3/28/18:
"Just 4 compete at C.G., 12 compete at The Bubble!":
There were two sessions of GTA Wednesday Night Tennis: one at The Cedar Grove Courts hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara (until he had to leave early to head to the next session) and then it was the usual Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble run by "The Riz" John Rizzo along with Samara acting as host to collect scores along the way. After Frank's departure from Cedar Grove, "Del Brotro" Mike Mole sent Samara the results via text message.
Frank got off to an earlier start than expected, so he decided to do a drive-by at The Cedar Grove Courts (which he had also done at 5:30pm this past Saturday, but nobody was there). By the time Samara pulled into the lot, it was 7:40.
He saw Mole alone on Court Four practicing his serve. At the same time, a father was taking his two young daughters out onto Court One for a practice session. Courts Two and Three were vacant.
Soon, Frank and Mike started having a hitting session. Mole said he had been there since 7:30. There is good news and bad news about Court Four. The good news is that the lights in the corner of Court Four are now back to full strength. The bad news is that the center strap is off of the net (it was lying on the ground next to the interior post that holds up the net). Since the hook is missing from the ground, it will be difficult to repair.
At 7:50, Natalia "Nitro" Sout arrived and soon took Frank's side in hitting against Mike. Twenty minutes later at 8:10, "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega hit the scene. It looked like Samara was going to try to squeeze in a Doubles One-Setter before having to leave around 8:40/8:45 to head to The Bubble.
Luckily, Tito "The Titan" Castolo pulled into the lot at 8:15. Frank told Tito to take his place as Samara did not want to start something he couldn't finish in time. They got what turned out to be a full 2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match underway at 8:20. When Samara left exactly at 8:42, Tito and Natalia had a 4-1 lead in the 1st Set against Mike and Edwin.
We go to that result now.
The Cedar Grove Result:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Tito Castolo/Natalia Sout over Mike Mole/Edwin Ortega, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, as Castolo/Sout enter the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 67 Ranked Team while Mole/Ortega enter the Doubles Division as the New # 159 Ranked Team (per the TMT Rules)! Edwin: 1 Ace on Natalia; and Tito: 1 Ace on Edwin!
Samara's Notes: I thank Mike for sending in that result in such a timely manner.
Now for how things unfolded up at The Wayne Bubble.
Samara arrived at 9pm just as "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar was doing the same. Those two along with Rizzo and "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis would be the foursome to wait until 9:30 for Court Four to become available while Courts One, Two and Three were ready by 9pm for the Night Owls group.
Ted Cedroski and Vlad Smolyanskiy faced off against one another in Singles action on Court Two, but I never collected their result. Thus, we have an official turnout of 12 competitors, but there were actually 14 players in attendance.
Let's go to the scores!
The Wayne Bubble Results:
Kathy Sheldon/Robin Wilson over Fadia Nicolas/Dawn Peterson, 6-3! No Aces. The ladies got the official action underway first as this one kicked things off on Court Three (aka The Show Court) at exactly 9:18. Not sure when it ended as it went straight into a Rematch which we will get to later in this report.
Don Moya/Jeanette Pegg over Kevin Doyle/Sean McHugh, 6-4! No Aces. Not sure when this one had begun on Court One, but it was likely somewhere around 9:20 or so. Kevin said Don and Jeanette jumped out to a 5-1 lead before he and Sean bounced back to make it 5-4. This, too, went right into a Rematch which we will note a little later.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo over Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 7-5, 6-1, to successfully defend their # 15 Rank in the Doubles Division! No Aces. We got this underway on Court Four at 9:40.
1st Set: Dino was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break), John was broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, then came Break Point and the break), but Frank was the first one to hold serve (Love-30, 15-30. Double Break Point and a rebound to Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) for 2-1. Senthil also held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point which was then reduced to Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) and then Celis was broken again (30-Love, a Double Fault for 30-15 and then straight to Break Point where he broke himself with another Double Fault) to fall to 2-3. Rizzo then held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and then the hold) to extend his team's lead to 4-2, but then Samara held again and this time it was at Love to pull to 3-4! Kumar was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) to knot the score at 4-4 and then The Scorpion Dragon had his first hold (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point, Double Fault for Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and finally the hold) to put his team up 5-4. But then The Riz also earned his first hold (15-Love went straight to Double Break/Set Point, then it went to Break/Set Point, Deuce, the 3rd Break/Set Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to keep things alive at 5-5 (with three Set Points saved)! Hollywood was then broken for the first time (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) only to have The Webmaster hold (Triple Game/Set Point, the hold came on Double Game/Set Point which was the 5th M.P. overall) to cap a mini-comeback effort in this initial set which ended at 10:25. Two minutes later, the next set was underway.
2nd Set: Dino was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break), John was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break), Frank was broken (30-Love went right to Break Point and the break), but Senthil was the first to hold in this set (started with a Double Fault, then a shift to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) for 3-1. Celis was broken again (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point where he broke himself again with a Double Fault), but Rizzo held this time around (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point) to put his team up 5-1. Then, Samara was broken yet again (Love-15 then point for point to Break/Match Point which is where this one ended) to take the loss! The match ended exactly at 10:46.
The Skinny: Despite having been up since 5:15am, Samara came into this match with a surprising amount of energy. His accuracy was much improved over his poor performance at Albion on Sunday...especially with a few nice and crunchy Overhead Smashes. When Frank held at Love in the 1st Set, it served to shift the momentum in his team's favor as Senthil was then broken for the first time and then Dino held for the first time. The pivotal game was John's service where he and Senthil managed to save three Set Points and then go onto win the game and level the set at 5-5! That was a momentum changer from which Frank and Dino never recovered. And as the match wore on into the 2nd Set, Samara's energy level finally started to deplete. The two teams then played a separate One-Setter...which we will get to at the end of this report.
Fadia Nicolas/Dawn Peterson over Kathy Sheldon/Robin Wilson, 7-5! No Aces. Did not have a chance to note when the ladies finished this one on Court Three.
Don Moya/Jeanette Pegg over Kevin Doyle/Sean McHugh, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. This was also played on Court One, but I do not know the start and stop times.
Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo leading Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 4-2 (Incomplete when we had to stop it at 11:06 for the end of the session)! No Aces. Here's how it was going: Senthil held (Love-15, 15-All, a Double Fault for 15-30, then a shift to Game Point and the hold), Dino held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold), John held (started with a Double Fault and plummeted to Triple Break Point before rebounding back to Deuce, another Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but Frank was the first one to be broken in this one (30-Love went straight to Break Point and the break) for 1-3. Kumar was then broken (Triple Break Point with a partial rebound to Break Point, but then came the break) to have his team's lead cut to 3-2. It was here where we decided to just play one more game and have it either end in a 3-3 tie or have Kumar/Rizzo come away with a partial (yet unofficial) victory at 4-2. It ended up being the latter as Celis was broken as he started off with back-to-back Double Faults to make it Love-30, it then went to 15-30, Double Break Point and the break (we had gotten this one underway on Court Four at exactly 10:48 and we decided to forego the changeovers with the hopes of finishing it), so then we called it a night!
And quite a night it was, indeed!
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
"Just 4 compete at C.G., 12 compete at The Bubble!":
There were two sessions of GTA Wednesday Night Tennis: one at The Cedar Grove Courts hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara (until he had to leave early to head to the next session) and then it was the usual Night Owls session up at The Wayne Bubble run by "The Riz" John Rizzo along with Samara acting as host to collect scores along the way. After Frank's departure from Cedar Grove, "Del Brotro" Mike Mole sent Samara the results via text message.
Frank got off to an earlier start than expected, so he decided to do a drive-by at The Cedar Grove Courts (which he had also done at 5:30pm this past Saturday, but nobody was there). By the time Samara pulled into the lot, it was 7:40.
He saw Mole alone on Court Four practicing his serve. At the same time, a father was taking his two young daughters out onto Court One for a practice session. Courts Two and Three were vacant.
Soon, Frank and Mike started having a hitting session. Mole said he had been there since 7:30. There is good news and bad news about Court Four. The good news is that the lights in the corner of Court Four are now back to full strength. The bad news is that the center strap is off of the net (it was lying on the ground next to the interior post that holds up the net). Since the hook is missing from the ground, it will be difficult to repair.
At 7:50, Natalia "Nitro" Sout arrived and soon took Frank's side in hitting against Mike. Twenty minutes later at 8:10, "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega hit the scene. It looked like Samara was going to try to squeeze in a Doubles One-Setter before having to leave around 8:40/8:45 to head to The Bubble.
Luckily, Tito "The Titan" Castolo pulled into the lot at 8:15. Frank told Tito to take his place as Samara did not want to start something he couldn't finish in time. They got what turned out to be a full 2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match underway at 8:20. When Samara left exactly at 8:42, Tito and Natalia had a 4-1 lead in the 1st Set against Mike and Edwin.
We go to that result now.
The Cedar Grove Result:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Tito Castolo/Natalia Sout over Mike Mole/Edwin Ortega, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, as Castolo/Sout enter the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 67 Ranked Team while Mole/Ortega enter the Doubles Division as the New # 159 Ranked Team (per the TMT Rules)! Edwin: 1 Ace on Natalia; and Tito: 1 Ace on Edwin!
Samara's Notes: I thank Mike for sending in that result in such a timely manner.
Now for how things unfolded up at The Wayne Bubble.
Samara arrived at 9pm just as "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar was doing the same. Those two along with Rizzo and "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis would be the foursome to wait until 9:30 for Court Four to become available while Courts One, Two and Three were ready by 9pm for the Night Owls group.
Ted Cedroski and Vlad Smolyanskiy faced off against one another in Singles action on Court Two, but I never collected their result. Thus, we have an official turnout of 12 competitors, but there were actually 14 players in attendance.
Let's go to the scores!
The Wayne Bubble Results:
Kathy Sheldon/Robin Wilson over Fadia Nicolas/Dawn Peterson, 6-3! No Aces. The ladies got the official action underway first as this one kicked things off on Court Three (aka The Show Court) at exactly 9:18. Not sure when it ended as it went straight into a Rematch which we will get to later in this report.
Don Moya/Jeanette Pegg over Kevin Doyle/Sean McHugh, 6-4! No Aces. Not sure when this one had begun on Court One, but it was likely somewhere around 9:20 or so. Kevin said Don and Jeanette jumped out to a 5-1 lead before he and Sean bounced back to make it 5-4. This, too, went right into a Rematch which we will note a little later.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo over Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 7-5, 6-1, to successfully defend their # 15 Rank in the Doubles Division! No Aces. We got this underway on Court Four at 9:40.
1st Set: Dino was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break), John was broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, then came Break Point and the break), but Frank was the first one to hold serve (Love-30, 15-30. Double Break Point and a rebound to Deuce, Break Point again, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) for 2-1. Senthil also held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point which was then reduced to Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) and then Celis was broken again (30-Love, a Double Fault for 30-15 and then straight to Break Point where he broke himself with another Double Fault) to fall to 2-3. Rizzo then held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and then the hold) to extend his team's lead to 4-2, but then Samara held again and this time it was at Love to pull to 3-4! Kumar was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) to knot the score at 4-4 and then The Scorpion Dragon had his first hold (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point, Double Fault for Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and finally the hold) to put his team up 5-4. But then The Riz also earned his first hold (15-Love went straight to Double Break/Set Point, then it went to Break/Set Point, Deuce, the 3rd Break/Set Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to keep things alive at 5-5 (with three Set Points saved)! Hollywood was then broken for the first time (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) only to have The Webmaster hold (Triple Game/Set Point, the hold came on Double Game/Set Point which was the 5th M.P. overall) to cap a mini-comeback effort in this initial set which ended at 10:25. Two minutes later, the next set was underway.
2nd Set: Dino was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break), John was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break), Frank was broken (30-Love went right to Break Point and the break), but Senthil was the first to hold in this set (started with a Double Fault, then a shift to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) for 3-1. Celis was broken again (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point where he broke himself again with a Double Fault), but Rizzo held this time around (Triple Game Point, the hold came on Double Game Point) to put his team up 5-1. Then, Samara was broken yet again (Love-15 then point for point to Break/Match Point which is where this one ended) to take the loss! The match ended exactly at 10:46.
The Skinny: Despite having been up since 5:15am, Samara came into this match with a surprising amount of energy. His accuracy was much improved over his poor performance at Albion on Sunday...especially with a few nice and crunchy Overhead Smashes. When Frank held at Love in the 1st Set, it served to shift the momentum in his team's favor as Senthil was then broken for the first time and then Dino held for the first time. The pivotal game was John's service where he and Senthil managed to save three Set Points and then go onto win the game and level the set at 5-5! That was a momentum changer from which Frank and Dino never recovered. And as the match wore on into the 2nd Set, Samara's energy level finally started to deplete. The two teams then played a separate One-Setter...which we will get to at the end of this report.
Fadia Nicolas/Dawn Peterson over Kathy Sheldon/Robin Wilson, 7-5! No Aces. Did not have a chance to note when the ladies finished this one on Court Three.
Don Moya/Jeanette Pegg over Kevin Doyle/Sean McHugh, 7-6 (7-5)! No Aces. This was also played on Court One, but I do not know the start and stop times.
Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo leading Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 4-2 (Incomplete when we had to stop it at 11:06 for the end of the session)! No Aces. Here's how it was going: Senthil held (Love-15, 15-All, a Double Fault for 15-30, then a shift to Game Point and the hold), Dino held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold), John held (started with a Double Fault and plummeted to Triple Break Point before rebounding back to Deuce, another Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but Frank was the first one to be broken in this one (30-Love went straight to Break Point and the break) for 1-3. Kumar was then broken (Triple Break Point with a partial rebound to Break Point, but then came the break) to have his team's lead cut to 3-2. It was here where we decided to just play one more game and have it either end in a 3-3 tie or have Kumar/Rizzo come away with a partial (yet unofficial) victory at 4-2. It ended up being the latter as Celis was broken as he started off with back-to-back Double Faults to make it Love-30, it then went to 15-30, Double Break Point and the break (we had gotten this one underway on Court Four at exactly 10:48 and we decided to forego the changeovers with the hopes of finishing it), so then we called it a night!
And quite a night it was, indeed!
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
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