8/20/18:
"10 play (2 New, 1 Return) at PAC, M2 Final part of 25 at C.G.!":
There were two official sessions of GTA Monday Night Tennis...a night that we should call "Major Monday, Part Two" as it was the conclusion of one big match that started two weeks ago on a Monday…plus much more took place on this particular evening! The two sessions pretty much ran at the same time, so I am going to just report Nutley first and then Cedar Grove last (as we usually do).
The first one was at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley and it featured the official GTA Debuts of two new players…and with report contributions coming in from "TNT" Tim Nguyen, "SWAT" Rich Liu and "Eddie Money" Edgar Valencia (Edgar has had so many monikers just this season, I figured I would toss in a new one).
And then we had the usual evening session at The Cedar Grove Courts which featured the conclusion of the M2 Men's Doubles Tournament Final Match between the teams of "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas/"Big Kaz" Mike Kazlauskas and GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro/"Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes (with all four reporting). "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld, "Bravo" Brenda Jordan, "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan, "J-Rod" Joe Rodrigues, "The Riz" John Rizzo, "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan and "Stealth" Omar Santos are all the other contributors to this report from that session.
Let's now get to all the epic action…and we start in Nutley! Where we will have Tim start that portion of the report.
David Soto is now in the GTA. He is a regular player with Rich Liu and the group at PAC. Dave has been rallying with the group for some time now.
We had a nice turnout this night. Arunraj Nair arrived at the PAC around 6:15pm and soon after I arrived as well. We rallied a little while and then a Singles One-Setter started between us. And then the rest of the crew trickled in around 7pm to 7:30. There were ten of us out on the courts at any one time and we took three of the four courts there on a beautiful Monday night after a rainy Sunday.
The Park Ave. Courts Results:
Arunraj Nair over Tim Nguyen, 6-2! No Aces.
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Tim Nguyen over David Soto, 6-0, 6-1, to successfully defend his # 18 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division! David Soto made his official GTA Debut as the New # 43 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division. No Aces.
Fausto Murg/Arunraj Nair over Tim Nguyen/David Soto, 6-1! No Aces.
David Soto/Arunraj Nair over Tim Nguyen/Fausto Murg, 6-1! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank Tim for his timely and detailed reporting. Next we go to a result from Rich and then a couple scores from Edgar after that.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Rich Liu/Richard Bollon over Fausto Murg/Arunraj Nair, 6-3, 7-6 (7–2), as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 63 and # 64 Ranked Teams respectively! It was the official GTA Return of Richard Bollon. No Aces.
The Rich Recap: It was a fun match. Fausto was really playing well blasting some serious forehand shots while Arun was good at the net. But our team came through for a "W!"
Samara's Notes: I also thank Rich for his timely reporting. It seems Team Two Rich was just a bit too much for Fausto and Arun. And now Edgar will close out the Nutley portion of this report.
Randy Doran/Lisa Brady over Edgar Valencia/Arthur Fontanilla, 6-4! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of Lisa Brady.
Edgar's Editorial: We were down 0-4, but we crawled back to 4-5 until they won. Lisa Brady is a revelation! She's very steady at the net and has good shot selections. She can kick ass at the net! As usual, Ravishing Randy did his usual thing with excellent placement shots. Art and I were making wild shots and hitting double faults…until we got a little more serious.
Edgar Valencia/Arthur Fontanilla over Randy Doran/Lisa Brady, 6-3! No Aces.
Edgar's Editorial: Art and I decided to cool down and we got ahead 4-1. My first serves were working and Art had a couple of backhand winners. We had a couple of exciting volley exchanges at the net. Everybody was moving!
Samara's Notes: I thank Edgar for his timely and detailed reporting. Rich also reported how impressive Lisa was…and how they suggested she make her way to Cedar Grove to challenge some of the GTA's top-ranked ladies.
We now go west to Cedar Grove for the rest!
The Cedar Grove Results:
M2 Final Match:
Chris Chiaro/Nathan Fernandes over Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas, 6-7 (7-3), 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, to become the New # 2 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division, the next Top Contenders and the 2018 M2 Champs! No Aces (apparently…though doubtful with Mike and Marijus both involved).
Mike's Minutes of The Match: The 3rd Set resumed (from two weeks ago) as we started off down 3-4 with Marijus serving. He held serve, Nate held serve and I held serve for 5-5. Then, I think we broke Chris to go up 6-5 and Marijus served it out for 7-5.
The 4th Set started out on a high note for us as we broke Nate in the first game for 0-1…then it all went downhill from there. My serve was broken, 1-1, Chris held his and Marijus serve was broken for 1-3. We were not able to catch up after that and the set ended, 6-3 in their favor.
In the 5th Set, I remember we were down 0-3 to start. We were down two breaks of serve for the most of the set. Down 2-5, we broke (Nate's?) serve to have a chance to extend the set and match...however, I was not able to serve it out. We were down Love-40 and then were able to come back to 30-40, but then we missed the last shot! Congrats to Nate and Chris, great match!
More from Marijus: It was a tough match as the total time probably 4.5 hours. After the restart, Mike and I started off well and took the 3rd Set, but after that our serve quality went down somewhat and they took advantage of that.
Nate's Notes: They saved a total of four Match Points before we were able to close it out for the win. Total playing time was almost 5 hours over the course of two days! It was a great match against two tough competitors. Marijus and Mike both hit big and serve even bigger! Chris played like the reigning Champ that he is. Glad to get the win. Frank, thanks for following up (to keep the rescheduling going) and for your recommendation about not scrapping the first two sets (as was once considered).
The Champ chimes in: Not sure of the Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank all four for their timely and detailed contributions to this report. I congratulate Chris and Nate on an impressive victory, but also offer kudos to Marijus and Mike on a fine and spirited effort. It is interesting to note that if they kept it to the original 2 out of 3 Sets format, Kuzavas/Kazlauskas would have won the match and remained the # 2 Team and Top Contenders. But all four agreed to extend this match to a 3 out of 5 Sets as I believe both sides feared going back to a 3rd Set that hung with a 4-3 balance. If either team got off to a slow start, it could have been a wrap quite quickly. The extension was fair to both parties.
And even though those last two sets have a 6-3 score, this match may still have a shot at being a Nominee for Doubles Match of The Year at season's end given its historical significance and its marathon-like nature.
So now Chiaro/Fernandes have to face the reigning GTA Doubles Champions: "NC-17" Nick Caputo and "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak. That should be one hell of a match!
We now go to the rest of the scores where there often were overlaps in the reporting…and I have done my best to restore some sort of chronological order to them, but really cannot be completely accurate in that regard. We will first go to a report from Scott as I assumed he started his action (soon to be aborted) early in the session.
I attempted to play Jordan in a Best of Five Sets Singles Challenge Match, but I had to resign in the 1st Set down 0-3. I don't think I even got more than one point off of Jordan. I'm not sure what came over me. I felt extremely light-headed, dizzy, and weak throughout my legs. I sat down for five minutes or so and had trouble getting off the court. I was able to make it home, eat some food and relax. I thought maybe my sugar level was low, but I am not entirely sure. I feel better today (Tuesday morning), but I am still a little sluggish. I am going to take it easy the next few days and see what happens.
Samara's Notes: I thank Scott for reporting this. I have not heard from Jordan, but I doubt he would want to take a forfeit victory under such circumstances…especially considering how early on it was in the would-be match. I am just going to consider it as an abandoned partial result. I also wish Scott well in his recovery and hope it is only a minor situation…a freak occurrence. It was not all that hot that evening, so I doubt it was heat exhaustion…but it still could have been dehydration if he did not drink enough fluids.
Brenda Jordan/Michele Panzitta over Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson, 6-4! No Aces.
Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson over Brenda Jordan/Michele Panzitta, 6-3! No Aces.
The Brief from Brenda: We didn't play a 3rd Set or a Super Tiebreak because people had been waiting a while to play.
Samara's Notes: I thank Brenda for her timely reporting and respect the considerate action that all four ladies took in this situation…it is greatly appreciated! We now grab a score from Omar.
Mike Mole over Omar Santos, 7-5! No Aces.
Jordan Bachvaroff/Joe Rodrigues over Sally Pillay/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1! No Aces. We played this one "Battle of The Sexes" style.
Samara's Notes: I thank Joe for reporting that result (so did Doinks). We will go back to more scores from Joe, but I want to briefly turn this report over to Gen right now.
When I arrived at CG around 7pm, all four courts had GTA play in progress. On Court One, it was the Ladies Doubles (the two One-Setters already reported above), Court Two had the conclusion of the M2 Men's Doubles Tournament Final, Court Three had the "Battle of The Sexes" One-Setter (reported just above) and Mike Mole and Omar Santos had just finished their One-Setter on Court Four (also reported above) which allowed Jay Phoenix, Natalia Sout and I (along with Mike) to start the following One-Setter.
Jay Phoenix/Natalia Sout over Mike Mole/Genalin Capan, 7-6 (7-2)! No Aces. We played from 7:12 to 8:10 on Court Four.
John Rizzo/Doinks Srinivasan over Jorge Solano/Genalin Capan, 7-6 (8-6)! John: 2 Aces on Jorge! We played this one from 8:17 to 9:40 on Court Four.
The Riz Report: Our set lasted over hour! Doinks and I were able to save 2 Match Points!
Samara's Notes: I thank all three (Gen, John and Doinks) for reporting this result. It may have a shot at being a Nominee for One-Set Mixed Doubles Match of The Year at season's end. We now go back to a couple more scores from Joe before we have Doinks report the last incomplete result of the night.
Joe Rodrigues/Tito Castolo over Jordan Bachvaroff/Senthil Kumar, 6-3! No Aces.
Senthil Kumar/Joe Rodrigues over Jordan Bachvaroff/Jorge Solano, 6-3! Jordan: 3 Aces (2 on Senthil and 1 on Joe)!
Senthil Kumar/Edwin Ortega tied with Don Moya/Doinks Srinivasan, 4-4 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: Once again, I thank everyone for their timely and comprehensive reporting. It is all greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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