6/12/18:
"Carl-Anna in W.R., Gen-Nat part of 19 at C.G. as A-Bomb explodes!":
There were two official sessions of GTA Tuesday Tennis: an early morning one at the Wood-Ridge Courts as an impromptu "Battle of The Sexes" Match came together when "Automatic" Anna Mazur responded to the Open Challenge put out to the league by Carl "Buster" Brownson (result reported by Anna); and then there was the usual evening session at the Cedar Grove Courts.
Well, I should not use the word "usual" as it was highly unusual and explosive as Andrew Troung, aka "A-Bomb", truly exploded upon the scene as the result of an Open Challenge gone wrong with "The Headhunter" Ralph Bernard (I don't feel the need to detail this any further as all has been pretty much been said and done in regard to this unfortunate incident already).
The Main Event of the session was the GAH8 Round of 12 Match between "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan and Natalia "Nitro" Sout (as reported by both), but there were plenty more contributors of results to this report: "Instant" Moka Pathan, "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis, the GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro, "The Accelerator" Abhilash Gadi and also Laurie "L-Boogie" Boughton.
Let's go to that lone result from Wood-Ridge first and then do our best to recap all the peaceful activity that took place up at Cedar Grove!
The Wood-Ridge Result:
2 out of 3 Sets "Battle of The Sexes" Match:
Anna Mazur over Carl Brownson, 6-2, 6-1! No Aces.
The Automatic Annotation: We played from 8'ish until 9:55am. I manage to win in straight sets, but only because he has had a several yearlong break from tennis. Carl is an amazing guy and a great player...an excellent addition to the league!
Samara's Notes: I thank Anna for her very timely reporting and also her kind words about Carl. It is truly appreciated.
And now before we take this report up to Cedar Grove, I'm going to let you in on what almost transpired at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley.
I was in the area and decided to pull into the parking lot at 7:30 to survey the scene and perhaps see if I could issue a challenge to anyone there (in the hopes of moving up the ranks). Instead, I encountered a full court press as all four courts were occupied! The beautiful weather must have caused such scenarios in several locations (Verona…Cedar Grove, etc.! LOL!).
The only face that I recognized was that of Fausto "Mr. Mystery" Murg as he was involved in Doubles action on Court Two with three players I've never seen before. The other three courts were taken by people I've also never seen before. From a distance, I thought I may have saw "The Hit Man" Tom La sitting on the bench alongside Court One.
As I was about to pull out, I saw "Effortless" Edgar Valencia just about to walk away from his car and head to the courts. I pulled up to him and we were able to shake hands (his came thru the window) and speak for a brief moment. He was going to take his chances while I decided to hit the road and head home.
On the way home, however, I drove past the Riverside Courts in Lyndhurst (both were somewhat shockingly vacant on such a nice night) and then I arrived at Memorial Park in Rutherford where all six of their courts were occupied mostly by children and/or teenagers.
The irony was that as I was pulling out of the parking lot in Nutley, 92.3 ALT was playing the song "Tennis Court" by Lorde…yet I could not find one to welcome me. :-(
Little did I know of the even greater irony that was unfolding up at Cedar Grove as an e-mail that had "Court Etiquette" in the subject line became the victim of a trail of e-mail replies that were the complete opposite of both e-mail etiquette and later court etiquette in and of itself when a certain someone decided to make the scene the home of his own pity party.
When I got home around 8pm, I was soon bombarded by text messages from various sources about the heinous actions taking place up at Cedar Grove. It is likely best that I did not head up that way last night as cooler heads may not have prevailed after all…LOL!
I thank all those that were able to keep their cool…many of whom still managed to play their matches and then send those results in a very timely manner. As always, it is all greatly appreciated…so let's get to it now!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Chris Chiaro/Syed Rashid tied with Jordan Bachvaroff/Mike Mole, 5-5 (Incomplete when Chris had to step off as he had already committed to playing in the full match against Chazz Weldon/Abhilash Gadi so that they could get qualified for the M2 Tournament)! No Aces.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar over Chazz Weldon/Abhilash Gadi, 6-1, 6-2, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 70 and # 71 Ranked Teams respectively! No Aces.
Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar over Chazz Weldon/Abhilash Gadi, 6-4! Abhi: 1 Ace on Senthil!
The Accelerated Annotation from Abhi: In the 1st Set, Chazz and I were getting used to playing with each other after almost a year! Senthil and Chris were solid in their play. Senthil, as usual, had his consistency and Chris scored with his killer cross-court shots. The next two sets (the 2nd Set and then the One-Setter) were far more competitive as Chazz and I were finding our groove. I thank Senthil and Chris for playing with us and making sure we qualified in time for the M2 Doubles Tournament.
Samara's Notes: I thank both Chris and Abhi for sending in those scores…and I appreciate the additional commentary from Mr. Gadi.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Moka Pathan/Doinks Srinivasan over Edwin Ortega/Syed Rashid, 6-0, 6-0! No Aces. Per the TMT Rules, Pathan/Srinivasan entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 45 Ranked Team while Ortega/Rashid entered the Doubles Division as the New # 72 Ranked Team.
Moka's Brew: Syed had to retire during the 2nd Set because he wasn't feeling well. Doinks had sent out an e-mail looking for people to help us qualify as a Mixed Doubles Team for the upcoming MXD2 Tournament. Syed had responded that he'd play to help us qualify, but I guess he was coming off of a cold or something. Doinks and I would now like to enter the tourney.
Moka Pathan/Doinks Srinivasan over Jordan Bachvaroff/Edwin Ortega, 6-1! No Aces.
Moka's Brew: We played this one after the initial match above. Doinks really played at a high level and finished a lot of points at the net. Edwin had to leave after this set.
Moka Pathan/Doinks Srinivasan over Dino Celis/Natalie Guzman, 6-2! No Aces. It was the official GTA Return of Natalie Guzman.
Moka's Brew: Natalie was hitting the ball clean and well, especially considering she hasn't been playing much. This was a fun set with a lot of games going to multiple Deuces.
GAH8 Round of 12 Match:
Natalia Sout over Genalin Capan, 6-1, 6-1, to become the New # 8 Ranked Player in the Women's Division while advancing to the Quarterfinals of the 8th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Women's Singles Tournament! No Aces.
Gen's Notes: Good match! Natalia played well and was very consistent. I could not get into any rhythm or have any consistency with my shots, so I gave away too many free points due to my errors. The 1st Set was about 28 minutes long. The 2nd Set had the same score, but lasted 40 minutes. In the last service game, Natalia was serving for the match. We went back and forth with Match Points/Break Points (not sure about the exact number of Deuces, guessing at least six). I had a chance to break her in a couple of games, but could not convert and missed those opportunities. Congratulations to Natalia!
Nat's Notes: Gen played really well. There were a lot of Deuce games that could go ether way. Scores of the sets don't really give the entire picture.
Samara's Notes: I thank both for their timely reporting and commentary. I also congratulate Natalia on a very impressive victory. It is proof positive of her vast improvement for the past couple of seasons.
We now turn it over to Laurie to allow her to finish this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Kyle Eng /Laurie Boughton over Ralph Bernard/Rose Inciong, 6-2, 6-0, as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 46 and # 47 Ranked Teams respectively! Kyle: 4 Aces (3 on Rose and 1 on Ralph)!
The Lowdown from Laurie: I apparently got there right after all the "real action" at CG… LOL!
Samara's Notes: As always, I thank Laurie and all the rest for their very timely reporting.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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