3/2/18:
"Mole-Barbieri part of 14 (1 New) at Bubble Party!":
There was just one session of GTA Friday Tennis and it was the usual GTA Friday Night Tennis Party at The Wayne Bubble with both "Hollywood" Frank Samara (in terms of reporting the results for the GTA) and "The Riz" John Rizzo (coordinating the registration efforts, booking the courts, supplying the food and beverages, etc.) hosting it.
With the wild winter weather throughout the day (and varying upon location), it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride in terms of registrations as we had some late cancellations (either out of fear of the forecasts or genuine last-minute conflicts caused by the conditions) while others (upon receiving the late update via e-mail via Rizzo that the Party was, in fact, still on) decided to jump on board late in the process.
We need at least twelve competitors to make these Party sessions worthwhile and we ended up, instead, with a solid turnout (given the circumstances) of 14 players (and that was with Rizzo opting to sit out of the action as he allows his ongoing foot issues/injuries to heal).
In a situation where there are 14 attendees, you have three courts of Doubles action and then one court for Singles. We asked the two youngest guys in attendance, "Del Brotro" Mike Mole and "CB" Chris Barbieri, if they would be willing to play Singles and each said they were fine with that.
Two hours of non-stop play allows a lot of full matches to happen. So it all unfolded as follows.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Jose Gonzales/Ryan Sherry over Tito Castolo/John Palaca, 6-3, 6-4, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 150 and # 151 Ranked Teams respectively! Ryan: 1 Ace on Tito in the 2nd Set! It was the official GTA Debut of John Palaca.
Everyone took the courts right around the same time, but this was the first match to officially get underway (at 8:22 on Court Two). Not sure when it finished as they were then able to continue on and play an entire other full match...which we will get to later in this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Rich Liu/Sam Wong over Ray Spadaro/Tim Nguyen, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 152 and # 153 Ranked Teams respectively! Sam: 1 Ace on Ray in the 1st Set!
This friendly but competitive war waged on for quite some time. It officially got underway on Court Four at 8:23, but I'm not sure when it finished. Afterward, Rich and Sam had a Singles hitting session against one another for the balance of time remaining in the session.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Fadia Nicolas/Denise Savino over Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, as Nicolas/Savino entered the Women's Doubles Division as the New # 31 Ranked Team per the New TMT Rules that went into effect late in the 2017 Season! Fadia: 2 Aces on Suzanne (1 in the 1st Set and 1 in the 3rd Set)! This match got started on Court Three (aka The Show Court) at exactly 8:24. Here's the breakdown of the games/sets:
1st Set: Fadia was broken (Love-15, 15-All, a corner Ace on Suzanne for 30-15, but then a shift to Break Point and the break) and Frank held serve (Love-30 went straight to Game Point and the hold) to go up 2-0. But then Denise held at Love and Suzanne was broken at Love to level the set at 2-2! When Nicolas went up Triple Game Point on her next service, it meant that her team had just won eleven straight points! But then that lead was reduced to Game Point before she could finally hold serve for a 3-2 lead. Samara held again (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to tie things up again, this time at 3-3. But from there, Savino also held again (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold), Bujara was broken again (Love-15, 15-All, but then right to Double Break Point, a bounce back to Deuce, another Break Point and then the break) and Fadia Finesse held again (Love-15 went straight to Double Game/Set Point, the hold came on Game/Set Point) as this set finished at 8:55. Two minutes later, we were onto the next one.
2nd Set: Frank held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold), Fadia held (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point), but Suzanne was broken at Love for 1-2. Denise was broken for the first time (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) while Samara held yet again (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold) to get a 3-2 lead for his team. Nicolas held at Love to level the set at 3-3 and then Bujara was broken again (15-Love went right to Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 3-4. But Savino was also broken again (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All and then straight to Double Break Point and the break) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Hollywood held once more (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) while Fadia Finesse was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All as it then shifted to Break/Set Point and then the break) to drop the set and level the match at 9:30. Two minutes later, the deciding set would get underway. With the last set ending even in games and the two teams not having a changeover between sets, Samara/Bujara decided to switch up their service sides in order to enable to have Frank start in the serving rotation. That may have been a mistake as...
3rd Set: Frank was broken for the first time in the match (Triple Break Point, the break came on Double Break Point), Denise was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, the break came on Break Point) and Suzanne was broken (15-Love, 15-All and then right to Double Game Point, reduced to Deuce, Break Point and the break), but Fadia was the first to hold in this set (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) to go up 3-1. Samara held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) and Savino was broken again (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break) to level the set at 3-3. But from there, Bujara was broken again (Triple Game Point was reduced all the way to Deuce, Break Point and the break) and Nicolas held again (30-Love, a sideline Ace against Suzanne to set up Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point) to go up 5-3. The Wood was then on service and would fight to save the match in quite the struggle and best game of the entire contest as a Love-15 start shifted straight to Double Game Point which was then reduced to Deuce, Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, 2nd Break/Match Point, 3rd Deuce, 3rd Break/Match Point, 4th Deuce, 4th Break/Match Point, 5th Deuce, 5th Break/Match Point and finally the break to break the hearts of Frank and Suzanne as this battle of attrition ended exactly at 10:04!
The Skinny: With the TMT Rules now in effect for this entire season (and going forward), I'm sure we will see many matches such as this where Mixed Doubles Teams face either Women's Doubles Teams or Mixed Doubles Teams (or even Men's Teams vs. Women's Teams) in order to get ranked in their respective divisions. As such, this match will likely get trumped as the season grows older in terms of being a potential Nominee for Specialty Doubles Match of The Year. But this early on in the year, it is the match to beat for that Award at season's end.
This was a lot of fun, but was also very competitive throughout the entire contest. Fadia was a very steady presence for her team while Denise was often the difference-maker. She haunted me with her favorite shot - a two-handed backhand volley that sends the ball to the Doubles Alley at a short and sharp angle and then it would bounce into the side nets (that separate the courts) not allowing me a chance to make a play on it. I did get to one of them and returned it for a winner with a slice backhand of my own and it was my proudest moment of the match...but that was the only one out of a dozen opportunities or so!
Suzanne continues to show improvement as her get-making and shot-making continue to become more aggressive and impressive. I told her that I can no longer call her "Sue B. Newbie" as she is now in her second season with us. During the match, I started calling her "Sneaky Suzanne" as she often hits a sharp, but short forehand return that is almost a drop shot (even though it is not intended to be) as it also lands in the space between the server and the partner playing net. She won many points that way. I'm not sure she likes the new moniker, but it is intended as a compliment. That will be her nickname for now until I can come up with something better for her. Her only liability at this point is her service game as she needs to get more pace on her serves so that the returning team can no longer "eat them up" and put them away for winners. The pivotal game in the 3rd Set was when she had a Triple Game Point lead and it looked like Suzanne would not only have her first hold of the match, but at Love no less! Instead, we then lost a bunch of points and she wound up getting broken once again. Had we managed to earn the hold, I do believe the end result of the entire match would have turned out differently. Oh well...it was still fun as hell!
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Mike Mole over Chris Barbieri, 6-3, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 4 Rank in the Intermediate Division! In the process, Barbieri moved out of the Non-Competing Men's Division and into the Intermediate Division as its New # 38 Ranked Player. Mike: 1 Ace in the 1st Set! They began this battle on Court One at 8:25. Not sure when they finished as they then entered into a long hitting session to finish out the night.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Tito Castolo/John Palaca over Jose Gonzales/Ryan Sherry, 6-2, 6-1, to become the New # 150 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division! No Aces. Not sure when this one started or when it finished (again, played on Court Two), but these two teams managed to play two full matches (a total of four sets) within the two hour party session...pretty amazing! They did finish this one just in time at 10:15.
Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara leading Fadia Nicolas/Denise Savino, 3-0 (Incomplete when we had to stop as the session was now at 10:15...we also decided to forego the changeovers in this one...having started this at 10:06 on Court Three...so we knew we had little to no change of getting in a full set)! Fadia: 1 Ace on Suzanne! Here's how it was going: Denise was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) and then Frank held at Love for a 2-0 lead. Fadia was broken (Love-30, a service-line Ace against Suzanne for 15-30, then Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) for 0-3. Suzanne was about to serve as we were then told to "shut it down."
It was a small measure of revenge for us. Suzanne and I joked how we started making some shots that we failed to come up with when it counted officially in the earlier match. Ah well, that's how it often goes once the pressure is off and you're just playing for fun.
After the session ended, Samara, Rizzo, Mole and Liu went to the Tick Tock Diner where they met up with "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis for the usual post-Party festivities.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
"Mole-Barbieri part of 14 (1 New) at Bubble Party!":
There was just one session of GTA Friday Tennis and it was the usual GTA Friday Night Tennis Party at The Wayne Bubble with both "Hollywood" Frank Samara (in terms of reporting the results for the GTA) and "The Riz" John Rizzo (coordinating the registration efforts, booking the courts, supplying the food and beverages, etc.) hosting it.
With the wild winter weather throughout the day (and varying upon location), it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride in terms of registrations as we had some late cancellations (either out of fear of the forecasts or genuine last-minute conflicts caused by the conditions) while others (upon receiving the late update via e-mail via Rizzo that the Party was, in fact, still on) decided to jump on board late in the process.
We need at least twelve competitors to make these Party sessions worthwhile and we ended up, instead, with a solid turnout (given the circumstances) of 14 players (and that was with Rizzo opting to sit out of the action as he allows his ongoing foot issues/injuries to heal).
In a situation where there are 14 attendees, you have three courts of Doubles action and then one court for Singles. We asked the two youngest guys in attendance, "Del Brotro" Mike Mole and "CB" Chris Barbieri, if they would be willing to play Singles and each said they were fine with that.
Two hours of non-stop play allows a lot of full matches to happen. So it all unfolded as follows.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Jose Gonzales/Ryan Sherry over Tito Castolo/John Palaca, 6-3, 6-4, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 150 and # 151 Ranked Teams respectively! Ryan: 1 Ace on Tito in the 2nd Set! It was the official GTA Debut of John Palaca.
Everyone took the courts right around the same time, but this was the first match to officially get underway (at 8:22 on Court Two). Not sure when it finished as they were then able to continue on and play an entire other full match...which we will get to later in this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Rich Liu/Sam Wong over Ray Spadaro/Tim Nguyen, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 152 and # 153 Ranked Teams respectively! Sam: 1 Ace on Ray in the 1st Set!
This friendly but competitive war waged on for quite some time. It officially got underway on Court Four at 8:23, but I'm not sure when it finished. Afterward, Rich and Sam had a Singles hitting session against one another for the balance of time remaining in the session.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Fadia Nicolas/Denise Savino over Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, as Nicolas/Savino entered the Women's Doubles Division as the New # 31 Ranked Team per the New TMT Rules that went into effect late in the 2017 Season! Fadia: 2 Aces on Suzanne (1 in the 1st Set and 1 in the 3rd Set)! This match got started on Court Three (aka The Show Court) at exactly 8:24. Here's the breakdown of the games/sets:
1st Set: Fadia was broken (Love-15, 15-All, a corner Ace on Suzanne for 30-15, but then a shift to Break Point and the break) and Frank held serve (Love-30 went straight to Game Point and the hold) to go up 2-0. But then Denise held at Love and Suzanne was broken at Love to level the set at 2-2! When Nicolas went up Triple Game Point on her next service, it meant that her team had just won eleven straight points! But then that lead was reduced to Game Point before she could finally hold serve for a 3-2 lead. Samara held again (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to tie things up again, this time at 3-3. But from there, Savino also held again (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold), Bujara was broken again (Love-15, 15-All, but then right to Double Break Point, a bounce back to Deuce, another Break Point and then the break) and Fadia Finesse held again (Love-15 went straight to Double Game/Set Point, the hold came on Game/Set Point) as this set finished at 8:55. Two minutes later, we were onto the next one.
2nd Set: Frank held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold), Fadia held (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point), but Suzanne was broken at Love for 1-2. Denise was broken for the first time (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) while Samara held yet again (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold) to get a 3-2 lead for his team. Nicolas held at Love to level the set at 3-3 and then Bujara was broken again (15-Love went right to Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 3-4. But Savino was also broken again (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All and then straight to Double Break Point and the break) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Hollywood held once more (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) while Fadia Finesse was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All as it then shifted to Break/Set Point and then the break) to drop the set and level the match at 9:30. Two minutes later, the deciding set would get underway. With the last set ending even in games and the two teams not having a changeover between sets, Samara/Bujara decided to switch up their service sides in order to enable to have Frank start in the serving rotation. That may have been a mistake as...
3rd Set: Frank was broken for the first time in the match (Triple Break Point, the break came on Double Break Point), Denise was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, the break came on Break Point) and Suzanne was broken (15-Love, 15-All and then right to Double Game Point, reduced to Deuce, Break Point and the break), but Fadia was the first to hold in this set (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) to go up 3-1. Samara held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) and Savino was broken again (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break) to level the set at 3-3. But from there, Bujara was broken again (Triple Game Point was reduced all the way to Deuce, Break Point and the break) and Nicolas held again (30-Love, a sideline Ace against Suzanne to set up Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point) to go up 5-3. The Wood was then on service and would fight to save the match in quite the struggle and best game of the entire contest as a Love-15 start shifted straight to Double Game Point which was then reduced to Deuce, Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, 2nd Break/Match Point, 3rd Deuce, 3rd Break/Match Point, 4th Deuce, 4th Break/Match Point, 5th Deuce, 5th Break/Match Point and finally the break to break the hearts of Frank and Suzanne as this battle of attrition ended exactly at 10:04!
The Skinny: With the TMT Rules now in effect for this entire season (and going forward), I'm sure we will see many matches such as this where Mixed Doubles Teams face either Women's Doubles Teams or Mixed Doubles Teams (or even Men's Teams vs. Women's Teams) in order to get ranked in their respective divisions. As such, this match will likely get trumped as the season grows older in terms of being a potential Nominee for Specialty Doubles Match of The Year. But this early on in the year, it is the match to beat for that Award at season's end.
This was a lot of fun, but was also very competitive throughout the entire contest. Fadia was a very steady presence for her team while Denise was often the difference-maker. She haunted me with her favorite shot - a two-handed backhand volley that sends the ball to the Doubles Alley at a short and sharp angle and then it would bounce into the side nets (that separate the courts) not allowing me a chance to make a play on it. I did get to one of them and returned it for a winner with a slice backhand of my own and it was my proudest moment of the match...but that was the only one out of a dozen opportunities or so!
Suzanne continues to show improvement as her get-making and shot-making continue to become more aggressive and impressive. I told her that I can no longer call her "Sue B. Newbie" as she is now in her second season with us. During the match, I started calling her "Sneaky Suzanne" as she often hits a sharp, but short forehand return that is almost a drop shot (even though it is not intended to be) as it also lands in the space between the server and the partner playing net. She won many points that way. I'm not sure she likes the new moniker, but it is intended as a compliment. That will be her nickname for now until I can come up with something better for her. Her only liability at this point is her service game as she needs to get more pace on her serves so that the returning team can no longer "eat them up" and put them away for winners. The pivotal game in the 3rd Set was when she had a Triple Game Point lead and it looked like Suzanne would not only have her first hold of the match, but at Love no less! Instead, we then lost a bunch of points and she wound up getting broken once again. Had we managed to earn the hold, I do believe the end result of the entire match would have turned out differently. Oh well...it was still fun as hell!
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Mike Mole over Chris Barbieri, 6-3, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 4 Rank in the Intermediate Division! In the process, Barbieri moved out of the Non-Competing Men's Division and into the Intermediate Division as its New # 38 Ranked Player. Mike: 1 Ace in the 1st Set! They began this battle on Court One at 8:25. Not sure when they finished as they then entered into a long hitting session to finish out the night.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Tito Castolo/John Palaca over Jose Gonzales/Ryan Sherry, 6-2, 6-1, to become the New # 150 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division! No Aces. Not sure when this one started or when it finished (again, played on Court Two), but these two teams managed to play two full matches (a total of four sets) within the two hour party session...pretty amazing! They did finish this one just in time at 10:15.
Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara leading Fadia Nicolas/Denise Savino, 3-0 (Incomplete when we had to stop as the session was now at 10:15...we also decided to forego the changeovers in this one...having started this at 10:06 on Court Three...so we knew we had little to no change of getting in a full set)! Fadia: 1 Ace on Suzanne! Here's how it was going: Denise was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) and then Frank held at Love for a 2-0 lead. Fadia was broken (Love-30, a service-line Ace against Suzanne for 15-30, then Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) for 0-3. Suzanne was about to serve as we were then told to "shut it down."
It was a small measure of revenge for us. Suzanne and I joked how we started making some shots that we failed to come up with when it counted officially in the earlier match. Ah well, that's how it often goes once the pressure is off and you're just playing for fun.
After the session ended, Samara, Rizzo, Mole and Liu went to the Tick Tock Diner where they met up with "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis for the usual post-Party festivities.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
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