3/23/18:
"17 play (2 New) at the 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.
After the big sendoff party and large turnout for "The Levitator" Levy Lorenzo on Friday night, March 16th, (aka "Levypalooza!"), the demand registration-wise was lagging early in the week. Combine that with the uncertainty of the fourth Nor'easter moving in during the middle of the week and we were wondering if we would even get 12 players registered.
But then we had the usual late-Thursday and all-day Friday surge of registrants take us way past the maximum 16 participants for the typical two-hour session...and that was with both Rizzo and Samara sitting out of the action. John turned away about half a dozen late would-be registrants.
Had we known of such demand by Wednesday, Rizzo could have gone to the "bigwigs" of The Bubble and asked for an extension of session time and it would have been a four hour party session very similar to the week before.
The way we ended up with the odd total of 17 competitors overall was after "Big Charlie V" Charlie Vreeland opted out after playing a full 2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match as he was feeling it a bit in his knees. "The Adonis" Don Moya then took that spot for the remainder of the session as both Rizzo and Samara continued to sit out the balance of the evening.
Two of the 17 were new and making their official GTA Debut as each was the recruit of someone already in the league...always a good thing!
Two hours of non-stop play allows for a lot of action...and it all unfolded as follows.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-1, 6-1, as Heidt/Vreeland entered the Doubles Division as the New # 155 Ranked Team via the TMT Rules! Doyle/Wilson are already a ranked team in the Mixed Doubles Division. No Aces. This match was the first official action of the session as it got underway on Court Two at exactly 8:23. The 1st Set finished at 8:50. After a five minute break, they then went into the 2nd Set which ended exactly at 9:23...the entire match was an hour long (not counting the time-out between the sets)! Also, they decided to forego the changeovers (though they did switch sides between the sets) which made this match move along faster.
Ray Spadaro/Dawn Peterson over Sam Wong/Kathy Sheldon, 6-4! No Aces. This foursome faced off on Court Four from 8:26 to 9:13. They then played a Rematch One-Setter which we will get to a little later in this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Paul Mallick/Janice Wang over Ryan Sherry/Sarah Ramadas, 6-3, 6-4, as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 63 and # 64 Ranked Teams respectively! Ryan: 3 Aces (2 on Janice and 1 on Paul) in the 1st Set; Paul: 1 Ace on Sarah in the 1st Set; and Janice: 1 Ace on Sarah in the 2nd Set! It was the official GTA Debut of Sarah Ramadas. This match took place on Court Three (aka The Show Court) and the 1st Set went from 8:38 to 9:10. They wasted little time going into the next set and the match ended at 9:43.
The Skinny: Sarah is the wife of Ryan Sherry and she usually plays in another group that books time at The Bubble. She is quite the player. The amazing thing is that Ryan said this is the first time they ever teamed together! After this match, they decided to switch up the teams for a One-Setter...which we will get to later in this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Matt Fortunato/Laurie Boughton over Tim Nguyen/Suzanne Bujara, 6-3, 6-1, as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 65 and # 66 Ranked Teams respectively! Laurie: 1 Ace on Suzanne in the 2nd Set! It was the official GTA Debut of Matt Fortunato. Like the action on Court Three, this match officially got underway on Court One at 8:38. Not sure when the 1st Set ended or the entire match finished as the two teams stayed together for a follow-up One-Setter which we will report a bit later.
The Skinny: This last pairing was in some doubt for a while as Laurie was involved in a car accident on the way to The Bubble! First, let me say that she was OK health-wise (though did complain about some level of stiffness in her neck and back) as she was then able to play tennis afterward (the likely adrenaline rush may have been masking some of the pain...and I speculate that it would likely be worse the following morning).
Right where Route 3 West merges with Route 46 West and the lanes come together, traffic was backing up and Laurie said she had to pull off some racecar driver-like maneuvers to avoid hitting the car in front of her. Thankfully, she was able to stop in time...only to get rammed from behind by a guy in a big SUV! If that wasn't bad enough, after rear-ending her...the guy left the scene of the crime (a typical guy thing to do...LOL!).
Well, the guy was a total idiot as he could not flee all that far with the traffic jam ahead. Laurie luckily was able to take down his license plate. She was able to pull off to the side of the highway (as she had been flagging him to do the same before he decided to bolt) and go into the lot of the Great Notch Inn (aka Biker Central). She called it into the Clifton Police and they then put out an APB to all the police departments of all the towns along the way heading westward. We just hope they catch the creep!
Sam Wong/Kathy Sheldon over Ray Spadaro/Dawn Peterson, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. This Mixed Doubles Rematch One-Setter lasted on Court Four from 9:15 to 10:12...three minutes shy of an hour! There was a lot of smart Doubles play throughout their two sets.
Tim Nguyen/Suzanne Bujara over Matt Fortunato/Laurie Boughton, 6-3! No Aces. This took place on Court One. Not sure when it began, but it ended exactly at 10:09.
Don Moya/Robin Wilson over Kevin Doyle/Tom Heidt, 7-5! Don: 1 Ace on Kevin; and Tom: 1 Ace on Robin! This was played on Court Two from 9:33 to 10:13.
Ryan Sherry/Janice Wang leading Paul Mallick/Sarah Ramadas, 5-1 (Incomplete when they decided they should stop it at 10:11)! Janice: 1 Ace on Sarah. They had gotten this one underway on Court Three at 9:46.
It truly was Ladies Night as seven of the seventeen competitors were women! If we had just one more gal in attendance (Gal Gadot, perhaps? Ah, wishful thinking!), we would have had eight and eight initially. That would have been ideal for either four courts of Mixed Doubles action or two courts for Men's Doubles and two courts for Women's Doubles.
Nonetheless, everyone in attendance seemed to have a great time and the matches were well-balanced talent-wise...thanks to the hard work (planning-wise) of Mr. Rizzo.
After the session ended, it was just Samara and Rizzo going to the Tick Tock Diner for a late snack.
Samara signing off!
gtasamara5@gmail.com
"17 play (2 New) at the 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.
After the big sendoff party and large turnout for "The Levitator" Levy Lorenzo on Friday night, March 16th, (aka "Levypalooza!"), the demand registration-wise was lagging early in the week. Combine that with the uncertainty of the fourth Nor'easter moving in during the middle of the week and we were wondering if we would even get 12 players registered.
But then we had the usual late-Thursday and all-day Friday surge of registrants take us way past the maximum 16 participants for the typical two-hour session...and that was with both Rizzo and Samara sitting out of the action. John turned away about half a dozen late would-be registrants.
Had we known of such demand by Wednesday, Rizzo could have gone to the "bigwigs" of The Bubble and asked for an extension of session time and it would have been a four hour party session very similar to the week before.
The way we ended up with the odd total of 17 competitors overall was after "Big Charlie V" Charlie Vreeland opted out after playing a full 2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match as he was feeling it a bit in his knees. "The Adonis" Don Moya then took that spot for the remainder of the session as both Rizzo and Samara continued to sit out the balance of the evening.
Two of the 17 were new and making their official GTA Debut as each was the recruit of someone already in the league...always a good thing!
Two hours of non-stop play allows for a lot of action...and it all unfolded as follows.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-1, 6-1, as Heidt/Vreeland entered the Doubles Division as the New # 155 Ranked Team via the TMT Rules! Doyle/Wilson are already a ranked team in the Mixed Doubles Division. No Aces. This match was the first official action of the session as it got underway on Court Two at exactly 8:23. The 1st Set finished at 8:50. After a five minute break, they then went into the 2nd Set which ended exactly at 9:23...the entire match was an hour long (not counting the time-out between the sets)! Also, they decided to forego the changeovers (though they did switch sides between the sets) which made this match move along faster.
Ray Spadaro/Dawn Peterson over Sam Wong/Kathy Sheldon, 6-4! No Aces. This foursome faced off on Court Four from 8:26 to 9:13. They then played a Rematch One-Setter which we will get to a little later in this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Paul Mallick/Janice Wang over Ryan Sherry/Sarah Ramadas, 6-3, 6-4, as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 63 and # 64 Ranked Teams respectively! Ryan: 3 Aces (2 on Janice and 1 on Paul) in the 1st Set; Paul: 1 Ace on Sarah in the 1st Set; and Janice: 1 Ace on Sarah in the 2nd Set! It was the official GTA Debut of Sarah Ramadas. This match took place on Court Three (aka The Show Court) and the 1st Set went from 8:38 to 9:10. They wasted little time going into the next set and the match ended at 9:43.
The Skinny: Sarah is the wife of Ryan Sherry and she usually plays in another group that books time at The Bubble. She is quite the player. The amazing thing is that Ryan said this is the first time they ever teamed together! After this match, they decided to switch up the teams for a One-Setter...which we will get to later in this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Matt Fortunato/Laurie Boughton over Tim Nguyen/Suzanne Bujara, 6-3, 6-1, as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 65 and # 66 Ranked Teams respectively! Laurie: 1 Ace on Suzanne in the 2nd Set! It was the official GTA Debut of Matt Fortunato. Like the action on Court Three, this match officially got underway on Court One at 8:38. Not sure when the 1st Set ended or the entire match finished as the two teams stayed together for a follow-up One-Setter which we will report a bit later.
The Skinny: This last pairing was in some doubt for a while as Laurie was involved in a car accident on the way to The Bubble! First, let me say that she was OK health-wise (though did complain about some level of stiffness in her neck and back) as she was then able to play tennis afterward (the likely adrenaline rush may have been masking some of the pain...and I speculate that it would likely be worse the following morning).
Right where Route 3 West merges with Route 46 West and the lanes come together, traffic was backing up and Laurie said she had to pull off some racecar driver-like maneuvers to avoid hitting the car in front of her. Thankfully, she was able to stop in time...only to get rammed from behind by a guy in a big SUV! If that wasn't bad enough, after rear-ending her...the guy left the scene of the crime (a typical guy thing to do...LOL!).
Well, the guy was a total idiot as he could not flee all that far with the traffic jam ahead. Laurie luckily was able to take down his license plate. She was able to pull off to the side of the highway (as she had been flagging him to do the same before he decided to bolt) and go into the lot of the Great Notch Inn (aka Biker Central). She called it into the Clifton Police and they then put out an APB to all the police departments of all the towns along the way heading westward. We just hope they catch the creep!
Sam Wong/Kathy Sheldon over Ray Spadaro/Dawn Peterson, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. This Mixed Doubles Rematch One-Setter lasted on Court Four from 9:15 to 10:12...three minutes shy of an hour! There was a lot of smart Doubles play throughout their two sets.
Tim Nguyen/Suzanne Bujara over Matt Fortunato/Laurie Boughton, 6-3! No Aces. This took place on Court One. Not sure when it began, but it ended exactly at 10:09.
Don Moya/Robin Wilson over Kevin Doyle/Tom Heidt, 7-5! Don: 1 Ace on Kevin; and Tom: 1 Ace on Robin! This was played on Court Two from 9:33 to 10:13.
Ryan Sherry/Janice Wang leading Paul Mallick/Sarah Ramadas, 5-1 (Incomplete when they decided they should stop it at 10:11)! Janice: 1 Ace on Sarah. They had gotten this one underway on Court Three at 9:46.
It truly was Ladies Night as seven of the seventeen competitors were women! If we had just one more gal in attendance (Gal Gadot, perhaps? Ah, wishful thinking!), we would have had eight and eight initially. That would have been ideal for either four courts of Mixed Doubles action or two courts for Men's Doubles and two courts for Women's Doubles.
Nonetheless, everyone in attendance seemed to have a great time and the matches were well-balanced talent-wise...thanks to the hard work (planning-wise) of Mr. Rizzo.
After the session ended, it was just Samara and Rizzo going to the Tick Tock Diner for a late snack.
Samara signing off!
gtasamara5@gmail.com
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