4/29 Results.

4/29/18:

"Pienciak-Chiaro at Albion, 15 at Brookdale, Santos-Knitzer, 2 at VHS, 6 more at C.G.!":

There were five sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis: an early morning one at The Albion Park Courts in Clifton which only featured the GTA Championship Tournament Semifinal Match between "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak and "King Crush" Chris Chiaro (as reported by Chris...and the only other match at Albion at that time was a Bergen Tennis Singles Match featuring "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis going up against an unknown competitor), then the usual GTA Sunday Tennis session always hosted by "Hollywood" Frank Samara was now instead at Brookdale Park in Bloomfield (the first of which will hopefully be quite a few...at least until the summer when Tiger Tennis resumes collecting fees there once again), then an early afternoon session at The Cedar Grove Courts which began with the GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 16 Match featuring "Stealth" Omar Santos going up against "The Dark Knight" Dan Knitzer (with both reporting), then a session at the Verona High School Courts with Knitzer then facing "The Headhunter" Ralph Bernard in three One-Setters (as reported by Dan) and then finally another later session at The Cedar Grove Courts with "The Riz" John Rizzo reporting those results.  It started off as a gray, chilly and wet Sunday...but soon enough it transformed into a nice, sunny day with a peak temperature near 60 degrees, but it was often quite breezy (windy, in fact).

Let's first get the major result from Chris at Albion, then detail the comings and goings (plus scores) from Brookdale before getting the Cedar Grove results from Dan, Omar and John.

The Albion Park Result:

GTA Championship Tournament Semifinal:
Chris Chiaro over Ryan Pienciak, 6-4, 6-3, to become the New # 1 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Finals of the GTA Championship Tournament!  Chris: 1 Ace in the 2nd Set!

Samara's Notes: Chris reported this result to me upon his arrival at Brookdale Park (more on that in just a bit) and he said they played 10:15 to 11:25 (approximately).

And now we detail all that took place at Brookdale Park (and also the events the evening before that had an impact on the timing for Mr. Samara's arrival).

Samara found a parking space on the street that leads to the tennis courts area of the park at 11:10 (just as "Fed-X" Phil Federico was doing the same).  This late arrival was almost half an hour later than he had told the league he would get to Brookdale Park (it turns out one player never saw the two e-mails about the change in locations...more on that much later in this report). 

Well, it turns out that Frank had a justifiable reason for his tardiness.  The night before, there was an attempted break-in at his apartment in Passaic.  He was out doing some food shopping from a little before 7pm to almost 8pm.  During that time period (beginning around 7:15) while his two children and their mother were home, a series of door bell rings followed by the sounds of breaking glass began to occur.

To make the situation worse (though perhaps not...we will soon play "Devil's Advocate" for the alternate scenario), Samara had left his cell phone in the cigarette lighter-style charger in his car while he was shopping.  So the several text messages and calls that were being sent to him during this emergency time period were "falling on deaf ears" for all intents and purposes.

Thankfully, Frank's brave daughter told her mother to forget contacting her father...call 9-1-1 instead!  But with an imminent illegal entry to the apartment seemingly minutes (perhaps seconds) away, they first decided to vacate the premises to hopefully ensure their own safety.  The attempted break-in was occurring at what is supposed to be our front door, but actually serves as our back door as we never use it due to its inconvenient location.  They were also afraid to use the "front door" (our everyday usage front door) that leads to the parking lot as they feared evil accomplices may be there as well.

As we live in a first floor apartment, they decided to escape from a bedroom window where they first had to get their bodies out the window, feet-down first before dropping down to the sidewalk below.  My daughter was barefoot while my son only had socks on his feet...and it was already raining at the time.  From there, they went to the nearby main road with their mom and crossed over a bridge, crossed the next main street (aptly called Main Ave.) and then went up a side street where some friends of ours live (though they were not home at the time).

Somewhere in this process of panic, their mother did call the police and soon somewhere between six and eight police cars swarmed to the scene.  Unfortunately, they did not nab the suspect.  But they did get a picture of someone they felt was likely to have fled the scene.  He was not alone as he also had a female accomplice in tow. 

The good news is the full "B and E" never took place...just the "B" (only the breaking...no entering) as they never opened that front door...they only smashed four window panes of glass (sending many broken chards of glass all over the foyer floor).  The better (and more important) news is that my children were OK (as was their mom).  They are, however, quite rattled from having gone through such a traumatic experience (we had a previous break-in attempt a couple of years ago as someone was trying to get into our front door...the one at the parking lot without windows...using a crowbar, but they fled the scene without any luck and the scene was less dramatic as they only later knew it was an attempted break-in and not just some crazy homeless guy pounding on the door...hoping someone would open it...got to love living in Passaic...LOL!).

The reason I tell all this is because my children, as a result, could not fall asleep until almost midnight.  And while my son still woke up at a decent hour (he is an early riser), my daughter needed her beauty sleep.  So by the time she got up, got going, ate some breakfast and they both got ready before I dropped them off at their friends house, my usual routine was now running half an hour behind schedule.

It turns out it did not matter all that much (though we likely could have an extra set of Mixed Doubles for the session had I arrived on time) as when I found "my people" out amongst the eleven courts at Brookdale, it was just "Diver Down" Muhammad Haque hitting against both Sachiko "Sachi" Tokuda and "Sneaky" Suzanne Bujara on what I am calling Court Eight (if you number the courts closest to the street first and then go from One to Three in each row with One being the furthest from each entrance...it leads to it being One to Three in the first row of courts, Four to Six in the second row, Seven to Nine in the third row and then there are two additional courts, Ten and Eleven, with their entrance gate attached to the third row through which they can only be accessed by walking thru the third row area as the two outer gates to those last two courts are still currently padlocked).

When Mr. Federico soon followed me onto the courts, I offered to sit out to let the four of them play some Mixed Doubles.  But the guys wanted to hit against one another, so they did their thing on Court Eight while the ladies and I shifted over to Court Nine for our own hitting session where I hit against the two of them.

At this time, only two more of the courts at Brookdale were in use (Court Two, a coach giving a lesson to a school-aged girl, and Court Five which featured a couple of late 20's/early 30's guys playing Singles with one another).  Soon after, a third court (Court Three) would be used for another lesson.

I really feel that the coast is going to be relatively clear at Brookdale from here forward.  Perhaps a warmer day would have drawn more people out of their homes to play tennis.  Even so, I feel confident we will always get at least three courts (the same amount we have at Albion) if not more.  So the plan is to continue to have the GTA Sunday Tennis sessions there until Tiger Tennis (they own the concession at Brookdale) resume collecting fees when the nearby construction is done in the summer.  Once that happens, it is back to Albion we go!

Getting back to the timing of the arrivals, "Teej" T.J. Shah and "Ragin'" Rajan Shah (aka The Inseparable Cousins) walked onto the courts together at 11:40.  I suggested they join Muhammad and Phil for some Men's Doubles on Court Eight.  Soon after, it was Phil who determined that the best match-up would likely be separating The Inseparables.  As it turns out, Mr. Federico was right as they played two well-balanced One-Setters with each team getting a win and/or taking a loss.

At 11:45, Chiaro arrived (having just come from Albion) and he had "The Hit Man" Tom La with him.  He said that The Pienciak Brothers were on their way, so I offered up Court Seven as a place where they could all play some Men's Doubles.

Of course, all this still left the ladies and I one short for some Mixed Doubles.  And it was around this time that Suzanne told me she would need to leave by 12:30.  Thankfully, at noon, Celis also had made his way over from Albion.  Having already played a full match, he was warmed up and ready to go...so we did get some Mixed Doubles underway on Court Nine. 

Just ten minutes later, Fadia "Finesse" Nicolas arrived and she said she had "Queen B" Louise Bysiek and Louise's "Lefty Right-Hand Man" Jeff Rozner soon following her.  So they soon found their way (via the perimeter of Court Nine) over to Court Eleven for a hitting session (with Jeff going solo against the gals). 

When Bujara had to bounce (at 3-3, we decided to end the One-Setter unofficially at 4-3 for either team), this gave Rozner and the ladies a chance to come over to Court Nine for some Mixed Doubles as Celis had already had enough (having already played a full Singles Match at Albion) and Tokuda was exhausted.

And this gave us the 15 official competitors we had at Brookdale.  We could have had sixteen as "Samson of Seasons" Sam Wong arrived at 1:55...mere minutes after Muhammad had left (and he had waited alone on Court Eight for a while).  Sam said he had gone to Albion at 1:30 and was surprised to see nobody there.  Samara said, "Didn't you see the couple of e-mails I had sent about the switch to Brookdale?"  Mr. Wong said he never received them.

The sad thing is that he most likely is telling the truth (not that I would doubt Sam anyway) because I've had quite a few people tell me they are not getting the e-mails (even though they are on our mailing list...some of them had them going into their "Spam" folders, but others were not receiving them at all).  If that is not bad enough, this past week I had two people request that we remove them from the mailing list.  We would if we could...the problem is that their e-mail addresses do not show up on the mailing list!  Trust me, I could not even conjure up such a scenario in order to make up such a thing...truly strange!  

Enough chit chat (and there was plenty this week...my apologies), let's get to the action!

The Brookdale Park Results:

T.J. Shah/Phil Federico over Rajan Shah/Muhammad Haque, 6-4!  No Aces.  Court Eight hosted this one from 11:50 to 12:48...just two minutes shy of an hour!  They must have had many multiple Deuce games in this one!

Dino Celis/Sachiko Tokuda leading Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara, 4-3 (Incomplete when Suzanne had to leave at 12:31...we had begun this one on Court Nine at 12:05)!  No Aces.  It was going like this: Sachiko held at Love and Frank was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) for 0-2.  Dino was also broken (Triple Game Point was reduced to Deuce, then came another Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then the break), but so was Suzanne (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 shifted again to Break Point and then came the break) for 1-3.  Tokuda was broken (Love-30 went straight to Game Point, but then came Deuce, Break Point and the break) and then Samara held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point cut down to Deuce, but then came another Game Point followed by the hold) to level things at 3-3.  At this point, we decided to just play one more game with the winners getting a moral victory if not an official one.  Celis was on serve and started off down Love-15 only to shift gears to 30-15, then came 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold for the "semi" win...LOL!

Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Tom La, 6-4!  Chris: 1 Ace on Adam!  This took place on Court Seven and lasted from 12:10 to 12:37.  This was not the beginning of a would-be full match and there was a visit before the coming Rematch One-Setter made by Adam's wife Hannah and their baby daughter, Willow.

Jeff Rozner/Fadia Nicolas over Frank Samara/Louise Bysiek, 6-4!  Jeff: 1 Ace on Louise!  It went like this: Jeff held (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, Double Fault for 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) and Frank was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point and the break) for 0-2.  Fadia was also broken (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, 30-15, but then a shift to Break Point and the break), but so was Louise (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, then came Break Point and the break) for 1-3.  Rozner held again (started with a corner Ace against Louise, then went to 30-Love only to have a Double Fault make it 30-15, then it went to Double Game Point before getting cut down to Deuce only to have it go to another Game Point and then came the hold) and Samara was broken again and this time it was at Love to fall to 1-5!  But Nicolas was also broken again (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then 30-All, Break Point and the break) while Bysiek then held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to pull to 3-5.  The Lefty Right-Hand Man was finally broken (Love-15, 15-All, 15-30, Double Fault for Double Break Point and then the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-4 and then came a very epic game, indeed!  With Hollywood on serve, he got off to a Love-30 start only to shift it to 30-All and then came Break/Match Point, Deuce, a 2nd Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, a 3rd Break/Match Point, 4th Deuce, a 4th Break/Match Point and finally the painful break and loss of a hard-fought One-Setter!  We played this one on Court Nine from 12:40 to 1:23.

Samara's Notes: I had only met Jeff briefly at one of the GTA Friday Night Party sessions up at The Wayne Bubble.  I did not get to see much of his game that night, but I had to deal with it firsthand on this occasion.  We gave Louise her choice of partner and she readily chose me as she felt my get-making ability would benefit her best.  And while I will confess to having more mobility than Mr. Rozner, he is definitely the better and more experienced shot-maker.  He has the typical crafty lefty serve coupled with a fast-paced and deceptive forehand.  His backhand is quite solid as well.  Ms. Bysiek confessed to getting off to a somewhat sluggish start, but she started to kick it into a higher gear midway through this contest.  And, thus, we were looking for a rematch...which we will get to a little later in this report.

Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Tom La, 7-5!  No Aces.  Court Seven hosted this Rematch One-Setter from 12:45 to 1:22.  After this one, all four called it a day.

Rajan Shah/Muhammad Haque over T.J. Shah/Phil Federico, 6-2!  No Aces.  This Rematch One-Setter was played on Court Eight and lasted from 12:45 to 1:30.  Afterward, all but Muhammad left immediately.

Jeff Rozner/Fadia Nicolas over Frank Samara/Louise Bysiek, 6-4!  Jeff: 1 Ace on Louise!  This is not an erroneous instance of errant duplication.  Read further to see that the games were, in fact, played out differently...even though the score, the Ace count and even the way it ended were very much the same!  The dirty lowdown: Jeff was broken at Love, Frank was broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break), but Fadia was the first to hold (30-Love shifted to 30-All, then Game Point and the hold) for 2-1.  Louise was broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, but then came Break Point and the break) while Rozner rebounded with a Love hold to make it 4-1!  Samara finally held as it went 15-Love then point for point to Game Point which was the point of the match and the entire day (well, at least when it came to these two teams) as Frank had a bevy of opportunities to put the game away with some overheads...and while he did not miss any, the winds (which had begun picking up again around 1pm) were causing him to be a little more controlled (inhibited, perhaps?) with his shots and that gave just enough room for some excellent get-making and solid defense by both Jeff and Fadia...which led to them winning the point to make it Deuce, only to have it go back to Game Point again and Frank's first hold of the day (again, between these two teams) to pull to 2-4 and then Nicolas was broken as a 30-Love lead soon shifted to 30-All, it then went to Game Point only to then go to Deuce, Break Point and the break to have her team's lead cut to 4-3.  Bysiek then had an impressive hold (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to knot the score at 4-4!  The Lefty Right-Hand Man then managed a hold of his own (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point which then led to another corner Ace against Louise, this time around it was for the hold) as his team was once again up 5-4 with The Wood about to serve to stay in the match (deja vu, anyone?).  That game went as follows...Love-15, 15-All then right to Double Break/Match Point, then Break/Match Point, Deuce, a 3rd Break/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, a 4th Break/Match Point and finally the break!  What are the odds of playing back-to-back One-Setters that not only end with the same score (also the same result in terms of the winners and losers) along with the Ace count and the same server having his team save three Match Points only to ultimately go down to the fourth each time?!?!  Well, it did play out a bit differently in that last game.  Another difference was we played this one on Court Seven rather than Court Nine as the others (Samara was somewhat oblivious) were somewhat bothered by all the in and out foot traffic made by other players as they were coming and going to access the other courts (including Courts Ten and Eleven) in the area.  This one lasted from 1:25 to 2:08.  It was a nice way to wrap things up at Brookdale Park.    

All in all, it was a very fun session!  We now go to Cedar Grove to first get the dual recap from Dan and Omar, then the rest of the report from John.

The Cedar Grove Result:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 16 Match:
Dan Knitzer over Omar Santos, 6-3, 6-3, to become both the New # 28 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 7 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while advancing to the Quarterfinals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  No Aces.

The Dark Knight's Scroll: In the 1st Set, there was only one service break.  In the 2nd Set, there were only three service holds!  It was a hard-fought match.  A lot of slice shots from both of us...and a lot of soft second serves...haha! 

The Stealth Report: We played from 1:30 to 3pm.

Samara's Notes: I thank both for their very timely reporting and also congratulate Dan on an impressive victory.  He is now the third player to make it to the Quarters of the GTA Intermediate Invitational.  And then he headed straight to Verona to face Ralph Bernard in three One-Setters (originally intended to be a full match, but Knitzer is still ineligible to engage in outside Challenge Matches while he remains in the active draw of the GTA Intermediate Invitational).

The Verona High School Courts Results:

Dan Knitzer over Ralph Bernard, 7-6 (7-5)!  No Aces.

Ralph Bernard over Dan Knitzer, 6-2!  No Aces.

Ralph Bernard over Dan Knitzer, 6-2!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank Dan for reporting those results from Verona.  We now turn this report over to John.

The Cedar Grove Results:

3 out of 5 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Senthil Kumar/Sukumar Mitra over John Rizzo/Fadia Nicolas, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1!  No Aces.  Per the TMT Rules, Kumar/Mitra (aka The 2 Kumars) entered the Doubles Division as the New # 156 Team in the Doubles Division!  Rizzo/Nicolas are already a ranked team in the Mixed Doubles Division.

Senthil Kumar/Andrew Truong over John Rizzo/Fadia Nicolas, 6-1!  No Aces.

Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo over Andrew Truong/Natalia Sout, 6-1!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank John for collecting all the scores and sending them in...in a very timely fashion. 

All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com

4/28 Results.

4/28/18:

"Tournament, Title and Challenge Matches part of 24 at C.G.!":

GTA Saturday Tennis at The Cedar Grove Courts got off to an early start as Umang "Ash" Jain and "Bee Gee" Brad Gero got together at 9:30am for their GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament Round of 16 Match.  After that, there would be a hiccup in the action before many other players returned later in the day to have as-scheduled matches (such as the GTA Women's Championship Match with GTA Women's Champion: Laura "The Aura" Gawley defending her Title against "The Smackdown" Sally Pillay), or Open Challenge matches that were promptly answered (i.e. "The Headhunter" Ralph Bernard responding to the league-wide invitation for action via "The Apex Predator" Adam Pienciak) or simply to attend the Open Session announced by "The Riz" John Rizzo.

So what follows next is the dual recap from Ash and Brad, then the results reported by Adam and Laura in that order (as I believe Rizzo had indicated that sequence of events upon his arrival there), and then many more scores listed by John (and it should be noted that "Sadistic" Syed Rashid also reported his results directly). 

The Cedar Grove Courts Results:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 16 Match:
Umang Jain over Brad Gero, 6-3, 6-1, to successfully defend his # 9 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Quarterfinals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  No Aces. 

Annotations from Ash: I won the toss and asked Brad to start serving.  I went up 3-0 in the 1st Set by breaking him twice, but then he broke me once on the way to the score becoming 3-2.  I later broke him in the final game to win the set.  I served the first game of the 2nd Set and we were on serve for 1-1 and then I later broke him twice on the way to winning the set and match.

We just gotta get a message from Mr. Bee Gee: Ash, thanks for a great match!  We played it from 9:30 to 11am.

Samara's Notes: First, I thank both for reporting the result in such a timely fashion.  I also congratulate Ash on a very impressive victory.  Mr. Jain is now the second player into the Quarterfinals ("Kerosene" Kyle Eng was the first with his win last weekend over "Big George" Jorge Solano).

2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Adam Pienciak over Ralph Bernard, 6-1, 7-5, to become the New # 13 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: Adam simply reported the result with no commentary.  Pienciak goes directly into the Advanced Division as Bernard is strictly an Advanced Division player...and Adam had only previously been listed in the Non-Competing Men's Division.  This was his very first full competitive Singles Match in the GTA.  And the impressive victory clearly indicates that he ended up where he belongs.  I thank Adam for sending in this result in a very timely fashion and I congratulate him on the win as well.

GTA Women's Championship Match:
Laura Gawley over Sally Pillay, 6-4, 6-3, to complete her sixth successful GTA Women's Championship defense of her first reign!  No Aces.

The Lowdown from Laura: We started at about 4:10 and played until 5:45.  She started off very well and was up 4-2 in the 1st Set!  I was able to take advantage of a few openings and went on to take the set.  I took a 3-0 lead in the 2nd Set, but then Sally came back to tie it up before I pulled it out to win the match.  It was windy which was a problem for both of us at times.  We had fun and she made me run a lot!  She got to so many balls that I didn't think were coming back!  Good tennis!   

Samara's Notes: I thank Laura for her very timely and detailed reporting...it is much appreciated.  I also congratulate her on a very impressive and hard-fought victory.  I also offer hearty kudos to Sally for a fine effort...and it is further evidence of her steady improvement.

We now get the rest of the Cedar Grove scores via The Riz Report.

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
T.J. Shah/Rajan Shah over Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland, 6-4, 6-2, to become the New # 133 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division!  No Aces.

Syed Rashid/Laurie Boughton over Mike Sindler/Elias Eid, 6-3!  No Aces.

Mike Sindler/Elias Eid over Syed Rashid/Laurie Boughton, 6-1!  No Aces.

Elias Eid/Natalia Sout over Dan Knitzer/Laurie Boughton, 6-2!  No Aces.

Jorge Solano/Dan Knitzer over Elias Eid/Natalia Sout, 6-4!  No Aces.

Jorge Solano/Elias Eid over Dan Knitzer/Natalia Sout, 6-1!  No Aces.

John Rizzo/Scott Bergenfeld over Tom Heidt/Don Moya, 7-6 (7-3)!  No Aces.

Tom Heidt/Don Moya over John Rizzo/Alfred Chen, 6-2!  No Aces.

Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo over Marijus Kuzavas/Alfred Chen, 6-4!  No Aces.

Senthil Kumar/Laura Gawley over John Rizzo/Alfred Chen, 6-2!  No Aces.

Ryan Pienciak/Marijus Kuzavas over Senthil Kumar/Scott Bergenfeld, 6-4!  No Aces.

Elias Eid/Natalia Sout leading John Rizzo/Jorge Solano, 4-2 (Incomplete as they had to stop once it started raining)!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank John for collecting all those scores and reporting them in such a timely fashion.

Best wishes,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com


 

4/27 Results.

4/27/18:

"Just 2 play in Nutley!":

There was just one session of GTA Friday Night Tennis and it took place at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley as "The Dark Knight" Dan Knitzer and "SWAT" Rich Liu got together for a couple of One-Setters (with Dan reporting).

The Park Ave. Courts Results:

Rich Liu over Dan Knitzer, 6-3!  No Aces.

Rich Liu over Dan Knitzer, 6-4!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank Dan for his very timely reporting.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com

4/26 Results.

4/26/18:

"Samara hosts 25 at C.G.!":

There were just one session of GTA Thursday Night Tennis, but it was a big one as "Hollywood" Frank Samara acted as the host at The Cedar Grove Courts.

The session actually got underway before his arrival and there were plenty of players there by the time he rolled into the parking lot at 7pm.

"The Riz" John Rizzo got there around 6:30 and saw that "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld was already there waiting for the arrival of "The Bulgarian Bull" Jordan Bachvaroff so that they could play some Singles.  But soon there were too many other players there not named Jordan for that Singles action to be an option.

Also, "Kerosene" Kyle Eng was out on Court Two giving a lesson to two slightly younger students (a young man and a young lady).  "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan, upon seeing the entire place fill up with GTA players, kindly asked Kyle to take the lesson to the two courts down the road and Kyle obliged.

Samara saw that some Mixed Gender Doubles action was already underway on Court One as "J-Rod" Joe Rodrigues was teaming with "Dominant" Dawn Peterson to take on "Bravo" Brenda Jordan and Natalia "Nitro" Sout.  On Court Three and also already in progress was a Men's Doubles One-Setter featuring Bachvaroff teaming with "The Adonis" Don Moya to face the duo of "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle and "NC-17" Nick Caputo.

On Court Four, Rizzo/Bergenfeld were just starting a Rematch One-Setter against Tito "The Titan" Castolo and Frank "Hydro" Hohorst.  And with "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan soon making her way across the street, she joined hubby Kris in following the GTA Mixed Doubles Champions: "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas and "The Smackdown" Sally Pillay over to Court Two for a full GTA Mixed Doubles Championship Match.

It was a nice night for tennis as earlier in the day we had a peak temperature of 70 degrees, so it still felt quite comfortable in the evening hours.  Couple that with the fact that players knew they would be getting an organized session (due to Samara's announcement earlier in the day that he would be acting as host), the turnout started to get strong.

"The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis arrived at 7:10 and took a seat next to Samara on the bench alongside Court Four.  Dino would be the only player of the evening to never get involved in any official action (though he later would have a private hitting session with Natalia on Court Two).

At 7:15, "Hurricane" Jose Gonzales also arrived.  Ten minutes later, Fadia "Finesse" Nicolas would do the same.  Another five minutes after that, it was "King Crush" Chris Chiaro.  Twenty minutes later at 7:50, it was "CB" Chris Barbieri.  We were starting to have a logjam situation. 

Still, the players kept coming: "Queen B" Louise Bysiek at 8pm..."The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar at 8:05..."Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega at 8:10..."L-Bo" Louise Boughton at 8:25 who ended up being the last official arrival of the evening. 

We ended up with an impressive total of 25 official competitors (and that does not include Dino who only got involved in that hitting session with Natalia).  Now, let's get to the action!

The Cedar Grove Results:

Tito Castolo/Frank Hohorst over John Rizzo/Scott Bergenfeld, 6-2!  No Aces.  This was the One-Setter to get the session rolling soon after 6:30.  It likely finished on Court Four a little before 7pm.

Brenda Jordan/Natalia Sout over Joe Rodrigues/Dawn Peterson, 7-5!  No Aces.  Not sure when this one got going on Court One, but it ended at 7:45.  Afterward, Joe was happy to hang out on the bench with Frank and Dino as he is still recovering from fairly recent hernia surgery.

Kevin Doyle/Nick Caputo over Jordan Bachvaroff/Don Moya, 7-5!  Nick: 1 Ace on Don; and Don: 1 Ace on Kevin!  Again, not sure when it started...but it finished on Court Three exactly at 7:47.

Tito Castolo/Frank Hohorst over John Rizzo/Scott Bergenfeld, 6-4!  Tito: 1 Ace on Scott.  These four played this one on Court Four from 7:05 to 7:35.

GTA Mixed Doubles Championship Match:
Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1, 6-0, to complete their third successful GTA Mixed Doubles Championship defense of their first reign!  No Aces.  They got this one underway on Court Two soon after 7:05 and it finished by 7:55.

Chris Chiaro/Jose Gonzales leading Tito Castolo/Frank Hohorst, 3-2 (Incomplete at 8pm when Hohorst had to withdraw from the action due to a calf cramp injury)!  No Aces.  This one had started on Court Four at exactly 7:43.  Frank hung around for a while to watch the action, but then later decided to head home.

John Rizzo/Don Moya over Jordan Bachvaroff/Scott Bergenfeld, 6-3!  Jordan: 2 Aces on Don!  Court Three hosted this one from 7:54 to 8:29.  Jordan and Scott were up 3-0 when Don and John then turned the tables and made a great comeback by taking the last six straight games!

Chris Barbieri/Dawn Peterson over Kevin Doyle/Fadia Nicolas, 6-3!  No Aces.  This one got done on Court One.  It started at 7:54 and finished at 8:24.

Nick Caputo/Tito Castolo over Chris Chiaro/Jose Gonzales, 6-2!  No Aces.  These four faced off on Court Four from 8:01 to 8:31.

Kris Srinivasan/Natalia Sout over Senthil Kumar/Louise Bysiek, 7-5!  No Aces.  These two teams battled on Court Two from 8:10 to 9pm.  Once it was done, all four players walked off the court to return to the outside area.  This gave Dino the opening to take over the court and have a practice hitting session with Natalia.  Louise went back out there trying to make some Mixed Doubles happen, but no fourth player ever emerged.  Eventually, she left to return to the bench area until she decided to go home.

Edwin Ortega/Doinks Srinivasan over Chris Barbieri/Laurie Boughton, 6-2!  No Aces.  Court One hosted this one from 8:30 to 8:51.

Nick Caputo/Sally Pillay over Marijus Kuzavas/Fadia Nicolas, 6-1!  No Aces.  This Mixed Doubles action truly mixed things up as Marijus wanted to get some court time teaming with Fadia since she is the replacement for Doinks as his Mixed Doubles partner in an ongoing USTA Mixed Doubles Tournament.  These four were on Court Four from 8:32 to 8:51.  With no demand for the court, they were then able to play a Rematch One-Setter...which we will get to in just a bit in this report.

Chris Chiaro/Scott Bergenfeld over Jose Gonzales/John Rizzo, 6-4!  No Aces.  These teams squared off on Court Three from 8:35 to 9:08.

Nick Caputo/Sally Pillay over Marijus Kuzavas/Fadia Nicolas, 6-3!  Fadia: 1 Ace on Sally!  Again, they faced off on Court Four.  This one lasted from 8:53 to 9:24.

Edwin Ortega/Doinks Srinivasan over Chris Barbieri/Laurie Boughton, 6-4!  Edwin: 2 Aces (one on each)!  This Rematch One-Setter also took place on Court One...and it had the exact same start and stop times as the One-Setter above on Court Four...8:53 to 9:24!

Chris Chiaro/Scott Bergenfeld over Senthil Kumar/Kris Srinivasan, 6-2!  No Aces.  Court Three hosted this one from 9:12 to 9:35.

Frank Samara/Sally Pillay over Marijus Kuzavas/Fadia Nicolas, 6-4!  No Aces.  It went like this: Frank was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and then the break), Marijus was broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and then a Double Fault to break himself), but Sally was the first to hold serve (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and then the hold) for 2-1.  Fadia held at Love to level it at 2-2, but then Samara held (Triple Game Point was reduced to Game Point, but then came the hold) to reclaim the lead for his team at 3-2.  Kuzavas also held (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point, a Double Fault for Game Point,, but then the hold) to tie things up at 3-3, but Pillay held again (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point...and it should be noted that she hit Double Faults to make it 15-30 and then again for Break Point, but then she went to Deuce, Game Point and the hold) for a 4-3 lead.  Nicolas also held again (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and then the hold) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4!  Hollywood held again (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point and the hold), but Super Mario was broken (started with a Double Fault and then went straight to Triple Break/Match Point, it then went to Double Break/Match Point where another Double Fault unceremoniously ended matters) to get the "L" out of there just in time as this one finished on Court Four at 9:58 (we had started it at 9:28)!

The Skinny: Prior to the action starting, Fadia seemed relieved to see Frank taking Nick's place as she let out aloud, "OK, now we're talking!"  Well, be careful what you wish for as Samara took the court without any warm-up as he instead was simply fueled by motivation to prove Ms. Nicolas wrong.  But the true MVP on his team was Sally as she is certainly earning that "Smackdown" moniker with high-powered offense.  And on another note, even though we were low on time...we managed to still do the changeovers.

Here now are two incomplete One-Setters...

Jordan Bachvaroff/Edwin Ortega leading Chris Barbieri/Laurie Boughton, 5-2 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)!  Jordan: 1 Ace on Laurie!  As his team was up 5-2, Jordan was on serve and at Double Game/Match Point when we went to dark!  This one had begun on Court One at 9:30.

Senthil Kumar/Nick Caputo leading Chris Chiaro/Kris Srinivasan, 5-2 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)!  No Aces.  This one began on Court Three at 9:37.  Exactly like the situation on Court One, Nick was on serve with a 5-2 lead for his team.  They got to Double Game/Match Point where his first serve had went into the net.  He was in the process of tossing up the second serve when we went to black!

It was a very fun session...and to have 25 official competitors this early in the season is quite impressive!  We thank all those who were a part of it.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com

4/24 Results.

4/24/18:

"Rich-Randy 1-Setters in Nutley, Doinks/Riz host 10 (1 return) at C.G.!":

There were two sessions of GTA Tuesday Night Tennis: the first one was at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "SWAT" Rich Liu as he faced "Ravishing" Randy Doran in a couple of Singles One-Setters (as reported by Rich); and the second was at The Cedar Grove Courts which was co-hosted by "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan and "The Riz" John Rizzo.

We first go to Nutley for the scores from Rich.

The Park Ave. Courts Results:

Randy Doran over Rich Liu, 6-2!  No Aces.

Randy Doran over Rich Liu, 6-4!  No Aces.

The Rich Report: Randy was very consistent and I made too many unforced errors.  We played from around 7:30-9:20 or so.  It was a long and grueling couple of sets with many long rallies where Randy made the shots needed to win.  Randy is solid player and will be a tough out in the I-M tournament.

Samara's Notes: I congratulate Randy on winning those two hard-fought One-Setters.  And I thank Rich for his very timely and comprehensive reporting (including commentary). 

We now head up to Cedar Grove for the combined report from the two co-hosts where the first match will be reported by Doinks, then all the middle and fully completed One-Setters were reported by John and then Doinks comes back in to recap the incomplete ones! 

The Cedar Grove Results:

2 out of 3 Sets Women's Doubles Match:

Doinks Srinivasan/Natalia Sout over Fadia Nicolas/Dawn Peterson, 6-3, 6-0, to successfully defend their # 5 Rank in the Women's Doubles Division!  No Aces.

The Details from Doinks: The ladies agreed ahead of time that it would be a full match.

Jose Gonzales/John Rizzo over Senthil Kumar/Joe Rodrigues, 6-3!  John: 2 Aces on Senthil; and Senthil: 1 Ace on John!

Jose Gonzales/John Rizzo over Senthil Kumar/Andrew Truong, 6-1!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Return of Andrew Truong.  

Senthil Kumar/Tito Castolo over Jose Gonzales/John Rizzo, 6-3!  No Aces.

Andrew Truong/Natalia Sout leading Doinks Srinivasan/Fadia Nicolas, 4-2 (Incomplete when they had to stop because it started to drizzle)!  No Aces.

John Rizzo/Fadia Nicolas tied with Andrew Truong/Doinks Srinivasan, 1-1 (Incomplete as they did not want to risk injury playing on the damp courts)!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank both for their very timely reporting.  And it is good to have Atomic Andrew back in action.  Mr. Truong had to leave us last season due to a fairly severe wrist injury.  I truly hope he is back to being 100 percent or at least close to it. 

Sincerely,

Frank Samara

Gtasamara5@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

4/23 Results.

4/23/18:

"Randy-Edgar + 2 in Nutley, Tommy-Tom + 10 at C.G.!":

There were two sessions of GTA Monday Night Tennis: the first one was at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "SWAT" Rich Liu and featuring the GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match between "Ravishing" Randy Doran and "The Edge" Edgar Valencia along with other action (with all three parties reporting); and the second was at The Cedar Grove Courts featuring the GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match between "Tireless" Tommy Reszkowski and Tom "Gotta Lotta" Heidt (with Reszkowski reporting) along with other action reported by "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak and "The RIz" John Rizzo.

The Park Ave. Courts Results:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match:

Randy Doran over Edgar Valencia, 6-4, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 36 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  Edgar: 1 Ace!

The Ravishing Report: It was a great match!  Edgar has a big first serve and is a great competitor.

The Edge Editorial: The 1st Set started fairly even reaching 4-All.  I was relying on my power serves and corner ground-strokes which kept Randy running like a marathon man, but his experience and coolheaded demeanor along with his passing shots broke me down, plus my unforced errors killed my game.  Randy was almost steady all throughout the 1st Set.

In the 2nd Set, I started strong again relying on my power serves and ground strokes racing to a 2-0 lead.  But again, steady Randy kept placing those strategic shots beyond the capacity of my weak knees.  Again my unforced errors killed my game.

"Steady Randy" deserves to win...maybe he can win it all, with "the Nutley boys" cheering him all the way!

Samara's Notes: I congratulate Randy on a hard-fought victory and I thank both of them for their comprehensive reporting and commentary.  We now grab one more result from Rich.

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:

Rich Liu/Randy Doran over Muhammad Haque/Edgar Valencia, 6-2, 6-0, to successfully defend their # 36 Rank in the Doubles Division!  In the process, Haque/Valencia entered the division as the New # 152 Ranked Team.  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank Rich for reporting that result as well.  And in other news from the Nutley scene, Fausto "Mr. Mystery" Murg has further earned the reputation of that moniker as he went completely AWOL in his tournament match negotiations with "The Dark Knight" Dan Knitzer (aka TDK).  As a result, Murg has been withdrawn from the tourney and Knitzer will receive a bye into The Round of 16.

We now head up to Cedar Grove for another three-headed report…LOL! 

The Cedar Grove Results:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match:

Tommy Reszkowski over Tom Heidt, 6-0, 6-3, to successfully defend his # 20 Rank in the Intermediate Division while advancing to the Round of 16 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  In the process, Heidt entered the division as the New # 52 Ranked Player.  Tommy: 2 Aces!

The Resz Report: Heidt had some pretty impressive gets throughout the match.  It was a more competitive 2nd Set as there were many Deuces in two of the games.  He is a nice guy and it was a good match.

Samara's Notes: I thank Tommy for his timely and comprehensive reporting.  I also congratulate him on an impressive victory.  We now go to the results from Ryan.

Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Kris Srinivasan, 6-0!  No Aces.

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:

Chris Chiaro/Mike Mole over Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak, 6-4, 6-7 (7-5), 6-4, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 153 and # 154 Ranked Teams respectively!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank Ryan for his very timely reporting.  And now we go to The Riz.

Nick Caputo/Fadia Nicolas over Jordan Bachvaroff/John Rizzo, 6-3!  No Aces.

John Rizzo/Nick Caputo over Jordan Bachvaroff/Tito Castolo, 6-3!  No Aces.

2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:

John Rizzo/Tito Castolo over Nick Caputo/Fadia Nicolas, 6-3, 6-3!  Per the TMT Rules, Rizzo/Castolo entered the Doubles Division as the New # 155 Ranked Team while Caputo/Nicolas entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 44 Ranked Team.  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank John for his very timely reporting.

Sincerely,

Frank Samara

Gtasamara5@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

4/22 Results.

4/22/18:

"Scott-Erik + 3 in Nutley, 12 (1 return) at Albion, Jorge-Kyle + 18 at C.G.!":

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, an early afternoon session (somewhat concurrent with the one at Albion) at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley featuring the GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match between "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld and "The Great Dane" Erik Jensen along with three other players also in action there (all reported by Scott) and then yet another extended session at The Cedar Grove Courts which began with the GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 16 Match featuring "Big George" Jorge Solano going up against "Kerosene" Kyle Eng (with Kyle reporting) and then both "The Riz" John Rizzo and "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan reporting the rest of the results from there.  It was a nice, sunny day with a peak temperature of 65 degrees, but it was often quite breezy (windy, in fact).

Let's first detail the coming and goings plus scores from Albion before getting the Nutley results from Scott, then the Cedar Grove scores from John and Doinks.

Samara pulled up to the curb at 10:50...just a little later than he had told the league he would.  He did this just as Tito "The Titan" Castolo was doing the same.  Already out on the North Court, it was "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis involved in a full Singles Match against an unknown entity as this was for Bergen Tennis.  It was Dino's first full Singles Match since he had sustained the knee injury in early March of 2017.

The South Court was occupied by two other gents (likely in their 30's and they looked to be solid players).  Dino later said that he had started his match at 10am and those two guys were already there at that time.

So that left the GTA players with only the Center Court which was already hosting a hitting session featuring "Sneaky" Suzanne Bujara and "Diver Down" Muhammad Haque on one side of the court and then on the other side it was Stan "The Man" Carroll and Sachiko "Sachi" Tokuda.  We thought that would be the first One-Setter of the day, but Muhammad opted out of the action.  So Tito took his place and they got the official action underway at 11:05.

Just as they started, "King Crush" Chris Chiaro made his way onto the courts.  And then five minutes later, we had the surprise arrival (and it would soon be the official GTA Return) of "Lucky" Leo Victor who has not played with us in over a year.

At 11:15, "Hurricane" Jose Gonzales also arrived and we were starting to have a logjam situation.  Luckily, Dino and the mystery man finished by that time.  So Samara sent the other four (Chris, Jose, Muhammad and Leo) over to the North Court for some Doubles action.

At 11:20, Natalia "Nitro" Sout also made her way down the hill toward the courts.  The good news was that the two guys left the South Court soon after and this enabled Frank and Natalia to have a hitting session with one another.  Dino soon made his way over to the bench to watch them hit before he left at 12:10 to head to the gym where he would meet with one Mr. Dan Martinelli (aka The Spin Doctor).

At 12:40, a family took over the South Court.  Twenty minutes later, "RK Fire" Rafaelo Kazakov arrived as he first sat on the bench next to Natalia watching the fierce Doubles action on the North Court before getting the chance to hit with Sachiko on Center Court ten minutes later.

The last official arrival of the day was "Stealth" Omar Santos at 1:30.  Mere minutes after he arrived, Sout, Tokuda, Castolo and Samara all left the park.  Around this same time, a lone interloper took over Center Court.

Around 2pm, both "The Riz" John Rizzo and "NC-17" Nick Caputo arrived...but upon seeing such a full house, they opted to head to Cedar Grove instead.  And we will get all those results later in this report.  First, let's get to the action at Albion!

The Albion Park Results:

Tito Castolo/Suzanne Bujara over Stan Carroll/Sachiko Tokuda, 6-1!  No Aces.  Center Court hosted this Mixed Doubles action from 11:05 to 11:29.

Chris Chiaro/Muhammad Haque over Jose Gonzales/Leo Victor, 6-2!  It was the official GTA Return of Leo Victor.  No Aces.  They played this on the North Court from 11:26 to 11:50.

Tito Castolo/Suzanne Bujara over Stan Carroll/Sachiko Tokuda, 6-0!  No Aces.  This Rematch One-Setter also took place on Center Court and it lasted from 11:33 to 11:50 (just seventeen minutes)!  After this one, Stan decided to call it a day and head home.

Since the above two One-Setters ended at the same time (and with Stan now making his exit), it allowed Tito to shift over to the North Court for some Men's Doubles action while Leo shifted over to Center Court for a "Leo and the ladies" situation.  It was a better environment for him as he had over a year's worth of rust to shake off before being able to be fully competitive.

Chris Chiaro/Jose Gonzales over Muhammad Haque/Tito Castolo, 7-6 (7-4)!  No Aces.  They played this on the North Court from 11:52 to 12:33.

Natalia Sout/Sachiko Tokuda over Leo Victor/Suzanne Bujara, 6-4!  Leo: 1 Ace on Sachiko (a short and slow one that was likely aided by the wind)!  The basic breakdown: Nat and Sachi jumped out to a 3-0 lead.  From there it went to 3-1 and 4-1.  Leo was now on serve and on Double Game Point, he hit that short and slow Ace against Sachiko for the hold to pull to 2-4.  Natalia was then broken and Suzanne then held to level things at 4-4!  But from there, Sout/Tokuda rebounded to take the match.  This was played on Center Court from 12:06 to 12:46.

Chris Chiaro/Jose Gonzales over Frank Samara/Tito Castolo, 7-6 (9-7)!  No Aces.  It went like this: Frank held at Love, Chris was broken (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break), Tito held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold) and Jose was broken as it went from 15-Love to 15-30, then it went to 30-All, Break Point and the break to fall to 0-4!  But then Samara was broken (in the exact same manner, point for point, that Jose was) and then Chiaro held serve (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to pull to 2-4.  Castolo was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, but then there was a mini-shift to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break) and Gonzales held (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold) to knot the score at 4-4!  Hollywood rebounded with a hold (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold), but then King Crush had a Love hold to keep things alive at 5-5!  The Titan held (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, then 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but so did Hurricane Jose and it was at Love to force the Tiebreak!  In the Breaker: Frank held his lone serve and then Chris was broken on the first of his two serves for a 0-2 start in the TB, but then held his second for 1-2.  Tito was broken on the first of his two serves as Frank blew what should have been a surefire Overhead Smash winner (as it was right in his wheelhouse) as he jumped just a bit too soon, but still made contact only to have a wicked backspin type shot descend upon the net!  It never reached the tape as it may have spun its way over it.  Instead, it just trickled down on his side of the net.  Castolo was also broken on his second serve for 2-3.  Jose was broken on the first of his two serves for 3-3 at the changeover.  It was on this point where Chris hit an excellent short-angled shot (cannot remember if it was off his forehand or backhand) only to have Frank make a great get and send back a wicked and well-placed, fast-paced backhand slice that sailed to the sideline and almost out of the reach of Chiaro (I believe he was able to shank it wide with the edge of his racquet).  Having hit a redemptive winner (one of his best in recent memory), Samara no longer felt so bad about the blown overhead just a short while earlier.  This now meant Gonzales was broken on both hi serves and now The Wood was about to serve with a 4-3 lead.  He held the first of his two serves to go up 5-3, but we now would head into a situation of distraction as twice there were errant balls invading our court (coming from the hitting session on Center Court between Rafaelo and Sachiko).  So the point was essentially played three times as a frustrated Frank lost focus and made a silly error to now have the score go to 5-4 after his second service point.  King Crush then held both of his service points to put his team up 6-5 with Match Point (the very first one of the contest) in his team's favor.  Tito Touch was now on service and the rally led to Jose blasting a forehand that he thought had clipped the edge of the sideline for the win, but Castolo called it out wide!  Samara honestly did not see it as Tito's body was in the way of where the ball landed and Chiaro did not protest as he said it was Castolo's call to make.  That now made it 6-6 at the second changeover.  The Titan also held his second serve after hitting a beautiful winner to put his team up 7-6 with their first Match Point opportunity (the 2nd M.P. overall) with service now returning to Hurricane Jose.  He held both of his serves to put his team up 8-7 for their second Match Point chance (the third overall) and now Samara was to go on serve.  That point led to a solid but short rally as Chiaro blasted the best winner of the match...a scorching forehand that seared its way past Castolo as he neared the net as it blazed a path through the Doubles Alley for the very hard-fought victory!  Rafaelo and Natalia both said they were very entertained by this action as they sat on the nearby bench.  This battle on the North Court lasted from 12:48 to 1:30.  It seems like an almost definite Nominee for One-Set Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.

Muhammad Haque/Sachiko Tokuda over Leo Victor/Suzanne Bujara, 6-1!  No Aces.  Center Court hosted this Mixed Doubles action from 12:48 to 1:08.

And now for the One-Setter that took place after Samara's departure (thanks to Omar for sending it in)...

Muhammad Haque/Rafaelo Kazakov over Jose Gonzales/Omar Santos, 7-6 (7-3)!  Muhammad: 1 Ace on Omar; and Jose: 1 Ace on Muhammad!  We played this on the North Court roughly from 1:35 to 2:35.

The Stealth Report: It was a fun set overall.  Our opponents were just too consistent and they deserved the win.  Afterward, everyone left except for me.  Louise Bysiek arrived with a lefty friend of hers (likely to be Jeff Rozner), so I stayed around to hit with them.  I told them they should go to Cedar Grove for some more action, but they said they had to go play with another group up in Oakland.

Samara's Notes: Again, thanks to Omar for sending in the additional result and the color commentary.      

All in all, it was a very fun session!  We now go to Nutley to get the report from Scott.

The Park Ave. Courts Results:

Before the tournament match, Umang "Ash" Jain was there, so we challenged Rich Liu and Sam Wong to a full Doubles Match.

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Umang Jain/Scott Bergenfeld over Sam Wong/Rich Liu, 6-1, 6-1, to become the New # 121 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division!  Umang: 2 Aces!

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match:
Scott Bergenfeld over Erik Jensen, 6-0, 6-1, to successfully defend his # 40 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  In the process, Jensen entered the Intermediate Division as the New # 51 Ranked Player.  Scott: 3 Aces in the 1st Set (all in the first game)!

The Great Scott Report: The winds at The Park Ave. Courts were a huge issue for both of us.  Erik played strong, but his serve was too erratic.  He had too many Double Faults (perhaps as many as 15 total) and it cost him multiple games.  I couldn't serve well either.  I was just trying to lob the ball in most of the time.  The match would have been a lot closer if it wasn't for all his Double Faults.  It was a hard-fought match, but as I just stated...it would have been much more enjoyable in more ideal conditions.  Kudos to Erik on a match well-played!   

Samara's Notes: Congratulations to Scott for a very impressive victory (also thanks to him for his timely reporting which will continue in just a bit)!  Bergenfeld adds himself to that short list of favorites to go far in this tournament and then make a further impact on the Advanced Division once this event is over.  We now go back to Scott.

Sam Wong/Rich Liu over Scott Bergenfeld/Erik Jensen, 7-6 (7-5)!  Rich: 2 Aces on Erik!

Samara's Notes: I thank Scott for acting as the impromptu host of this session and reporting all the above.

We now head up to Cedar Grove to get the results from there, starting with Kyle's report, then going to John (who was there from 2:30 to 6:30) and finishing with Doinks who stayed on even later.

The Cedar Grove Results:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 16 Match:
Kyle Eng over Jorge Solano, 6-3, 6-2, to become the New # 14 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while advancing to the Quarterfinals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  Kyle: 1 Ace.

The Kyle File: I'm still shaking off the nerves (of once again playing full competitive Singles Matches), but its getting better.  Jorge is great at the net, but he tended to have a little trouble with my kick serves and drop shots.

Samara's Notes: I thank Kyle for his very timely reporting and also congratulate him on an impressive victory.  He is now the first player to make it to the Quarters of the GTA Intermediate Invitational. 

We now turn this report over to John.

Nick Caputo over John Rizzo, 6-1!  No Aces.  Due to Nick getting lightheaded, we took a break in the middle of the set so that Nick could get a protein shake at Quick Chek.  As a result of his woozy state of mind, Nick inadvertently ended up shoplifting said shake that he put in his pocket without ever buying it!

Samara's Notes: Mr. NC-17 just earned an additional moniker - "Sticky Fingers!"  LMAO!  We now go back to John.

Nick Caputo/Syed Rashid over Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo, 6-2!  No Aces.

The Riz Report: Syed also had a one hour hitting session with his friend, Mike Sindler.

John Rizzo/Nick Caputo over Ryan Pienciak/Senthil Kumar, 6-2!  No Aces.

Nick Caputo/Genalin Capan over Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo, 7-6 (7-3)!  Gen: 1 Ace on John!

2 out of 3 Sets Women's Doubles Match:
Kathy Sheldon/Brenda Jordan over Doinks Srinivasan/Fadia Nicolas, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, to successfully defend their # 19 Rank in the Women's Doubles Division!  In the process, Srinivasan/Nicolas entered the division as the New # 30 Ranked Team.  No Aces.

Chris Chiaro/Doinks Srinivasan over Kris Srinivasan/Michel Encarnacion, 7-5!  No Aces.  Chris and Doinks had been down 1-5 before taking six straight games for quite the comeback victory!

Chris Chiaro/Kris Srinivasan over Scott Bergenfeld/Genalin Capan, 6-0!  No Aces.

Kris Srinivasan/Scott Bergenfeld over Chris Chiaro/Genalin Capan, 6-2!  No Aces.

Chris Chiaro/Michele Panzitta over Nick Inciong/Rose Inciong, 6-4!  No Aces.

Scott Bergenfeld/Doinks Srinivasan over Kris Srinivasan/Genalin Capan, 7-6 (7-4)!  No Aces.  Scott and Doinks had been down 1-4 before staging their comeback!   

Samara's Notes: I thank John and Doinks for assuming the hosting duties and sending in those results in a very timely fashion.

All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com

4/21 Results.

4/21/18:

"Marathon Saturday - 4 locations including 8 hour session at C.G.!":

With the weather improving from Friday to Saturday and the fact that some tournament matches still needed to be played (the lone remaining GTA Championship Tournament Quarterfinal between "Daddy O" Paul Daddio and Tony "Sure Shot" Shiao and a handful of remaining GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament Round of 32 Matches), there ended up being three sessions of GTA Saturday Tennis: the first took place at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley as  Jay "The Rising" Phoenix went up against Jeremy "Got Game" Gottlieb in their GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match (with both reporting).

The second was at Mountainside Park in Montclair and featured the aforementioned Daddio-Shiao match with each player reporting. 

The third was an indoor session at the recently renovation Crestmont Country Club in West Orange as "The AM Rush" Anish Mehta and "The Riz" John Rizzo got together for a couple of One-Setters (with John reporting).

The fourth was a marathon session at The Cedar Grove Courts as that location's action got underway early around 2pm and it started off with another one of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Matches: "The Accelerator" Abhilash Gadi versus "The Running Man" Ryan Sherry (with Ryan reporting) and then there was plenty more action from this session as Rizzo arrived there around 3:30, so he had much to report, but then we also had scores submitted by "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak, "The Sin Man" Mike Sindler and "Sadistic" Syed Rashid (both reporting the same result).

Trying my best to keep everything in relative chronological order, we first go to Nutley.

We now take this report to Nutley.

The Park Ave. Courts Result:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match:
Jeremy Gottlieb over Jay Phoenix, 6-2, 6-2, to become both the New # 18 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 5 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  No Aces. 

The Gist from Jeremy: Great match, good opponent!

Straight from Phoenix: We started that match around 11am.  I played better than I usually play and I still lost.  He has no business being in the Intermediate Division.  He is the real deal.  He has good swing technique, good footwork, he is fast, athletic, very consistent and has a sneaky left-handed serve.  Most of my points came from the very few errors that he made.  He admitted to me afterwards that he has played tennis all through high school and college.  I wish him all the best.   

Samara's Notes: First, I thank both for reporting the result in such a timely fashion.  I also congratulate Jeremy on a very impressive victory.  I also appreciate Jay's candor.  What I told him in an earlier e-mail and then in my reply to his e-mailed result was that we had seen Jeremy play Doubles at The Wayne Bubble and it did not seem like his level was far above the other guys we paired him with that night.  Of course, it is hard to truly assess a player's individual skill level in such an outing. 

Furthermore, this tournament will likely result in a handful of guys making the permanent jump to the Advanced Division (i.e. cracking The Top 10) soon after said tourney ends.  We really do not know the skill level of so many players coming into the league (and this season there are more than ever before) until after they start playing with us.  Traditionally, the GTA Intermediate Invitational has served as a springboard for new players coming into the GTA as some end up going all the way into the Advanced Division while others simply get out of the Non-Competing Men's Division and soon settle in the Intermediate Division.  Later in the summer, the Grove Cup Tournament then crowns the next Top Contender to whomever is the reigning GTA Champion at that time...and it is by that time in the season (the summer months) that we usually have a better handle on the skill level of just about all the guys in the league.

We now head west to Montclair for that lone remaining GTA Championship Tournament Quarterfinal.

The Mountainside Park Courts Result:

GTA Championship Tournament Quarterfinal:
Paul Daddio over Tony Shiao, 6-3, 6-2, to successfully defend his # 2 Rank in the Advanced Division while also advancing to the Semifinals of the GTA Championship Tournament!  No Aces.

The Dilly-O from Daddy O: It was a blustery but sunny and warm day at the courts.  There were some very long points and games.  Tony has a great forehand that he used effectively.  It was a close match where I was able to scrape by via winning a few more of the long rallies.

The Sure Shot from Shiao: Paul was very consistent and quick.  He was able to run down a lot of my would-be forehand winners.  The long rallies took a toll on my stamina.  I congratulate Paul on the win!  And I wish him the best of luck as he moves forward in the tournament.   

Samara's Notes: I thank both for their very timely and detailed reporting...it is much appreciated.  I also congratulate Paul on a very impressive victory.  We now have both Semifinal Matches set as The Top 4 Seeds did, in fact, make it to the Semis.  Daddio advances to face "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas while Pienciak will go up against "King Crush" Chris Chiaro.

We now dip south just a bit to West Orange for The Riz Report from Crestmont.

The Crestmont Country Club Results:

Anish Mehta over John Rizzo, 6-1!  No Aces.

Anish Mehta over John Rizzo, 6-3!  No Aces.

The Riz Report: Anish and I decided to meet up for an hour (we started at 12 noon) at The Crestmont Country Club Bubble where the courts have a "Har-Tru" surface.  I have not been there before, so I wanted to see how it played.  I was mostly not impressed with the place as it is very dusty inside and you breathe in the particles of the surface.  Nobody swept our court prior to us playing on it, so it was already in poor condition.  There is also ongoing construction which makes it very loud on one side.

Samara's Notes: I thank John for his timely reporting and also giving us the inside scoop on the situation at Crestmont.  I guess now we know why they were giving out reasonable rates to entice new business.  It does not sound like a place I would waste my time (and mileage from where I live) trying out knowing what I know now.  But I do realize we have some of our players down that way, so maybe it will still be an option for some of them. 

And now we head back north to Cedar Grove for many matches being reported by multiple sources!  We will start with the Gadi-Sherry match, then go to the results reported by Rizzo (as he was one of the first to arrive after Abhi and Ryan) and then get the balance from the rest of the sources.  I highly doubt the scores will be in chronological order as there is some overlap in the reporting and it was a very lengthy session.

The Cedar Grove Results:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match:
Ryan Sherry over Abhilash Gadi, 6-0, 6-0, to become New # 20 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational!  No Aces. 

The Ryan Report: We started around 2pm.  It was nice playing with you, Abhi!

Samara's Notes: Many of us know how solid a player Gadi is...so for Sherry to win in such dominant fashion...it just shows the tremendous amount of improvement he has undergone in just a year!  And now he puts himself in that select group with Gottlieb and "NC-17" Nick Caputo as being a likely candidate to soon graduate from the ranks of the Intermediate Division altogether.  Besides congratulating Ryan on his highly impressive victory, I also thank him for his very timely reporting.

We now go to the results from The Riz.

2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
John Rizzo/Ryan Sherry over Nick Caputo/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4)!  Per the TMT Rules, Rizzo/Sherry entered the Doubles Division as the New # 149 Ranked Team while Caputo/Srinivasan entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 42 Ranked Team.  No Aces.

The Riz Report: Nick and Doinks served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the 3rd Set and then they had a 4-2 lead in the Tiebreak before Ryan and I made our comeback.

Samara's Notes: This sounds like a definite Nominee for Specialty Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.  We now go back to John.

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Ryan Pienciak/Nick Caputo over John Rizzo/Ryan Sherry, 6-4, 6-2, to successfully defend their # 94 Rank in the Doubles Division!  No Aces.

John Rizzo/Nick Caputo over Kris Srinivasan/Elias Eid, 7-5!  No Aces.

Kris Srinivasan/Elias Eid over John Rizzo/Nick Caputo, 6-4!  No Aces.

Kris Srinivasan/Elias Eid over Fadia Nicolas/Laurie Boughton, 6-1!  No Aces.

Elias Eid/Fadia Nicolas over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2!  Fadia: 1 Ace on Kris.

Samara's Notes: I thank John for sending in all those results.  Doinks had a different score for that last one, so I will go with her recollection of it since she was in it.  We will now go to Doinks for one more score and then Ryan and Mike/Syed in that order.

Doinks Srinivasan over Rafaelo Kazakov, 6-3!  No Aces. 

The Details from Doinks: Rafaelo had been hitting with Fadia, but did not have a chance to get involved in any Doubles action.  So I took her place to play a set of Singles with him which allowed Fadia to play some Mixed Doubles with Ryan and Adam (The Pienciak Brothers) and Natalia Sout.

Samara's Notes: I thank Doinks for that result and the additional details.  We now go to Ryan.

Ryan Pienciak/Ryan Sherry over Muhammad Haque/Adam Pienciak, 6-0!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: We are happy to report that Ryan's brother Adam has moved back to New Jersey and will now be playing with us on a regular basis.  We now go back to Ryan.

2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Ryan Pienciak/Muhammad Haque over Adam Pienciak/Natalia Sout, 6-4, 7-5!  Per the TMT Rules, Pienciak/Haque entered the Doubles Division as the New # 150 Ranked Team while Pienciak/Sout entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 43 Ranked Team.  No Aces.

Ryan Pienciak/Fadia Nicolas over Adam Pienciak/Natalia Sout, 6-0!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank Ryan for sending all those results in a very timely fashion.  And now we go to the dual reporting from Syed and Mike to close out this overall report.

Jorge Solano/Syed Rashid over Mike Sindler/Natalia Sout, 6-3!  No Aces.

The Sin Man says: There were many long rallies.  And the wind was on Syed's side.  :-)

Samara's Notes: I thank both for their timely reporting.  And I just want to close this report by saying how happy I am to see all this overall reporting take place.  It is very early in the season and we are already reaching unprecedented levels of play from multiple locations.  As long as we maintain this momentum, the 2018 Season will truly be the biggest and best season in the entire history of the league.  Kudos to all who are involved and support the effort!

Best wishes,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com


 

4/20 Results.

4/20/18:

"2 at Albion, 2 in Wayne, 23 (1 New) at The Bubble!":

There were three sessions of GTA Friday Tennis: the first took place in the afternoon at Albion Park in Clifton as "Del Brotro'" Mike Mole and "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan got together for an extended hitting session followed by a couple of One-Setters (with Gen reporting).

The second was a little later at The Nellis Drive Courts in Wayne as "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega and "Stealth" Omar Santos ended up playing an epic One-Setter (as reported by Omar).

The third and final session of the evening was the GTA Friday Night Bubble Party at The Wayne Bubble.  Much like the week before, the format was a hybrid of the two formats they have bounced back and forth between (the early two-hour non-stop session and the extended four-hour-plus session) as this one was three and a half hours of action for the players involved (and the breaks between sets were almost always fairly short).  When some of them left early, that allowed the two hosts ("The Riz" John Rizzo and "Hollywood" Frank Samara) to step in and take their places. 

Before we get to all that happened at that epic session (the last of this season until sometime in October), we need to now backtrack to Clifton, then go outside on Nellis Drive in Wayne before heading into The Bubble to close out the night's events.

Take it away, Gen!

We played from 2:15 to 4:30.  First, we hit for an hour and practiced serving.  Then we played a couple of One-Setters.  It was windy and chilly, but at least the sun was out.

The Albion Park Results:

Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 6-1!  Mike and Gen: 1 Ace each!  We played this one from 3:20 to 3:40.  Mike was up 4-0 before I won that lone game.

Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 6-2!  Mike: 1 Ace.  We played this one from 3:50 to 4:20.  This time, Mike was up 5-0 before I won those two games.

Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for her very timely reporting and additional details.  We now go to Wayne for the report from Omar.

The Nellis Drive Courts Result:

Omar Santos over Edwin Ortega, 7-6 (7-4)!  Edwin: 2 Aces; and Omar: 1 Ace!

The Stealth Report: We played from 5pm to 6:15.  The conditions were quite windy.  I was up 5-1 and then I was broken and that led to him winning five straight games to take a 6-5 lead.  I broke back to force the Tiebreak.  I should have won 6-1.  It felt like playing two sets.

Samara's Notes: I thank Omar for his timely reporting along with his corresponding commentary. 

And now it is up to The Bubble we go!

Per the usual, "Hollywood" Frank Samara promoted the GTA Friday Night Bubble Party while "The Riz" John Rizzo went into his usual organizer mode (for these Bubble events) as he began collecting registrations and making plans for snacks, beverages, etc.

Rizzo's usual focus was primarily collecting the paid registrations and then organizing the above accommodations.  Samara was in charge of collecting the scores and also sometimes helping with the match-ups.

With it being the last Friday Night Wayne Bubble Party until at least October, demand (i.e. turnout) was strong enough to dictate that the session go longer than two or even three hours.  We ended up with a total of 23 players, but it was more like twenty for the course of much of the session as "The Adonis" Don Moya only played a One-Setter as he recently sprained his ankle (thankfully, not too severe of a sprain).

And then, per the usual, Rizzo and Samara both got involved in the action late in the session to come in to replace the players that left before closing time.  Usually, they are happy to do so...and John was this time around, but Frank was suffering from a fall he had earlier in the week at home in the middle of the night.  The fall was the result of a major Charlie Horse cramp of his left hamstring that immediately sent him back down onto his butt (after having just woken up and then getting up) with his upper back and neck crashing into the edge of the couch.  Going into this session, the pain in most areas had subsided.  The only lingering effect was pain and tightness in the area behind his left knee.

Before I go further with the details of how this session unfolded, I just want to once again thank The Riz for offering up his time, services and funds to host this event for the benefit of the GTA.  And I acted as the host of the session in the traditional sense of how we use the term "hosting", i.e. I collected the scores of all the action along the way.

Usually in my results write-ups, I detail the order of entry and/or appearance as the session progresses...but not this time around!  This time around, it is fairly obvious by the way they took the courts as you will see from the opening round of play.  All I will say is was yet another epic session...one that was fitting to close out this part of the indoor season until it resumes in the fall.

We also once again thank Mark Cipollini for his hospitality.  We had asked him to come in and play, but he was too busy running The Bubble and later cleaning up after our group as we left in stages.  The good news for him was that we did not need him to "work overtime" as we only ran a little long this time around as the last of the official action ended exactly at 11:49 (we had planned to finish at 11:45).

So, we would have had a total of 24 players had Mark competed, but 23 is still nothing to sneeze at...especially for an indoor session in late April.  We thank everyone who was a part of it.

Let's get to the action!

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Tim Nguyen/Paul Mallick, 6-1!  Paul: 1 Ace on Charlie!  Action on Court One officially got the session started as this one began at 8:25 and finished at 8:44 (just nineteen minutes total...though they did decide to forego the changeovers in this one)!  This was an impressive win for Gotta Lotta Heidt and Big Charlie V as the combo of Tim Tam and The PM News is a fairly formidable tandem. 

Matt Fortunato/Laurie Boughton over Thiyagesh Rei/Suzanne Bujara, 6-2!  Thiyagesh: 1 Ace on Matt!  Court Two hosted this one from 8:26 to 8:52 (they also decided to forego the changeovers).  Matt and Laurie have had a decent amount of success as a Mixed Doubles Team together and that trend picked up right where it left off their last time around.

2 out of 3 Sets Women's Doubles Match:
Astrid Kaiser/Takako Teto over Fadia Nicolas/Denise Savino, 6-2, 6-1, to become the New # 28 Ranked Team in the Women's Doubles Division!  It was the official GTA Debut of Takako Teto.  No Aces.

The Skinny: First off, we had Takako's name backwards on the Registration List we were including in the News e-mails for much of the week.  Kaiser/Teto is a regular team on the USTA circuit and they came here looking to play together more.  They are friends of Fadia.  The action got underway on Court Four at 8:27.  They also did not do the changeovers.  The 1st Set ended at 9:02.  They switched sides for the 2nd Set (they did not realize, at the time, that they should have left the court after the initial set...it was not a big deal anyway as people were coming on and off the other three courts at a steady clip anyway).  The entire match then finished at 9:17 as that 2nd Set was only 15 minutes long!

We know how strong a player Fadia is and Denise is very solid in Doubles...so that tells you just how good a team Astrid and Takako are together.  I had the chance to team with Takako and then go up against her later in the evening and I can tell you that she is a very solid player...and also a very nice lady as well.  And when I got Takako's e-mail address, it revealed her initials which are an ideal ready-made moniker for her: "TNT!"

Kevin Doyle/Janice Wang over Tito Castolo/Robin Wilson, 6-3!  No Aces.  Court Three (aka The Show Court) hosted this one from 8:30 to 9pm (another set without the changeovers).  The action was very sound as Kevin and Robin (both have improved much...especially Robin) found themselves raising the level of their games to hang with Tito and Janice (even though Doyle and Wilson were on opposite sides).  Castolo is always amazing with his adept Doubles ability, but he also had more than the usual amount of misfires...a trend that would continue for him for much of the evening.

Senthil Kumar/Kyle Eng over Mike Mole/Tim Nguyen, 6-2!  Mike: 3 Aces (2 on Senthil, 1 on Kyle)!  Court One hosted this one from 8:55 to 9:19.  It was the first set of the evening where I saw them doing the changeovers.

Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Thiyagesh Rei/Paul Mallick, 6-2!  Thiyagesh: 2 Aces (one on each); and Charlie: 1 Ace on Thiyagesh!  These two teams faced off on Court Two from 8:57 to 9:31 (they did not do changeovers).

Matt Fortunato/Laurie Boughton over Kevin Doyle/Suzanne Bujara, 6-2!  Laurie: 1 Ace on Suzanne!  They put on a show on Court Three from 9:04 to 9:45 (quite lengthy when you consider they did not do the changeovers...we thought they were halfway thru it when they told us the score was only 2-1...they had many multi-Deuce games)!

Don Moya/Janice Wang over Tito Castolo/Robin Wilson, 6-0!  No Aces.  Court Four featured this Mixed Doubles action from 9:24 to 9:41 (again, no changeovers).  The team experience of the duo, Moya/Wang, was just too much for Castolo/Wilson.

Mike Mole/Astrid Kaiser over Kyle Eng/Takako Teto, 7-6 (7-3)!  Kyle: 1 Ace on Astrid; and Mike: 1 Ace on Teto!  The fiercest Mixed Doubles action of the night took place on Court One and lasted from 9:24 to 10:05 (somewhat short considering it was a Tiebreak set and that they did do the changeovers).  Initially, we thought it was going to be played "Battle of The Sexes" style as Astrid and Takako were looking to get more time together as a team...but then the ladies must have thought better of it.

Senthil Kumar/Denise Savino over Tim Nguyen/Fadia Nicolas, 6-3!  No Aces.  This was some solid Mixed Doubles action as well.  It took place on Court Two from 9:34 to 10pm (no changeovers).  Senthil said his team got off to a slow start (down 0-2) before they began to turn the tide and then it was off and running.

Tom Heidt/Charlie Vreeland over Thiyagesh Rei/Paul Mallick, 6-0!  Charlie: 1 Ace on Paul (Charlie said it was one of his best ever)!  This Rematch One-Setter took place on Court Four from 9:44 to 10:07 (again, no changeovers).  The Heidt/Vreeland tandem (quite experienced together) went 3-0 on the night and capped it with this bagel!  Very impressive as they went up against solid teams, indeed.

Tito Castolo/Robin Wilson over Paul Daddio/Janice Wang, 6-2!  No Aces.  Quite the show indeed on Court Three as this one lasted from 9:53 to 10:18 (no changeovers).  Tito finally earned a victory and Robin played some serious defense which enabled his offense.  Janice was solid all night, so perhaps it was Paul who got off to a slow start here as he was the latest arrival of the evening.

Matt Fortunato/Laurie Boughton over Denise Savino/Suzanne Bujara, 6-3!  No Aces.  This one got underway on Court Two at 10:04 (not sure when it finished as I was then in action on Court Four when it ended...also, they did not do the changeovers).  Fortunato/Boughton were the second team of the evening to have 3 and "Oh" bragging rights!

Paul Mallick/Fadia Nicolas leading Astrid Kaiser/Takako Teto, 3-2 (Incomplete when Astrid had to leave at 10:31...they had begun this one on Court Four at 10:11...they were not doing the changeovers)!  No Aces.  In need of a fourth, Samara would head out onto the court to take Mallick's place...more on that later in this report.

2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Senthil Kumar/John Rizzo over Mike Mole/Kyle Eng, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, to successfully defend their # 8 Rank in the Doubles Division!  In the process, Mole/Eng entered the division as the New # 147 Ranked Team.  Kyle: 6 Aces on Senthil (three in the same game!); Mike: 2 Aces (one on each); and John: 1 Ace on Kyle!

The Skinny: This developed into a full match once it was obvious they did not need to leave the court as nobody else was waiting to come on to play.  It got underway on Court One at 10:11.  At 10:55, they shifted over to Court Two to allow Court One to be closed.  The match actually closed out the session as it ended at 11:49.  They were doing the changeovers.

2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Paul Daddio/Janice Wang over Thiyagesh Rei/Tito Castolo, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2!  Per the TMT Rules, Daddio/Wang entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 41 Ranked Team while Rei/Castolo entered the Doubles Division as the New # 148 Ranked Team.  No Aces (apparently). 

The Skinny: After the previous One-Setter where Tito was victorious over Paul and Janice with Robin Wilson as his partner, Castolo wanted to then team with Wang against Daddio and Thiyagesh Rei.  But Paul wanted a chance at revenge against Tito and he ultimately got it here.  It got underway on Court Three at 10:20 and it must have ended somewhere around 11:30 (they were not doing the changeovers).  There was some truly excellent action here as many of their lengthy and hard-hitting rallies caught our attention as we were over on Court Four.  Speaking of which...

Paul Mallick/Fadia Nicolas leading Frank Samara/Takako Teto, 3-2 (Incomplete when Paul had to leave at 10:59...we had begun this one on Court Four at 10:35...and we were doing the changeovers)!  No Aces.  Here's how it was going: Paul was broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point and then the break), Frank was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break), Fadia was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and then a bounce back to Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce and then it was all Game Points until 6th Deuce, then Break Point and the break) and Takako was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, a mini-shift to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break) as nobody could hold serve at 2-2!  It was at this moment that we decided we would only play one more game as Paul informed us after the lengthy 6-Deuce game that he would have to leave by 11pm to go pick up his son (by the way, I neglected to mention earlier that Astrid had to leave to go pick up her daughter).  Mallick then managed to go out on a high note with a hold as it went from Love-15 to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold for a moral victory if not an official one.

Luckily for us, Laurie was still around lounging in the lounge area (you like that?) and was willing to take Paul's place for one more One-Setter for the evening.

Fadia Nicolas/Takako Teto over Frank Samara/Laurie Boughton, 6-4!  No Aces.  It went like this: Fadia held (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, a mini-shift to Game Point, Deuce, Game Point again and then the hold), Frank held (30-Love fell straight to Break Point, Deuce and then all Game Points to 3rd Deuce and then another Game Point and the hold), Takako held (Love-30 then went right to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but Laurie was the first to be broken (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, a mini-shift to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) for 1-3.  Nicolas was broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, then it went to Break Point and the break), but Samara held again (Love-30 then went right to Game Point and the hold) to level things at 3-3!  Teto was broken at Love as her team lost the lead for the first time at 3-4, but then Boughton was broken again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 shifted again to Break Point, then Deuce, another Break Point and a Double Fault to break herself) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4!  Fadia Finesse then held (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point and then came the hold) to reclaim the lead at 5-4 and then came an epic game with Hollywood on serve.  He got off to a 30-Love lead only to soon see it shift to 30-All.  Then came a great rally where he had a chance to rush the net and that was where Takako hit a high but short-range lob where Frank roared like a grizzly bear to fuel as much air as he could possibly get in leaping upward to intercept the lobbed ball and bring it back down as a thunderous and winning Overhead Smash!  The ladies likely never saw a 245 pound man (Yes, 245!  We will get back to that after the match) get that high off the ground before.  That made it Game Point and it felt like a pivotal moment.  But I guess that feel wasn't real as it then went to Deuce, Game Point again, 2nd Deuce, Break/Match Point and the break to take a tough loss as this one ended on Court Four exactly at 11:45 (we had started it precisely at 11:01 and we were doing the changeovers)!

The Far from Skinny: Yes, I confess here publicly for the very first time that I have reached a new all-time high weight of 245 pounds!  And it was likely higher than that around the holidays as I truly believe I lost somewhere between five and ten pounds since then.  So it is quite possible I was once in the 250 to 255 range!  I had not weighed myself since the fall and then came the bad news at a doctor's appointment last Friday that I have ballooned up to a very lofty level of "fattitude!"  Two years ago, I thought it was bad enough that I had reached 235.  It is obvious that I will need to lose at least 20 to 25 pounds if I am to ever again make an upward move in the Advanced Division. 

As for the One-Setter itself, we all had a lot of fun and there were many fun and fast-paced rallies.  We were also glad to be able to bring it to its full conclusion as it came on the heels of two aborted half-sets.       

It ended up being quite the enjoyable and productive session.  Once again, we thank all those who were a part of it.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com

4/18 Results.

4/18/18:

"Ortega-Rei, Aery-Gottlieb in Wayne, Doyle-Wong, Pienciak-Mole in C.G., Nutley action!":

There were three sessions of GTA Wednesday Tennis: the first one was at The Nellis Drive Courts in Wayne (near The Wayne Bubble) and it got underway in the late afternoon and carried on into the evening and featured two matches from the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament.  The first was the Round of 32 Match featuring Top Seed: "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega against "T-Pain" Thiyagesh Rei.  The second was the Play-In Match between "Meta" Matt Aery and Jeremy "Got Game" Gottlieb.  In between, there was a couple of One-Setters featuring Rei taking on "Stealth" Omar Santos (reports came in from all but Omar).

The second was at The Cedar Grove Courts as "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle and "Samson of Seasons" Sam Wong got together for their GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match (with both reporting).  And then it was "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak and "Del Brotro" Mike Mole facing off in their GTA Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match (with both reporting).  There was some additional Doubles action also reported by Kevin and Ryan.

The third was at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley hosted by "SWAT" Rich Liu (as he had sent the word out to the league that there would be a session).  But, once again, the reporting duties were assigned to Laurie "Suge Boogie" Boughton.

Let's first go to the results from Wayne.

The Nellis Drive Courts Results:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match:

Edwin Ortega over Thiyagesh Rei, 6-3, 6-0, to successfully defend his # 2 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  Edwin: 2 Aces! 

Edwin's Editorial: The weather was cooperating, so Thiyagesh and I agreed to play at The Nellis Drive Courts.  We met around 4pm and started to play around 4:15.  He has good serves, but had a few more double faults and errors than what he'd wanted.  I managed to drop in a couple of Aces and he had a few drop shots for himself.  We finished around 5pm.

Samara's Notes: I appreciate Edwin's timely reporting and commentary.  And now we turn it over to Thiyagesh who reported his One-Setters against Omar.

Omar Santos over Thiyagesh Rei, 6-1!  Omar: 2 Aces!

Omar Santos over Thiyagesh Rei, 6-4!  No Aces.

T-Time: I broke three of his service games in the 2^nd One-Setter, but again I had a lot of unforced errors and double faults.  Still, a lot to learn!  Omar and Edwin were kind enough to give me some pointers.

Samara's Notes: I appreciate Thiyagesh's timely reporting and commentary as well.  We now go to the dual reporting from Matt and Jeremy.

GTA Intermediate Invitational Play-In Match:

Jeremy Gottlieb over Matt Aery, 6-0, 6-0, to advance to the Round of 32 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  In the process, Gottlieb and Aery entered the Intermediate Division as the New # 47 and # 48 Ranked Players respectively.  No Aces.

The Gist from Jeremy:   We played from 6pm to 6:25.  It was great weather!  It is always fun playing.  Thank you…and I'm looking forward to the next round.

Samara's Notes: I thank Jeremy for the very timely reporting (immediately after the match) and I also thank Matt who reported the same score just a short while later.

The Consequences: Gottlieb now advances to the Round of 32 where he will face Jay "The Rising" Phoenix.

We now head over to Cedar Grove.

The Cedar Grove Results:

GTA Intermediate Invitational Round of 32 Match:

Sam Wong over Kevin Doyle, 6-2, 6-3, to become the New # 15 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  Sam: 1 Ace!

Sam says: We started at 6pm and finished at 7:05.

The Kevlar Commentary: I really should play more Singles if I am going to play in these tournaments as I am too often out of position, etc.  I kept unconsciously gravitating toward the sidelines which (of course) is fatal in Singles…and Sam took advantage of it every time!  LOL! 

Sam said he plays a lot of Singles (and it showed).  He is also a great guy and I am glad I got to meet him.  He asked me to call him sometimes to play and I will definitely do that.

Samara's Notes: I thank both for reporting and appreciate Kevin's additional commentary.  Kev also had an additional result to report.

Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson over Brenda Jordan/Dawn Peterson, 6-4!  No Aces.  It was a hard-fought and very even contest.  Brenda's shoulder was bothering her, but she played through it. There was not really much action at Cedar Grove, at least not when I was there.  I noticed Jordan Bachvaroff hitting with someone and Mike Mole was also hitting with someone, but that was about it.

Samara's Notes: I thank Kevin once again for his very comprehensive reporting.  Jordan often hits with non-GTA players, so I won't both trying to track down any results from him.  As for Mike, he was likely hitting against his opponent…Ryan Pienciak.  We now turn this report over to both of them to hear about their match.

GTA Championship Tournament Quarterfinal:

Ryan Pienciak over Mike Mole, 6-2, 6-1, to successfully defend his # 1 Rank in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Semifinals of the GTA Championship Tournament!  No Aces.

The Mole Memo: We played from 7:40 to 8:30.  It was a really hard match...excellent defense that Ryan had.  I made lots of errors.

The Ryan Report: We were going to play Friday night, but we both wound up at Cedar Grove on this night (randomly), so we decided to just play the match.  Mike was hitting it hard and making me run all over, but I was able to get enough would-be winners back to stay in it. 

Afterward we played one set of Doubles.

Ryan Pienciak/Mike Mole over Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout, 7-5!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: I thank both Mike and Ryan for their very timely and comprehensive reporting.  We now take this report to Nutley and get the word from Laurie Boughton.

The Park Ave. Courts Results:

First, there was some unofficial Canadian Doubles as Fadia Nicolas chose to be alone (to get some exercise) against me (Laurie) and Nick Inciong (we won…don't know the score).  And then…

Rich Boland/Fadia Nicolas over Rich Liu/Laurie Boughton, 6-2!  No Aces.

Edgar Valencia over Rich Liu, 6-3!  No Aces.

Rich Liu leading Edgar Valencia, 3-1, (Incomplete when the lights went out)! 

Rich claimed the first One-Setter was won by Edgar with his power serve and his wicked drop shots. :-)

Samara's Notes: I thank Laurie for once again reporting from the Nutley session.  She also had mentioned seeing Elias Eid and a friend playing Singles there.  I reached out for Elias via e-mail to see if he had any results he wanted to report, but did not hear back from him in time for this report…so it will have to remain unofficial.

Also, Umang "Ash" Jain let me know that he only had a hitting session with Arthur "Art" Fontanilla…they never played anything official.  I thank him for that update as well.

Sincerely,

Frank Samara

Gtasamara5@gmail.com