6/28/18:
"5 play at NTC, Scott-Jordan part of 14 at C.G.!":
There were two official sessions of GTA Thursday Night Tennis: an early evening one at Nutley Tennis Club hosted by "The Riz" John Rizzo, but with "Hollywood" Frank Samara doing the reporting; and a concurrent one at the Cedar Grove Courts that lasted until late in the evening and featured a Challenge Match between "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld and "The Bulgarian Bull" Jordan Bachvaroff (with Scott reporting) plus plenty of other action reported by the following correspondents: "Dominant" Dawn Peterson, "Bravo" Brenda Jordan, "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan and "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar.
Let's first go to the complete report from NTC and then the multi-layered recap from Cedar Grove!
The NTC Results:
Don Moya/Frank Hohorst over Frank Samara/Tom La, 6-4! Don: 1 Ace on Tom! While I did not write my usual notes during the changeovers (to save time), I did memorize the flow of the games and then I wrote them down immediately after we finished the One-Setter…and they went like this: Frank S. held serve (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold), Don held at Love, Tom held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and then the hold) and Frank H. held at Love as we were all on serve at 2-2. Samara was the first to be broken and it was at Love for 2-3! Moya held again despite starting off with a Double Fault, shifting to 30-15 only to hit two more Double Faults back-to-back to set up Break Point where he then hit an impressive corner Ace against Tom for Deuce and then came Game Point and the hold for 4-2! La also held again (15-Love shifted to 15-30 and then a Double Fault set up Double Break Point, but then it shifted to Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to pull to 3-4. Hohorst also held again (15-Love, a Double Fault for 15-All, but then onto Double Game Point and the hold) to increase his team's lead to 5-3. Hollywood held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold), but then The Adonis held a third straight time (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game/Match Point and the hold) for the win! We played on Court Three from 6:48 to 7:20 with Rizzo sitting on the sidelines watching.
The Skinny: It was a very close and hard-fought One-Setter where the only difference was that I was broken once while everyone else held serve every time. It made me feel like the loss was my fault, but I played fairly well otherwise. Next, Rizzo took my place as I then sat on the sidelines for this next one.
John Rizzo/Don Moya over Tom La/Frank Hohorst, 6-4! No Aces. The basic breakdown: Don held, Frank was broken and John held for a fairly quick 3-0 lead! Tom held serve to get his team on the scoreboard and then Moya was broken for the first time of the evening as he hit a Double Fault to set up Double Break Point and then he hit another Double Fault to break himself and have his team's lead cut to 3-2! Hohorst held in a game that went to 5 Deuces to level the set at 3-3! Rizzo held again despite a rare Double Fault, but La also held again despite starting off with back-to-back Double Faults before it went to 15-30 and yet another Double Fault to set up Double Break Point, then it went to Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and then the hold to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! The Adonis rebounded with another hold (Double Game Point, a Double Fault to reduce the lead to Game Point, but then came the hold) while Hydro was broken as he started with a Double Fault on a path straight to Triple Break/Match Point, it then went to Double Break/Match Point and then Break/Match Point where the break came to end another hard-fought battle! This one was also played on Court Three and it went from 7:22 to 8:02.
Frank Samara/Don Moya over Tom La/Frank Hohorst, 6-1! No Aces. Like the first one, all games and the points within them were written down once we were finished. And they went like this: Don held (Triple Game Point and it should have been a certain Love hold only to have Frank blow an easy volley which he should have simply blocked or sliced short, but he instead went for the impressive play only to sail it long past the baseline to make it Double Game Point, then it was Game Point where a Double Fault made it Deuce and then it was all Game Points to the 4th Deuce, one more Game Point and finally the hold), Tom held (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point and the hold), Frank S. held at Love, but Frank H. was the first one to be broken as a 30-Love lead went right to Break Point where a Double Fault served to break himself for 1-3! Moya held again (30-Love, Double Fault for 30-15, but then Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold), La was broken (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) and Samara held again (Triple Game/Match Point, Double Game/Match Point, it finally ended on Game/Match Point) to get the win! We played this one on Court Three from 8:05 to 8:27.
The Skinny: Samara returned to action feeling fresh and Moya was able to finish points with effective volleys at the net when his partner served and then he brought the fire in his own service games. Don went 3-0 for the evening. Afterward, Moya and Hohorst hit with each other for another fifteen minutes or so before it became so dark that it was time to go.
Speaking of "time to go," it is now time to go up to Cedar Grove for the rest of this report.
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Scott Bergenfeld over Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-4, 6-3, to successfully defend his # 6 Rank in the Advanced Division! No Aces.
Scott Bergenfeld over Jordan Bachvaroff, 6-3! Scott: 1 Ace on Match Point (a cheap slice serve)!
The Skinny from Scott: The conditions were very warm and humid. We both were feeling it by the time we played the One-Setter. We were both were fatigued by that time. It was a good workout for sure!
Samara's Notes: I thank Scott for his very timely and detailed reporting. It is truly appreciated. Let's go to the rest of the contributors now.
2 out of 3 Sets Women's Doubles Match:
Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson over Brenda Jordan/Diane Raum, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, as both teams entered the Women's Doubles Division as the New # 19 and # 20 Ranked Teams respectively! No Aces. It was the official GTA Return of Diane Raum.
The Brief from Brenda: It was a good match. The weather was extremely humid, causing us to take lots of water breaks.
Kris Srinivasan/Moka Pathan over Jordan Bachvaroff/Laurie Boughton, 6-2! No Aces.
Kris Srinivasan/Moka Pathan over Tito Castolo/Laurie Boughton, 7-6 (7-3)! Kris: 1 Ace on Laurie; and Moka: 1 Ace on Laurie!
The K has his say: Down 2-5, we rallied to tie it up 5-All and see it thru to the TB!
Tito Castolo/Dawn Peterson over Kris Srinivasan/T.J. Shah, 6-4! No Aces.
Kris Srinivasan/T.J. Shah over Tito Castolo/Sally Pillay, 7-6 (7-3)! No Aces.
The K has his say: Solid One-Setter that was fun and intense throughout...and it lasted almost and hour...ending just in the nick of time before lights out!
Marijus Kuzavas chose to sit out and Dino Celis wound up working on his serves. There was a full Singles Match between Scott Bergenfeld and Jordan Bachvaroff, a One-Setter between Senthil Kumar and Muhammad Haque, and a full Women's Doubles Match between the teams of Brenda Jordan/Diane Raum and Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson.
It was good to see the tennis courts buzzing with GTA action. Friday looks to be a busy session as well with a few matches already scheduled. I plan to play around 6:30pm or so. Cheers!
Samara's Notes: I thank Kris for hosting the session (like the old days) and providing us with that report. I also thank Dawn and Brenda for their contributions to this report as well. Let's go to that fully detailed score from Senthil.
Senthil Kumar over Muhammad Haque, 7-5! Senthil: 1 Ace!
The Untangled Web by Senthil: I started off down 0-2, 1-2, 1-3 before tying it up 3-3, being down again 3-4, tying it again at 4-4, down once more at 4-5 before taking the last three games to win it! We played from 8:35 to 9:15.
Samara's Notes: I thank Senthil for that comprehensive report. It also shows the rapid improvement of Muhammad...and just how close the competition is getting in the GTA. The other day, Wednesday, I forgot to report that Muhammad had played a Singles One-Setter against Melvin Hyman that went to 7-7 in games when they both decided to call it quits.
Because it was incomplete, it will have to remain unofficial (still, I neglected to mention it...and that was unintentional). Too bad they just did not go to the conventional Tiebreak at 6-6 as that would have made it official.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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