7/20/18:
"Marijus-Elmer, MXD2 Semi part of 29 (1 New) at C.G., Tony-Abhi TBC at VP!":
There were two official sessions of GTA Friday Night Tennis: the first one was the usual evening affair at The Cedar Grove Courts…except for the fact that it got underway in the late afternoon starting off with a "Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match between "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas and Elmer "The Glue" Agapito (with Marijus reporting) and then it also included the last of the two MXD2 Semifinal Matches as GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro teamed with Former GTA Women's Champ: Laura "The Aura" Gawley to take on the team of "The Adonis" Don Moya and "J-Wow" Janice Wang (with Chris reporting). Other contributors from this epic session are: "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan, "Del Brotro" Mike Mole, "Instant" Moka Pathan, "The Riz" John Rizzo, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak and "The Icon" Nick Inciong (but not necessarily in that order).
But then there was a concurrent session that actually ran later than the one at Cedar Grove…it was at Verona Park with Tony "Sure Shot" Shiao and "The Accelerator" Abhilash Gadi getting together for their "Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match (with both reporting).
We will now do our best to strike some semblance of order with all the scores from Cedar Grove (as there was some overlapping in the reporting…and we will leave the incomplete sets for the end) and then we will finish this report in Verona.
The Cedar Grove Results:
"Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match:
Marijus Kuzavas over Elmer Agapito, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, to successfully defend his # 4 Rank in the Advanced Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the 21st Annual Grove Cup Men's Singles Tournament! Marijus: 3 Aces (2 in the 1st Ste and 1 in the 3rd Set)!
The Scoop from Super Mario: The 1st Set went 0-1, 1-5 and 3-6 from my perspective. Elmer played great offense/defense combination while I was making way too many double faults and unforced errors. At 1-5 I tried mounting a come back, but it fell short.
The 2nd Set went 0-4, 2-5, 6-6 and then 7-6 (7-3) in my favor. My problems and Elmer's great playing continued well into the 2nd Set. Elmer was serving for the match at 5-2 and up 40-15 (Double Game/Match Point)! Somehow I got lucky in saving 3 Match Points in this game. He made a couple of easy errors and I felt that he tightened up at this moment. He also started making double faults from that point on while before that he had none. Meanwhile my game got a little better as I stopped making doubles and cleaned up on the unforced errors. In the Tiebreak I was up 6-1 before closing it out at 7-3, so he saved a couple of Set Points.
The 3rd Set went 0-2, 1-3 and then to 6-3 in my favor. Again I fell behind in this one, but not as deep and was able to come back.
Overall, this was a very good match with lots of good points from both sides and a number of silly errors on both sides as well where we would lose a point which should have been won. Elmer has a good solid overall game. His serve is a high-bouncing kick serve which is difficult to attack. Both forehand and backhand ground-strokes are weapons for him. And given how the match went on, I consider myself extremely lucky winning this one. We played from about 5:20 to around 8pm (those are rough estimates as I did not check the time).
Samara's Notes: First, I thank Marijus for the very timely and extremely comprehensive reporting which is always very much appreciated. Second, I congratulate him on an impressively hard-fought victory! Third, I offer up major kudos to Elmer who has proven he will soon be an upper echelon Advanced Division player before long. And fourth, I do believe this match has a chance at becoming a Nominee for Singles Match of The Year at season's end.
We are going to now go to a couple of scores sent in by Mike Mole, then a couple more from Moka before getting back to some other results reported by Marijus…and all of that is as follows.
Mike Mole over Edwin Ortega, 6-3! No Aces. We played from 5:30 to 6:30.
Omar Santos over Mike Mole, 7-6 (7-4)! No Aces. We played from 6:40 to 7:30.
Moka Pathan over Mike Kazlauskas, 6-0! No Aces.
Moka Pathan over Mike Kazlauskas, 7-5! Mike: 3 Aces; and Moka: 1 Ace!
Moka's Brew: We played on the courts up the street from the regular Cedar Grove Courts because all four there were taken. I was up 3-0, and 4-1 in the second One-Setter before Mike ran off four straight game to make it 4-5, then I broke him to stay alive and took the final two games. They were very fun and competitive sets!
Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas over Mike Mole/Dan Hwang, 6-1! No Aces.
Nathan Fernandes/Fadia Nicolas over Ryan Pienciak/Sally Pillay, 6-3! No Aces.
Mike Kazlauskas/Sally Pillay over Dan Hwang/Fadia Nicolas, 6-3! Mike: 5 Aces (4 on Fadia and 1 on Dan); Fadia: 1 Ace on Mike; and Sally: 1 Ace on Fadia!
MXD2 Semifinal Match:
Chris Chiaro/Laura Gawley over Don Moya/Janice Wang, 6-2, 6-4, to successfully defend the # 2 Rank in the Mixed Doubles Division while advancing to the Finals of the MXD2 Mixed Doubles Tournament! Don: 2 Aces on Laura!
Samara's Notes: I thank Chris for his timely reporting of this match. Now he and Laura will face Nick Caputo and Fadia Nicolas in the Finals. That should be a very solid match!
Here are a couple more scores sent in by Ryan (he had also sent in that one he was involved in above).
Tito Castolo/Rob Gawley over Ryan Pienciak/John Rizzo, 6-4! No Aces.
Nathan Fernandes/Tito Castolo over Ryan Pienciak/John Rizzo, 6-4! No Aces.
John Rizzo then also reported the following.
John Rizzo/Tito Castolo over Jay Phoenix/Rob Gawley, 6-3! No Aces.
Gen then submitted the following report. All the following took place on Court One.
Van Vima/Laurie Boughton over Genalin Capan/Suzanne Bujara, 6-3! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of Van Vima.
Nathan Fernandes/Suzanne Bujara over Laurie Boughton/Genalin Capan, 6-2! No Aces.
Gen's Notes: Nate and Suzanne were up 5-0 when we finally got on the board and won two games. Laurie and Suzanne then started to play a Singles One-Setter when after two games they decided to scrap it so that Natalia and I could play Doubles with them instead.
Samara's Notes: We will get to that incomplete One-Setter in just a bit. Let's go to Nick for one more complete score before we list all that was either incomplete or unofficial.
Kyle Eng/Andrew Kroessler over Dennis Cabanatan/Nick Inciong, 6-2! No Aces.
Kyle Eng/Andrew Kroessler leading Dennis Cabanatan/Nick Inciong, 6-5 (Incomplete and on serve when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Laurie Boughton/Natalia Sout leading Genalin Capan/Suzanne Bujara, 4-3 (Incomplete with Laurie on serve as the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Mike Kazlausas/Sally Pillay leading Dan Hwang/Fadia Nicolas, 4-1 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Ryan Pienciak/John Rizzo over Nathan Fernandes/Tito Castolo, 10-6 (stand-alone, unofficial Super Tiebreak)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank everyone who reported in such a timely fashion from Cedar Grove. It is all greatly appreciated! We now head slightly south to Verona for the dual report from Abhi and Tony.
The Verona Park Result:
"Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match (still in progress):
Abhilash Gadi leading Tony Shiao, 5-7, 6-3, 5-4 (15-0)! No Aces.
The Accelerated Annotation: This match is definitely the best I've played so far in my short tennis career! The match is incomplete as the lights went off right near the end of the 3rd Set.
We started hitting around 7:30pm and the match began around 7:45 and lasted until 10:15 when the lights went off (Verona runs a bit longer than Cedar Grove). We played 2 hours and 30 minutes of some really good tennis which had long rallies, several Deuce games and cross-court winners. Although we would have loved to finish the match all in the same day, no one deserved to lose. I thank Tony for a quality tennis session. We will continue this match on a different day and try to finish it before the Tuesday deadline.
The Sure Shot from Shiao: This was a long match with some serious rallies. I am surprised that Abhi was fairly new to the game of tennis...he has a great forehand, ran down just about every ball, and is a tough contender. I'm bummed we couldn't finish the match this day, but we will try to do so before Tuesday.
Samara's Notes: I thank both for their timely and comprehensive reporting. I also applaud both their efforts in this epic match (perhaps on its way to being yet another contender for Singles Match of The Year at season's end). In subsequent e-mails since this initial report, Abhi said they were considering scrapping the in-progress 3rd Set and playing a deciding 10-Point Super Tiebreak instead.
I must go on the record and say I think this is a very bad idea (though it is allowed in all rounds of the tourney except for the Tournament Final…and never in any Championship Matches). And while I understand the trepidation (on the part of both players) of continuing a match so near the possible finish line, to scrap what they have done is not the solution. First, they would likely dash the chances of this match ever becoming a Nominee for Singles Match of The Year.
Second, but more importantly, Shiao's rank would no longer be on the line in that scenario. The only thing still at stake would be the elimination of the loser and the advancement of the winner. With the weather trending the way it has since Friday night, the deadline for the Grove Cup Round of 32 will be extended from Tuesday night to Thursday night. I hope that will inspire them to properly finish this match.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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