3/9/18:
"17 play (3 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.
We had the usual late-Friday surge of registrants go all the way up to 16 participants...and that was to be with both Rizzo and Samara sitting out of the action. But when was a no-show due to traffic issues (trying to get out of NYC), it allowed for John and Frank to each take his place and split court time...which led to the odd total of 17 competitors overall.
Three of them 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:
Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Levy Lorenzo/Stan Carroll, 6-2! Stan: 1 Ace on Charlie! It was the official GTA Debut of Charlie Vreeland. This was the first official action of the night as it got going on Court Three (aka The Show Court) at 8:20 and ended at 8:45.
Charlie is friends with Tom and they made for a solid team. Mr. Vreeland is both friendly and jovial as he seemed very happy to be with us. Hopefully, we will see more of both of them as the season converts from indoor action to the outdoor scene.
It was also good to have Levy back with us (as he had returned to the States and then action at The Cedar Grove Courts a couple of weeks ago), but his return to The Bubble proved to be bittersweet as he told us his time back with us will be brief. While he was in his native Philippines over the winter, he bought a house and that is where he plans to spend his retirement. He will be moving there permanently on March 20th.
Levy has only been playing with us for a couple of full seasons now, but he made an impact on the league with his kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness. We will definitely miss having him in our mix of players. It seems we always lose the good guys to moves and life changes like this. He has requested to remain on the mailing list as he wants to stay "in the know" with all the comings and goings in the GTA.
He also plans on playing at The Bubble one more time on Friday, March 16th. It would be a good opportunity for those who grew close to him to give him a proper sendoff.
Ray Spadaro/Sam Wong over Tim Nguyen/Laurie Boughton, 6-2! Ray: 1 Ace on Laurie on his very first serve of the match! Court Two hosted this one from 8:24 to 8:49.
It was Laurie's birthday (I won't give away her age...all I will say is she is now one year away from one of those "milestone birthdays"...LOL!) and Ray was so kind to give her an Ace right off the bat! Anyway, whenever Suge Boogie Boughton is on the court, you know there is going to be a lot of banter and frivolity. It seemed she was enjoying herself quite a bit hanging with the boys on her b-day.
Kevin Proctor/Arlene Hyde over Jeremy Katzeff/Natalia Sout, 6-0! Jeremy: 1 Ace on Arlene! It was the official GTA Debut of both Kevin Proctor and Jeremy Katzeff. This Mixed Doubles action took place on Court One from 8:35 to 8:59.
Arlene has been trying to bring Kevin in on a couple of occasions and each time it all fell apart at the last second. Going in, she did warn us that he is a 4.5 rated player. In return, we suggested that Mr. Proctor may be bored playing with us. But she said they were just looking for some "nice" Mixed Doubles.
We really did not know what team we should put up against them. Natalia was just coming back from having spent most of the winter months in Florida. Jeremy, having never played with us before, was somewhat of an unknown entity. He is a recruit via "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld as they play together at the indoor facility in West Orange that is managed by Scott's father, Harris. Jeremy also said he plays tennis three to four times a week.
Well, I really do not think it would have mattered who we tried to put up against Kevin...even if it would have been the best Men's Doubles Team that we had in attendance. To Kev's credit, he took it all in good stride. And on the flip side, Jeremy was very understanding of the circumstances. And to take it a step further, Natalia absolutely loved it. She said it was like "playing against Federer!" The former Olympic Gold Medalist (in Gymnastics), ever the competitor, welcomes the challenge and the opportunity and also hopes to have more of the same in the future.
Going forward, "Mr. 4.5" is obviously overqualified for any ranked competition in the league (unless we revive the on-again/off-again Pro Division). But he is welcome to come play with us whenever he wants as he is quite the gentleman and it helps us all to try to raise the level of our game. And Arlene is always a pleasure to play with as well.
Jose Gonzales/John Rizzo over Rich Liu/Dino Celis, 6-2! No Aces. These four faced off on Court Four from 8:40 to 9:05.
This one took a while to come together for a couple of different reasons. Heading into the session, we already knew that Dino would not be able to arrive until 8:30. Elias Eid was the no-show due to the traffic situation he was dealing with trying to get out of NYC (he had e-mailed Samara around 7pm to warn him of this, but of course Frank did not see it as he does not have a smart phone to always access e-mails...Elias now knows to just contact John in the future).
So it was a hitting session just between Jose and Rich for a while. Then, John got involved with it...and then Frank did just for a bit as well. Soon after Samara stepped onto the court, Celis arrived. And then it was decided the four of them might as well play as there was no Mr. Eid in sight.
Also, while there were no Aces in this contest, The Riz wanted it noted that he held serve at Love twice!
Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Levy Lorenzo/Stan Carroll, 6-3! Charlie: 1 Ace on Stan; and Levy: 1 Ace on Charlie! Court Three hosted this one from 8:47 to 9:16. As they did in their earlier One-Setter, there were no changeovers every two games here either.
Ray Spadaro/Sam Wong over Tim Nguyen/Laurie Boughton, 6-1! No Aces. This was contested on Court Two from 8:53 to 9:17.
Kevin Proctor/Arlene Hyde over Jeremy Katzeff/Natalia Sout, 6-2! No Aces. Court One was the site of this one as well as it lasted from 9:03 to 9:33. Like their previous One-Setter, they also decided to forego the changeovers...though they did switch sides of the court between the sets (unlike the four guys on Court Three).
Jose Gonzales/Rich Liu over Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 7-5! Dino: 1 Ace on Rich! It went like this: Dino held serve (started with a Double Fault, but then went straight to Double Game Point and the hold), Jose held (Triple Game Point cut down to Game Point, but then the hold), Frank held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point) and Rich also held (15-Love, 15-All, then right to Double Game Point and the hold) as we were all on serve at 2-2. Celis held again (started with a big corner Ace on Rich, then went to 30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold), Gonzales also held again (same as his previous service, Triple Game Point was reduced to Game Point, but then came the hold), Samara was the next to hold again (like Gonzales, Triple Game Point was brought down to Game Point, but then came the hold), but Liu was the first of the four to be broken (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 and then another shift to Break Point where he broke himself with an ill-timed Double Fault) to fall to 3-5! But from there, The Scorpion Dragon was broken for the first time and it was at Love, Hurricane Jose held a third straight time (Love-15 shifted straight to Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point), Hollywood was then broken for the first time (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point was reduced to Deuce and then it was all Break Points to 3rd Deuce, then another Break Point and finally the break) and then SWAT fought to hold (Triple Game/Match Point, Double Game/Match Point, Game/Match Point, Deuce, and finally the hold on the 4th Game/Match Point) to cap an impressive mini-comeback by taking four straight games for the hard-fought victory! Court Four featured this foursome from 9:09 to 9:56.
The Skinny: While this was highly competitive, all four players enjoyed it as the action was often both hard-hitting and strategic. The only difference was the fact that Gonzales was never broken on serve as the other three players were each broken once. With a little under twenty minutes left in the session, we all agreed to play another one...which we will get to later in this report.
As the two previous One-Setters on both Courts Two and Three both ended within a minute of the other, those two foursomes decided to switch up the pairings with the winners from Court Three shifting over to Court Two to face the winners on that court. And then the two remaining teams on Court Three shifted up their pairings as well.
Levy Lorenzo/Laurie Boughton over Tim Nguyen/Stan Carroll, 6-1! No Aces. This was contested on Court Three from 9:20 to 9:50. And Laurie finally got her birthday wish...a victory!
Ray Spadaro/Sam Wong over Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland, 7-6 (7-3)! No Aces. This was conducted on Court Two from 9:20 to 10pm and ended up being quite the contest, indeed! Afterward, Tom and Charlie decided to call it a night while Ray and Sam continued to hit against one another for the time that was still remaining in the session.
Kevin Proctor/Natalia Sout over Jeremy Katzeff/Arlene Hyde, 6-3! Kevin: too many Aces to count! The two teams switched things up (at the suggestion of Samara) for this one on Court One (played from 9:38 to 10:10). Frank was never able to accommodate Kevin and Arlene with stiffer competition on another court just due to the timing of the action on those courts (we do not like to interrupt sets as we prefer to have fully contested and conclusive results whenever possible). It seems Mr. 4.5 decided to amp things up a bit with his serve going up against his pal, Arlene.
Levy Lorenzo/Laurie Boughton leading Tim Nguyen/Stan Carroll, 6-5 (Incomplete as the session ran out of time at 10:15)! Laurie: 1 Ace on Stan (yet another prize on her birthday)! They had begun this one on Court Three at 9:51. The games must have been short for them to get in so many within the span of just 24 minutes! Levy actually thought he was reporting a fully official result when Frank and the others around reminded him that a 6-5 score does not make for a complete set.
Jose Gonzales/Rich Liu tied with Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 3-3 (Incomplete as the session ran out of time at 10:15)! No Aces. We got this one underway on Court Four at exactly 9:58. Here's how it was going: Dino held (30-Love shifted to 30-All, but then came Game Point and the hold), Jose held at Love, but Frank was the first to be broken in this one (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) for 1-2. Rich was also broken (15-Love went right to Double Break Point, but then a bounce back to Deuce only to have a Double Fault lead to another Break Point and then came the break) for 2-2, but then Celis was shockingly broken at Love for 2-3. And then, for the first time in two sets (perhaps the night as I do not know how all the games played out in Gonzales/Rizzo versus Liu/Celis), Gonzales was broken (Love-15, 15-All and then a Double Fault for 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) and then we were out of time at 3-3!
The Skinny: The only partial victory that Samara/Celis could take away from this one was finally being able to break Gonzales in the final game. Much like the previous full One-Setter, the action was fast and furious (but also a lot of fun). It was a nice way to close out the session.
After the session ended, Samara, Rizzo, Celis and Liu went to the Titled Kilt for the usual post-Party festivities. We should have just went straight to the Tick Tock Diner (as usual) as the Kilt's offerings (in terms of food...not the scenery...LOL!) are going downhill fast!
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
"17 play (3 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.
We had the usual late-Friday surge of registrants go all the way up to 16 participants...and that was to be with both Rizzo and Samara sitting out of the action. But when was a no-show due to traffic issues (trying to get out of NYC), it allowed for John and Frank to each take his place and split court time...which led to the odd total of 17 competitors overall.
Three of them 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:
Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Levy Lorenzo/Stan Carroll, 6-2! Stan: 1 Ace on Charlie! It was the official GTA Debut of Charlie Vreeland. This was the first official action of the night as it got going on Court Three (aka The Show Court) at 8:20 and ended at 8:45.
Charlie is friends with Tom and they made for a solid team. Mr. Vreeland is both friendly and jovial as he seemed very happy to be with us. Hopefully, we will see more of both of them as the season converts from indoor action to the outdoor scene.
It was also good to have Levy back with us (as he had returned to the States and then action at The Cedar Grove Courts a couple of weeks ago), but his return to The Bubble proved to be bittersweet as he told us his time back with us will be brief. While he was in his native Philippines over the winter, he bought a house and that is where he plans to spend his retirement. He will be moving there permanently on March 20th.
Levy has only been playing with us for a couple of full seasons now, but he made an impact on the league with his kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness. We will definitely miss having him in our mix of players. It seems we always lose the good guys to moves and life changes like this. He has requested to remain on the mailing list as he wants to stay "in the know" with all the comings and goings in the GTA.
He also plans on playing at The Bubble one more time on Friday, March 16th. It would be a good opportunity for those who grew close to him to give him a proper sendoff.
Ray Spadaro/Sam Wong over Tim Nguyen/Laurie Boughton, 6-2! Ray: 1 Ace on Laurie on his very first serve of the match! Court Two hosted this one from 8:24 to 8:49.
It was Laurie's birthday (I won't give away her age...all I will say is she is now one year away from one of those "milestone birthdays"...LOL!) and Ray was so kind to give her an Ace right off the bat! Anyway, whenever Suge Boogie Boughton is on the court, you know there is going to be a lot of banter and frivolity. It seemed she was enjoying herself quite a bit hanging with the boys on her b-day.
Kevin Proctor/Arlene Hyde over Jeremy Katzeff/Natalia Sout, 6-0! Jeremy: 1 Ace on Arlene! It was the official GTA Debut of both Kevin Proctor and Jeremy Katzeff. This Mixed Doubles action took place on Court One from 8:35 to 8:59.
Arlene has been trying to bring Kevin in on a couple of occasions and each time it all fell apart at the last second. Going in, she did warn us that he is a 4.5 rated player. In return, we suggested that Mr. Proctor may be bored playing with us. But she said they were just looking for some "nice" Mixed Doubles.
We really did not know what team we should put up against them. Natalia was just coming back from having spent most of the winter months in Florida. Jeremy, having never played with us before, was somewhat of an unknown entity. He is a recruit via "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld as they play together at the indoor facility in West Orange that is managed by Scott's father, Harris. Jeremy also said he plays tennis three to four times a week.
Well, I really do not think it would have mattered who we tried to put up against Kevin...even if it would have been the best Men's Doubles Team that we had in attendance. To Kev's credit, he took it all in good stride. And on the flip side, Jeremy was very understanding of the circumstances. And to take it a step further, Natalia absolutely loved it. She said it was like "playing against Federer!" The former Olympic Gold Medalist (in Gymnastics), ever the competitor, welcomes the challenge and the opportunity and also hopes to have more of the same in the future.
Going forward, "Mr. 4.5" is obviously overqualified for any ranked competition in the league (unless we revive the on-again/off-again Pro Division). But he is welcome to come play with us whenever he wants as he is quite the gentleman and it helps us all to try to raise the level of our game. And Arlene is always a pleasure to play with as well.
Jose Gonzales/John Rizzo over Rich Liu/Dino Celis, 6-2! No Aces. These four faced off on Court Four from 8:40 to 9:05.
This one took a while to come together for a couple of different reasons. Heading into the session, we already knew that Dino would not be able to arrive until 8:30. Elias Eid was the no-show due to the traffic situation he was dealing with trying to get out of NYC (he had e-mailed Samara around 7pm to warn him of this, but of course Frank did not see it as he does not have a smart phone to always access e-mails...Elias now knows to just contact John in the future).
So it was a hitting session just between Jose and Rich for a while. Then, John got involved with it...and then Frank did just for a bit as well. Soon after Samara stepped onto the court, Celis arrived. And then it was decided the four of them might as well play as there was no Mr. Eid in sight.
Also, while there were no Aces in this contest, The Riz wanted it noted that he held serve at Love twice!
Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Levy Lorenzo/Stan Carroll, 6-3! Charlie: 1 Ace on Stan; and Levy: 1 Ace on Charlie! Court Three hosted this one from 8:47 to 9:16. As they did in their earlier One-Setter, there were no changeovers every two games here either.
Ray Spadaro/Sam Wong over Tim Nguyen/Laurie Boughton, 6-1! No Aces. This was contested on Court Two from 8:53 to 9:17.
Kevin Proctor/Arlene Hyde over Jeremy Katzeff/Natalia Sout, 6-2! No Aces. Court One was the site of this one as well as it lasted from 9:03 to 9:33. Like their previous One-Setter, they also decided to forego the changeovers...though they did switch sides of the court between the sets (unlike the four guys on Court Three).
Jose Gonzales/Rich Liu over Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 7-5! Dino: 1 Ace on Rich! It went like this: Dino held serve (started with a Double Fault, but then went straight to Double Game Point and the hold), Jose held (Triple Game Point cut down to Game Point, but then the hold), Frank held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point) and Rich also held (15-Love, 15-All, then right to Double Game Point and the hold) as we were all on serve at 2-2. Celis held again (started with a big corner Ace on Rich, then went to 30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold), Gonzales also held again (same as his previous service, Triple Game Point was reduced to Game Point, but then came the hold), Samara was the next to hold again (like Gonzales, Triple Game Point was brought down to Game Point, but then came the hold), but Liu was the first of the four to be broken (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 and then another shift to Break Point where he broke himself with an ill-timed Double Fault) to fall to 3-5! But from there, The Scorpion Dragon was broken for the first time and it was at Love, Hurricane Jose held a third straight time (Love-15 shifted straight to Double Game Point, the hold came on Game Point), Hollywood was then broken for the first time (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point was reduced to Deuce and then it was all Break Points to 3rd Deuce, then another Break Point and finally the break) and then SWAT fought to hold (Triple Game/Match Point, Double Game/Match Point, Game/Match Point, Deuce, and finally the hold on the 4th Game/Match Point) to cap an impressive mini-comeback by taking four straight games for the hard-fought victory! Court Four featured this foursome from 9:09 to 9:56.
The Skinny: While this was highly competitive, all four players enjoyed it as the action was often both hard-hitting and strategic. The only difference was the fact that Gonzales was never broken on serve as the other three players were each broken once. With a little under twenty minutes left in the session, we all agreed to play another one...which we will get to later in this report.
As the two previous One-Setters on both Courts Two and Three both ended within a minute of the other, those two foursomes decided to switch up the pairings with the winners from Court Three shifting over to Court Two to face the winners on that court. And then the two remaining teams on Court Three shifted up their pairings as well.
Levy Lorenzo/Laurie Boughton over Tim Nguyen/Stan Carroll, 6-1! No Aces. This was contested on Court Three from 9:20 to 9:50. And Laurie finally got her birthday wish...a victory!
Ray Spadaro/Sam Wong over Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland, 7-6 (7-3)! No Aces. This was conducted on Court Two from 9:20 to 10pm and ended up being quite the contest, indeed! Afterward, Tom and Charlie decided to call it a night while Ray and Sam continued to hit against one another for the time that was still remaining in the session.
Kevin Proctor/Natalia Sout over Jeremy Katzeff/Arlene Hyde, 6-3! Kevin: too many Aces to count! The two teams switched things up (at the suggestion of Samara) for this one on Court One (played from 9:38 to 10:10). Frank was never able to accommodate Kevin and Arlene with stiffer competition on another court just due to the timing of the action on those courts (we do not like to interrupt sets as we prefer to have fully contested and conclusive results whenever possible). It seems Mr. 4.5 decided to amp things up a bit with his serve going up against his pal, Arlene.
Levy Lorenzo/Laurie Boughton leading Tim Nguyen/Stan Carroll, 6-5 (Incomplete as the session ran out of time at 10:15)! Laurie: 1 Ace on Stan (yet another prize on her birthday)! They had begun this one on Court Three at 9:51. The games must have been short for them to get in so many within the span of just 24 minutes! Levy actually thought he was reporting a fully official result when Frank and the others around reminded him that a 6-5 score does not make for a complete set.
Jose Gonzales/Rich Liu tied with Frank Samara/Dino Celis, 3-3 (Incomplete as the session ran out of time at 10:15)! No Aces. We got this one underway on Court Four at exactly 9:58. Here's how it was going: Dino held (30-Love shifted to 30-All, but then came Game Point and the hold), Jose held at Love, but Frank was the first to be broken in this one (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) for 1-2. Rich was also broken (15-Love went right to Double Break Point, but then a bounce back to Deuce only to have a Double Fault lead to another Break Point and then came the break) for 2-2, but then Celis was shockingly broken at Love for 2-3. And then, for the first time in two sets (perhaps the night as I do not know how all the games played out in Gonzales/Rizzo versus Liu/Celis), Gonzales was broken (Love-15, 15-All and then a Double Fault for 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) and then we were out of time at 3-3!
The Skinny: The only partial victory that Samara/Celis could take away from this one was finally being able to break Gonzales in the final game. Much like the previous full One-Setter, the action was fast and furious (but also a lot of fun). It was a nice way to close out the session.
After the session ended, Samara, Rizzo, Celis and Liu went to the Titled Kilt for the usual post-Party festivities. We should have just went straight to the Tick Tock Diner (as usual) as the Kilt's offerings (in terms of food...not the scenery...LOL!) are going downhill fast!
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
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