts.
So there was a late-afternoon session at The Wood-Ridge Courts as "ADP" Austin DePol and "Automatic" Anna Mazur got together to play a full "Battle of The Sexes" Match. Via e-mail, they had scheduled the match a couple of days in advance as Anna had been the first one to respond to Austin's Open Challenge.
And then there was the usual Night Owls session at The Wayne Bubble. There were actually eleven players at the session, but we never collected any results involving Ted Cedroski and Vlad Smolyanskiy.
The Wood-Ridge Courts Result:
"Battle of The Sexes" 2 out of 3 Sets Match:
Austin DePol over Anna Mazur, 6-1, 6-0! No Aces (apparently).
Anna's Annotations: His service is excellent. It was great to play him...a very challenging match. Afterward, we played a standalone Tiebreak (unofficial) for fun and he won it, 8-6. It took one hour and sixteen minutes to play all of this...we played in the late afternoon.
Samara's Notes: I thank Anna for submitting this result along with her commentary.
We will now recap what took place at The Wayne Bubble.
Wednesday night last week, we had a 2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match between the teams of "Hollywood" Frank Samara/"Suddenly" Susan Koshy and "The Riz" John Rizzo/Fadia "Finesse" Nicolas. And the action was quite good…so we decided to have a rematch this week now that we are into the official season. Plus, John and Fadia wanted to try to exact a measure of revenge as it was Frank and Susan who had emerged victorious the prior week.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Frank Samara/Susan Koshy over John Rizzo/Fadia Nicolas, 5-7, 6-1, 12-10 (Super Tiebreak), as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 58 and # 59 Ranked Teams respectively! Fadia: 1 Ace on Susan in the 1st Set; and Susan: 1 Ace on Fadia in the 1st Set!
1st Set: John held serve (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and then that was reduced to Deuce, another Game Point, 2nd Deuce, yet another Game Point and then the hold), Frank held at Love and then Fadia was the first to be broken despite starting off with a nice sideline Ace against Susan, but then it went to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point and the break for 1-2. Susan then held (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and then a T-line Ace against Fadia for the hold and then Rizzo was broken (Triple Break Point, the break came on Double Break Point) as his team fell to 1-4. Samara held again (Love-30 shifted straight to Game Point and the hold) to take what seemed to be a very commanding lead at 5-1. But then Nicolas held (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point) and Koshy was broken (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 and then another shift to Break Point and then the break) to have her team's lead cut to 5-3. The Riz then had a Love hold and Hollywood was broken for the first time as a 15-Love start went straight to Double Break Point and the break to level the set at 5-5! Fadia Finesse held again (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) and then Suddenly Susan was broken again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 and then another shift to Break/Set Point, Deuce and then the break came on the 2nd Break/Set Point) as the Rizzo/Nicolas tandem took six straight games to cap an incredible comeback to take the initial set which had started at 9:20 and finished exactly at 10pm. Three minutes later, the next set was underway.
2nd Set: John was broken (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and then the break), Frank was broken (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All and then a mini-shift to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and then the break), Fadia was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and then the break), but Susan was the first to hold serve in this set (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 and then another shift to Break Point, Deuce and then it was all Break Points all the way to 3rd Deuce, then Game Point and the hold) to go up 3-1. Rizzo was broken again (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, then Break Point and the break) while Samara held at Love to go up 5-1. It was at this moment when Frank somewhat jokingly warned Susan that they were here once before. But this time they got the job done as they broke Nicolas at Love on Triple Break/Set Point to level the match at 10:40.
Prior to the 2nd Set, the four parties involved agreed that if the sets were split…they would play a 10-Point Super Tiebreak rather than a full 3rd Set as Rizzo was having some pain issues with his feet plus having enough time to finish the match was also a growing concern. Two minutes later, the STB was underway.
STB: Susan was broken on her lone serve while John held his first, but was then broken on his second for 2-1. Frank was broken on his first, but then held his second for 2-3. Fadia held her first for 4-2 at the changeover, but was then broken on her second for 4-3. Koshy held her first in what was clearly the longest rally of the match (a match that was chock full of long rallies!) to level the STB at 4-4, but then she was broken on her second for 4-5. Rizzo held his first, but was broken on his second for 6-5. Samara was broken on his first for 5-7 at the second changeover, but then held his second for 6-7. It was Nicolas who was the first to hold both of her serves to give her team a 9-6 lead and Match Point for her team! But then Suddenly Susan pulled off the same feat of holding both serves and saving two Match Points to pull to 8-9! Still, there was a 3rd Match Point in favor of the opposition with service returning to The Riz. He was broken on his first serve for 9-9 at the third changeover, but then he held his second for a 10-9 lead and a 4th Match Point in favor his team. The Wood held his first serve to level it again to make it 10-10 and then held the second as well to take an 11-10 lead and earn the first Match Point for his team (which was the 5th M.P. overall). Service returned to Fadia Finesse, but she could not hold her serve as the Samara/Koshy team pulled off a mini-comeback of their own by saving 4 Match Points and then getting the win on their first M.P. opportunity! This match ended just in time at 11pm!
The Skinny: On the only the second day of the 2018 Season, we have a very likely Nominee for Mixed Doubles Match of The Year at season's end. I've given Ms. Nicolas the new moniker of Fadia Finesse as she has a very deft touch with her volleys and drop shots when she gets to the net. Her game was much steadier this week than the week before. And I had never given Ms. Koshy a proper nickname before, but she is Suddenly Susan as she is a surprisingly good get-maker as she is able to make sudden bursts to short balls and then punish them with her high-powered forehand shots.
To his credit, John made several great gets despite enduring much foot pain (including tendonitis on the side of one of his feet…I cannot remember which one). As for me, I got off to a hot start…picking up from where I left off last week…plus it is the way I have played for much of the week. But midway thru that 1st Set, the wheels came off as I started a shank-fest of shots as they went sailing off the frame of my racquet left and right! Thankfully, I got my act back together in the 2nd Set to turn the tide of the match back in my team's favor. Much credit goes to Susan who was not only ever-ready, but also very steady as well. It was a very fun match.
We now go to "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle who sent in the additional results from the session.
Sean McHugh/Sam Senowitz over Kevin Doyle/Jeanette Pegg, 6-4! No Aces (apparently).
Don Moya/Sean McHugh leading Kevin Doyle/Sam Senowitz, 5-4 (Incomplete when the session ended at 11pm)! No Aces (apparently).
Samara's Notes: I thank Kevin for sending in those additional scores.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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