4/8/18:
"Samara hosts 13 at Albion, 14 compete (2 just hit) at Bubble!":
There were three sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the usual early morning one at The Albion Park Courts in Clifton hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara and the usual two back-to-back late afternoon/early evening Sunday sessions for the two Night Owl groups up at The Wayne Bubble (most often hosted by "The Riz" John Rizzo, but this time around the first of the two was hosted by "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle while "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak was also a contributor for the second one).
Let's first detail the coming and goings plus scores from Albion before getting the Wayne Bubble results from Kevin, Ryan and John.
Samara pulled up to the curb on the street up the hill from the courts at Albion just as Tito "The Titan" Castolo was doing the same. Already out on the North Court, it was "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto and "Sneaky" Suzanne Bujara on one side of the court hitting against "Diver Down" Muhammad Haque on the other side.
By the time both Samara and Castolo made it out onto the courts, "Big George" Jorge Solano arrived at 10:55. Muhammad said he was willing to play Singles with Jorge while the other four would play Doubles. Frank thought the best balance in that scenario would be he teaming with Vin to take on Tito and Suzanne.
At 11:45, three players all arrived around the same time: "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes, Natalia "Nitro" Sout and "Hurricane" Jose Gonzales. With just the South Court left to them (Jorge and Muhammad were already doing battle in a Singles One-Setter on Center Court at this time), Nate and Nat soon entered into a hitting session with one another. Meanwhile, Jose chose to watch the Doubles action on the North Court from the bench alongside that court.
12noon saw the surprise arrival of "T-Pain" Thiyagesh Rei and he soon went to Center Court along with Jose for some Doubles with Jorge and Muhammad as they had already finished their One-Setter by this time. The split would be Gonzales teaming with Haque to face Solano and Rei.
Just ten minutes later, "The Inseparable Cousins" T.J. Shah and Rajan Shah arrived together and joined Nate and Nat's hitting session as T.J. sided with Natalia while Rajan went to Nate's side. This ended up being quite the lengthy hitting session as that court did not see official action until 1:09 when the teams were switched up for a full match featuring The Shahs going up against Fernandes and Sout.
The last official arriving competitor of the session was "The Dark Knight" Dan Knitzer (last week's host) when he pulled up to the courts at 1:10...giving us a total of thirteen players (pretty impressive considering the fact that the day struggled to get to 45 degrees and was often quite windy).
At 1:50, two older ladies (not with the GTA) arrived and took over Center Court for a hitting session with one another. They left at 2:30...the same time that everyone else still there at that time left...except for Nate and Nat who stayed behind to continue hitting with one another.
Let's get to the action!
The Albion Park Results:
Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over Tito Castolo/Suzanne Bujara, 6-4! No Aces. It went like this: Frank held serve (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold), Suzanne was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) and Vinnie held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold) to go up 3-0. Tito held to get his team onto the scoreboard (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point and then the hold), but Samara held again (Triple Game Point was reduced to Game Point, but then came the hold) for 4-1. Bujara was broken again (started off with a Double Fault, then Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and a bounce to Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to fall to 1-5, but then De Benedetto was also broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break) for 5-2. Castolo held again (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, a mini-shift to Game Point and then the hold) and then The Wood was broken for the first time (15-Love then point for point to Game/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and then the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-4. But then Sneaky Suzanne was broken a third straight time as she started off up 15-Love only to then see it go straight to Double Break/Match Point and the break to take the loss on the 3rd M.P. overall! We played this one on the North Court from 11:07 to 11:38.
The Skinny: It initially seemed like it would be a blowout, but then Tito and Suzanne fought back hard to make it interesting. Castolo was up to his usual "Puppet Master" tactics with his standard deft "Tito touch" as he made drop shot after drop shot. But early on, he did miss some volleys which is unusual for him. Vin was a force up at the net, as usual...but he was also caught off-guard a couple of time as the set progressed. Bujara continues to improve outing after outing as she started hitting with more confidence as the set grew older. I, for the most part, was fairly steady throughout though I did have a couple of shanks and/or bad shots along the way.
Tito wanted to turn it into a full 2 out of 3 Sets Match, but both Vin and Suzanne had said early on that they would have to leave fairly early. So I suggested we just play the next one as a Rematch One-Setter instead and everyone was fine with that. But first...
Jorge Solano over Muhammad Haque, 6-4! No Aces. They played this one on Center Court from 11:10 to 11:50. After it was over, Jorge then hit against Jose until it was time for Thiyagesh to join that court and for Muhammad to return to it for some Doubles action. And we will get to that later in this report.
Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over Tito Castolo/Suzanne Bujara, 6-4! Tito: 1 Ace on Vinnie. Here's how it went down: Vinnie was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break), Tito was broken (Triple Break Point, Double Break Point, a sideline Ace against Vin to make it Break Point, then Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break), Frank was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) and Suzanne was broken (15 Love then point for point until 30-All and a mini-shift to Break Point and the break) as nobody could hold serve at 2-2. De Benedetto was broken again (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then came 30-All, Break Point and the break) as was Castolo (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point, then Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level matters again, this time at 3-3! Finally, Samara was the first to hold serve in this set (off to a Love-30 start only to shift it all the way to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to go up 4-3 and then Bujara was broken again (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 3-5. The Vin Man was then broken a third time (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, then Break Point and the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-4, but then The Titan was also broken a third time (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break/Match Point, Break/Match Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, the 3rd Break/Match Point, 3rd Deuce, the 4th Break/Match Point, 4th Deuce, the 5th Break/Match Point and finally the break on that 5th M.P. overall) to take a tough loss! We played this one on the North Court from 11:39 to 12:18.
The Skinny: The quality was a bit higher in this second encounter and so was the drama factor...especially in that last game with Tito on serve. It was a shame this was not made to be a full 2 out of 3 Sets Match as it would have re-upped the activity status of Samara/De Benedetto (they are still safe in that regard for now). But had the sets been split, there would not have been time for a third one (though perhaps a 10-Point Super Tiebreak) as Suzanne had to leave immediately after.
That left Frank, Vin and Tito as three guys on the bench for a while as none of them were looking to play Singles or just hit the ball around. All of them were hoping for a fourth player to arrive to enable some more Doubles action. When that failed to happen by 12:35, Castolo was the next to leave. Meanwhile, De Benedetto decided to hang around just a bit longer. That decision would soon pay dividends for him.
Jorge Solano/Thiyagesh Rei over Jose Gonzales/Muhammad Haque, 6-3! Jorge: 3 Aces (2 on Muhammad and 1 on Jose); Thiyagesh: 2 Aces on Muhammad; and Jose: 1 Ace on Jorge! It was "Ace City" on Center Court as they played this one from 12:15 to 12:40. Afterward, Jorge decided to sit out and take a break while Frank had Vin go in to play one last One-Setter before hitting the road.
Jose Gonzales/Vinnie De Benedetto over Muhammad Haque/Thiyagesh Rei, 6-0! Vinnie: 1 Ace on Muhammad! Down 0-5, Thiyagesh was on serve when he did himself in by hitting a Double Fault on Double Break/Match Point! This set got underway on the North Court at 12:44 and the bagel was officially served at precisely 1:02! Simply put, experience won out in this one. And it should be said that Vin was in his finest form in this encounter (as compared to the previous One-Setters played during this session). Minutes later, Vin went out on a high note and called it a day!
Jose Gonzales/Frank Samara over Jorge Solano/Thiyagesh Rei, 6-2! No Aces. The dirty lowdown: Jorge held at Love, Frank held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold), but Thiyagesh was the first to be broken and it was at Love after starting the game off with a Double Fault. Jose then held as he got started up 15-Love and then it went point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold for 3-1. Solano was broken at Love this time around as he hit a Double Fault on Triple Break Point to break himself and then Samara held again (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold) to take a fairly commanding lead at 5-1! Rei held (Triple Game Point, Double Fault for Double Game Point, Game Point and then the hold) to pull to 2-5, but Gonzales then held again (15-Love then point for point to Game/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, 3rd Game/Match Point and finally the hold) to get the win! We played this one on the North Court from 1:06 to 1:31.
The Skinny: The match-up may seem somewhat unbalanced, but Jose chose Frank to be his partner as he cited having some issues with his mobility (I think he may have said it was his knees). Gonzales said his even bigger problem was pain in his right wrist which was not too problematic while serving, but was an obstacle to him hitting his forehands shots the way he normally would. He left after this one.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-2, 7-5! No Aces. In the process, Shah/Shah returned to the Doubles Division as the New # 144 Ranked Team per the still relatively new TMT Rules. This match was contested on the South Court from 1:09 to 2:30.
Dan Knitzer over Muhammad Haque, 6-2! No Aces. Center Court hosted this one from 1:17 to 1:39.
Dan and Muhammad were then hoping to play Doubles. Frank was almost ready to leave around this time, but seeing that he was needed as the fourth player (with Thiyagesh willing to stay and play one more), Samara decided to "take one for the team" and compete in one more One-Setter. He would be glad he did.
Frank Samara/Thiyagesh Rei over Dan Knitzer/Muhammad Haque, 7-6 (8-6)! No Aces. Here's the breakdown: Frank was broken at Love, Dan was broken at Love, Thiyagesh was broken (a Double Fault to set up Triple Break Point, it then went to Double Break Point and the break) and Muhammad was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) as nobody could hold serve at 2-2. Samara was the first to hold (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold), then so did Knitzer (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold) as did Rei (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold) for 4-3. Yes, you read that right. This is not a matter of convenient or lazy memory. Those last three service games all played out in the same manner, point by point! Haque then broke the trend with a more dominant hold (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Hollywood held again (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and then the hold), but so did The Dark Knight (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 and then it went to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to keep hope alive at 5-5! T-Pain also held again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, Double Fault for 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold) to reclaim the lead for his team, but then Diver Down also held again (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point and then came the hold) to force the Tiebreak! In the Breaker: Frank was broken on his lone serve, then Dan was broken on his first and then hit a Double Fault on his second one for 1-2! Thiyagesh repeated that feat by being broken on his first and then hitting a Double Fault on his second for 2-3! Muhammad was broken on his first serve for 3-3 at the changeover and then was broken again for 3-4. Samara was also broken on both of his serves for 4-5. Knitzer then held the first of his two serves for 6-4 and Match Point! He was then broken on his second one to make it 6-5, but it was still Match Point (the second in his team's favor and the third overall at this point) as service returned to Rei. He held the first of his two serves for 6-6 at the second changeover and then he held again to put his team up 7-6 for their 2nd Match Point (which was the 4th M.P. overall now) with service going back to Haque. And he was then broken as this TB ended at 8-6! We played this one on the North Court from 1:40 to 2:29.
The Skinny: Like the two Doubles One-Setters played at The Wayne Bubble this past Friday night, this is another one of those One-Setters that may be an early contender as a possible Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of The Year at season's end, but is likely to be eclipsed later in the year by more exciting Tiebreak scores and/or higher quality contests overall. Going into this one, Knitzer had long wanted to face Samara to see how their two styles would match-up against the other. Ably supported by their partners, Dan and Frank put on quite a show...but all four had more than their fair share of fine moments in which they could take pride in and head home on a happy note.
All in all, it was a very fun session! We now head up to The Wayne Bubble to get the results from there.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
The 3 to 5pm session:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Sean McHugh/Brenda Jordan over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-3, 6-2, to become the New # 20 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division! No Aces.
Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over Sean McHugh/Robin Wilson, 6-1! No Aces.
The 6 to 8pm session:
Ryan Pienciak/John Rizzo over Chris Chiaro/Rich Liu, 6-4! No Aces.
Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro, 6-1! No Aces.
Chris Chiaro over Ryan Pienciak, 6-3! No Aces.
Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro, 6-1! No Aces.
The Riz Report: All three of those One-Setters clocked in at a combined time of just 70 minutes!
Samara's Notes: I must say that these scores are somewhat surprising as many consider Chiaro to be the odds-on favorite to win the ongoing GTA Championship Tournament. Of course, one can never assume that a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match (or Tournament Match) would have been played out the same way as three separate One-Setters would be. After all, the mentality of the competitors is sure to change. Still, it is an interesting development and definitely serves to raise the stock of the current Top Seed in the tourney (as well as the entire Advanced Division and league overall), Pienciak!
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Tom La/Ray Spadaro over Elias Eid/John Crespo, 6-2, 7-5, to become the New # 134 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division! No Aces.
Rich Liu/Nick Caputo over John Rizzo/Frank Hohorst, 7-5! No Aces.
John Rizzo/Frank Hohorst leading Rich Liu/Nick Caputo, 4-3 (Incomplete when the session ran out of time)! No Aces.
Syed Rashid and Mike Sindler only had a hitting session with one another.
Samara's Notes: I thank Kevin, Ryan and John for assuming the hosting duties and sending in these results in a very timely fashion.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
"Samara hosts 13 at Albion, 14 compete (2 just hit) at Bubble!":
There were three sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: the usual early morning one at The Albion Park Courts in Clifton hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara and the usual two back-to-back late afternoon/early evening Sunday sessions for the two Night Owl groups up at The Wayne Bubble (most often hosted by "The Riz" John Rizzo, but this time around the first of the two was hosted by "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle while "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak was also a contributor for the second one).
Let's first detail the coming and goings plus scores from Albion before getting the Wayne Bubble results from Kevin, Ryan and John.
Samara pulled up to the curb on the street up the hill from the courts at Albion just as Tito "The Titan" Castolo was doing the same. Already out on the North Court, it was "The Vin Man" Vinnie De Benedetto and "Sneaky" Suzanne Bujara on one side of the court hitting against "Diver Down" Muhammad Haque on the other side.
By the time both Samara and Castolo made it out onto the courts, "Big George" Jorge Solano arrived at 10:55. Muhammad said he was willing to play Singles with Jorge while the other four would play Doubles. Frank thought the best balance in that scenario would be he teaming with Vin to take on Tito and Suzanne.
At 11:45, three players all arrived around the same time: "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes, Natalia "Nitro" Sout and "Hurricane" Jose Gonzales. With just the South Court left to them (Jorge and Muhammad were already doing battle in a Singles One-Setter on Center Court at this time), Nate and Nat soon entered into a hitting session with one another. Meanwhile, Jose chose to watch the Doubles action on the North Court from the bench alongside that court.
12noon saw the surprise arrival of "T-Pain" Thiyagesh Rei and he soon went to Center Court along with Jose for some Doubles with Jorge and Muhammad as they had already finished their One-Setter by this time. The split would be Gonzales teaming with Haque to face Solano and Rei.
Just ten minutes later, "The Inseparable Cousins" T.J. Shah and Rajan Shah arrived together and joined Nate and Nat's hitting session as T.J. sided with Natalia while Rajan went to Nate's side. This ended up being quite the lengthy hitting session as that court did not see official action until 1:09 when the teams were switched up for a full match featuring The Shahs going up against Fernandes and Sout.
The last official arriving competitor of the session was "The Dark Knight" Dan Knitzer (last week's host) when he pulled up to the courts at 1:10...giving us a total of thirteen players (pretty impressive considering the fact that the day struggled to get to 45 degrees and was often quite windy).
At 1:50, two older ladies (not with the GTA) arrived and took over Center Court for a hitting session with one another. They left at 2:30...the same time that everyone else still there at that time left...except for Nate and Nat who stayed behind to continue hitting with one another.
Let's get to the action!
The Albion Park Results:
Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over Tito Castolo/Suzanne Bujara, 6-4! No Aces. It went like this: Frank held serve (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold), Suzanne was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) and Vinnie held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold) to go up 3-0. Tito held to get his team onto the scoreboard (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point and then the hold), but Samara held again (Triple Game Point was reduced to Game Point, but then came the hold) for 4-1. Bujara was broken again (started off with a Double Fault, then Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and a bounce to Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to fall to 1-5, but then De Benedetto was also broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point and the break) for 5-2. Castolo held again (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, a mini-shift to Game Point and then the hold) and then The Wood was broken for the first time (15-Love then point for point to Game/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and then the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-4. But then Sneaky Suzanne was broken a third straight time as she started off up 15-Love only to then see it go straight to Double Break/Match Point and the break to take the loss on the 3rd M.P. overall! We played this one on the North Court from 11:07 to 11:38.
The Skinny: It initially seemed like it would be a blowout, but then Tito and Suzanne fought back hard to make it interesting. Castolo was up to his usual "Puppet Master" tactics with his standard deft "Tito touch" as he made drop shot after drop shot. But early on, he did miss some volleys which is unusual for him. Vin was a force up at the net, as usual...but he was also caught off-guard a couple of time as the set progressed. Bujara continues to improve outing after outing as she started hitting with more confidence as the set grew older. I, for the most part, was fairly steady throughout though I did have a couple of shanks and/or bad shots along the way.
Tito wanted to turn it into a full 2 out of 3 Sets Match, but both Vin and Suzanne had said early on that they would have to leave fairly early. So I suggested we just play the next one as a Rematch One-Setter instead and everyone was fine with that. But first...
Jorge Solano over Muhammad Haque, 6-4! No Aces. They played this one on Center Court from 11:10 to 11:50. After it was over, Jorge then hit against Jose until it was time for Thiyagesh to join that court and for Muhammad to return to it for some Doubles action. And we will get to that later in this report.
Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over Tito Castolo/Suzanne Bujara, 6-4! Tito: 1 Ace on Vinnie. Here's how it went down: Vinnie was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break), Tito was broken (Triple Break Point, Double Break Point, a sideline Ace against Vin to make it Break Point, then Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break), Frank was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) and Suzanne was broken (15 Love then point for point until 30-All and a mini-shift to Break Point and the break) as nobody could hold serve at 2-2. De Benedetto was broken again (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then came 30-All, Break Point and the break) as was Castolo (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point, then Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level matters again, this time at 3-3! Finally, Samara was the first to hold serve in this set (off to a Love-30 start only to shift it all the way to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to go up 4-3 and then Bujara was broken again (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) to fall to 3-5. The Vin Man was then broken a third time (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, then Break Point and the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-4, but then The Titan was also broken a third time (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break/Match Point, Break/Match Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, the 3rd Break/Match Point, 3rd Deuce, the 4th Break/Match Point, 4th Deuce, the 5th Break/Match Point and finally the break on that 5th M.P. overall) to take a tough loss! We played this one on the North Court from 11:39 to 12:18.
The Skinny: The quality was a bit higher in this second encounter and so was the drama factor...especially in that last game with Tito on serve. It was a shame this was not made to be a full 2 out of 3 Sets Match as it would have re-upped the activity status of Samara/De Benedetto (they are still safe in that regard for now). But had the sets been split, there would not have been time for a third one (though perhaps a 10-Point Super Tiebreak) as Suzanne had to leave immediately after.
That left Frank, Vin and Tito as three guys on the bench for a while as none of them were looking to play Singles or just hit the ball around. All of them were hoping for a fourth player to arrive to enable some more Doubles action. When that failed to happen by 12:35, Castolo was the next to leave. Meanwhile, De Benedetto decided to hang around just a bit longer. That decision would soon pay dividends for him.
Jorge Solano/Thiyagesh Rei over Jose Gonzales/Muhammad Haque, 6-3! Jorge: 3 Aces (2 on Muhammad and 1 on Jose); Thiyagesh: 2 Aces on Muhammad; and Jose: 1 Ace on Jorge! It was "Ace City" on Center Court as they played this one from 12:15 to 12:40. Afterward, Jorge decided to sit out and take a break while Frank had Vin go in to play one last One-Setter before hitting the road.
Jose Gonzales/Vinnie De Benedetto over Muhammad Haque/Thiyagesh Rei, 6-0! Vinnie: 1 Ace on Muhammad! Down 0-5, Thiyagesh was on serve when he did himself in by hitting a Double Fault on Double Break/Match Point! This set got underway on the North Court at 12:44 and the bagel was officially served at precisely 1:02! Simply put, experience won out in this one. And it should be said that Vin was in his finest form in this encounter (as compared to the previous One-Setters played during this session). Minutes later, Vin went out on a high note and called it a day!
Jose Gonzales/Frank Samara over Jorge Solano/Thiyagesh Rei, 6-2! No Aces. The dirty lowdown: Jorge held at Love, Frank held (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold), but Thiyagesh was the first to be broken and it was at Love after starting the game off with a Double Fault. Jose then held as he got started up 15-Love and then it went point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold for 3-1. Solano was broken at Love this time around as he hit a Double Fault on Triple Break Point to break himself and then Samara held again (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold) to take a fairly commanding lead at 5-1! Rei held (Triple Game Point, Double Fault for Double Game Point, Game Point and then the hold) to pull to 2-5, but Gonzales then held again (15-Love then point for point to Game/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, 3rd Game/Match Point and finally the hold) to get the win! We played this one on the North Court from 1:06 to 1:31.
The Skinny: The match-up may seem somewhat unbalanced, but Jose chose Frank to be his partner as he cited having some issues with his mobility (I think he may have said it was his knees). Gonzales said his even bigger problem was pain in his right wrist which was not too problematic while serving, but was an obstacle to him hitting his forehands shots the way he normally would. He left after this one.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout over T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah, 6-2, 7-5! No Aces. In the process, Shah/Shah returned to the Doubles Division as the New # 144 Ranked Team per the still relatively new TMT Rules. This match was contested on the South Court from 1:09 to 2:30.
Dan Knitzer over Muhammad Haque, 6-2! No Aces. Center Court hosted this one from 1:17 to 1:39.
Dan and Muhammad were then hoping to play Doubles. Frank was almost ready to leave around this time, but seeing that he was needed as the fourth player (with Thiyagesh willing to stay and play one more), Samara decided to "take one for the team" and compete in one more One-Setter. He would be glad he did.
Frank Samara/Thiyagesh Rei over Dan Knitzer/Muhammad Haque, 7-6 (8-6)! No Aces. Here's the breakdown: Frank was broken at Love, Dan was broken at Love, Thiyagesh was broken (a Double Fault to set up Triple Break Point, it then went to Double Break Point and the break) and Muhammad was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) as nobody could hold serve at 2-2. Samara was the first to hold (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold), then so did Knitzer (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold) as did Rei (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold) for 4-3. Yes, you read that right. This is not a matter of convenient or lazy memory. Those last three service games all played out in the same manner, point by point! Haque then broke the trend with a more dominant hold (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Hollywood held again (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and then the hold), but so did The Dark Knight (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 and then it went to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to keep hope alive at 5-5! T-Pain also held again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, Double Fault for 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold) to reclaim the lead for his team, but then Diver Down also held again (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point and then came the hold) to force the Tiebreak! In the Breaker: Frank was broken on his lone serve, then Dan was broken on his first and then hit a Double Fault on his second one for 1-2! Thiyagesh repeated that feat by being broken on his first and then hitting a Double Fault on his second for 2-3! Muhammad was broken on his first serve for 3-3 at the changeover and then was broken again for 3-4. Samara was also broken on both of his serves for 4-5. Knitzer then held the first of his two serves for 6-4 and Match Point! He was then broken on his second one to make it 6-5, but it was still Match Point (the second in his team's favor and the third overall at this point) as service returned to Rei. He held the first of his two serves for 6-6 at the second changeover and then he held again to put his team up 7-6 for their 2nd Match Point (which was the 4th M.P. overall now) with service going back to Haque. And he was then broken as this TB ended at 8-6! We played this one on the North Court from 1:40 to 2:29.
The Skinny: Like the two Doubles One-Setters played at The Wayne Bubble this past Friday night, this is another one of those One-Setters that may be an early contender as a possible Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of The Year at season's end, but is likely to be eclipsed later in the year by more exciting Tiebreak scores and/or higher quality contests overall. Going into this one, Knitzer had long wanted to face Samara to see how their two styles would match-up against the other. Ably supported by their partners, Dan and Frank put on quite a show...but all four had more than their fair share of fine moments in which they could take pride in and head home on a happy note.
All in all, it was a very fun session! We now head up to The Wayne Bubble to get the results from there.
The Wayne Bubble Results:
The 3 to 5pm session:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Sean McHugh/Brenda Jordan over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-3, 6-2, to become the New # 20 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division! No Aces.
Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan over Sean McHugh/Robin Wilson, 6-1! No Aces.
The 6 to 8pm session:
Ryan Pienciak/John Rizzo over Chris Chiaro/Rich Liu, 6-4! No Aces.
Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro, 6-1! No Aces.
Chris Chiaro over Ryan Pienciak, 6-3! No Aces.
Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro, 6-1! No Aces.
The Riz Report: All three of those One-Setters clocked in at a combined time of just 70 minutes!
Samara's Notes: I must say that these scores are somewhat surprising as many consider Chiaro to be the odds-on favorite to win the ongoing GTA Championship Tournament. Of course, one can never assume that a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match (or Tournament Match) would have been played out the same way as three separate One-Setters would be. After all, the mentality of the competitors is sure to change. Still, it is an interesting development and definitely serves to raise the stock of the current Top Seed in the tourney (as well as the entire Advanced Division and league overall), Pienciak!
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Tom La/Ray Spadaro over Elias Eid/John Crespo, 6-2, 7-5, to become the New # 134 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division! No Aces.
Rich Liu/Nick Caputo over John Rizzo/Frank Hohorst, 7-5! No Aces.
John Rizzo/Frank Hohorst leading Rich Liu/Nick Caputo, 4-3 (Incomplete when the session ran out of time)! No Aces.
Syed Rashid and Mike Sindler only had a hitting session with one another.
Samara's Notes: I thank Kevin, Ryan and John for assuming the hosting duties and sending in these results in a very timely fashion.
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
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