8/9/18:
"12 play (3 New, 4 Return) at FLTC, 18 play at C.G.!":
There were two official sessions of GTA Thursday Night Tennis. The first one was in the evening at the Fair Lawn Tennis Club as it was Marie Salamon's annual Year-End Party to wrap up the season of the indoor group she hosts there on Tuesday evenings. And the second one was at the Cedar Grove Courts where the contributors to this report were "Instant" Moka Pathan, "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak, Thomas "Not Tommy" Lee (also not Tom La, ha ha!) and "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan.
We'll go to Fair Lawn first and then pull together all the results from Cedar Grove!
It was very sweet of Marie Salamon to once again invite me to her Year-End Party for the indoor group she runs at the Fair Lawn Tennis Club. This was at least my third year (perhaps fourth) in a row attending the event. There is usually two hours of tennis followed by an hour or more of food, drinks and conversation. I do believe (though I could be wrong) that it came much later in the year this season as I seem to recall this event usually being held in June.
Anyway, she had three of the five courts there (the two courts on each end remained vacant). Marie had twelve players (including herself), so it worked out perfectly...four players per court, three courts. Tim Yu was in charge of booking the matches (as he usually does). Three of the twelve competitors I had never met before. It is always a fun group and the tennis is solid. I thank Marie for allowing me to be part of it and also for letting me record and report the results as being part of the GTA as well.
There were three time slots in terms of the action - 8pm to 8:40, 8:40 to 9:20 and 9:20 to 10pm. Forty minutes each and then you switch courts for the next match-up. It all moved along at a very fast clip (no changeovers every two games...only after completed sets). Within that opening time slot, all twelve players warmed up with one another (already paired off in the assigned teams) for about ten minutes.
For the sets that I was involved in, I did not do my normal note-taking as there were no changeovers. In fact, I remembered the scores from all three time slots and wrote everything down at the end of the evening (just before we were about to eat).
I think that is all that needs to be said...so let's get to the action!
The Fair Lawn Tennis Club Results:
Brian Sears/Michele Panzitta over Kenny Lombardo/Pearl Wong, 6-1! No Aces (apparently). It was the official GTA Debut of Brian Sears, Kenny Lombardo and Pearl Wong.
Samara's Notes: Kenny had already heard of the GTA via Dan Hwang (who he has played with before) and he hopes to play more with us in the future as he has been looking to get involved with some larger groups of tennis players.
Russ Johnson/Robin Altman over Tim Yu/Marcia Yu, 6-1! No Aces (apparently). It was the official GTA Return of Russ Johnson, Robin Altman, Tim Yu and Marcia Yu.
Samara's Notes: Tim jokingly added that he and Marcia had not sufficient time to warm up...he then added a wink as they had the same amount of time that everyone else there had.
Frank Samara/Arlene Hyde over Dino Celis/Marie Salamon, 6-2! No Aces. Here's the basic breakdown: Arlene held serve at Game Point, Dino was broken on Double Break Point, Frank held at Love and Marie was broken in a battle (Double Game Point was reduced to Deuce, then Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point again and then a Double Fault to break herself) to get off to a 0-4 start! Hyde held again (Double Break Point and then a rebound to Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to give her team a 5-0 lead, but then Celis fought back hard on his next service as his team was down Break/Match Point, then Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold to put his team on the scoreboard at 1-5! Samara was then broken at Love to have his team's lead cut to 5-2, but then Salamon was broken again (Double Break/Match Point, it ended on Break/Match Point which was the 3rd M.P. overall) to take the loss.
Samara's Notes: What looked to be a certain shutout at first ended up getting more interesting toward the end. We finished this one just in time as Tim soon after gave the signal to have all the players switch up teams and courts. I should also note that the two previous pairings may have had time to play incomplete sets before their time was up, but I did not bother noting those.
Russ Johnson/Michele Panzitta over Dino Celis/Arlene Hyde, 6-0! No Aces (apparently).
Brian Sears/Marcia Yu over Kenny Lombardo/Marie Salamon, 6-2! No Aces (apparently).
Tim Yu/Pearl Wong over Frank Samara/Robin Altman, 6-1! No Aces. Again, the basic breakdown: Tim held (Double Game Point was reduced to Deuce and then it was all Break Points until 4th Deuce, Game Point and the hold), Frank held at Love, Pearl held (Double Fault for 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but Robin was the first one to be broken (Double Fault for 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) for 1-3. And from there, Yu held again (this time at Double Game Point), Samara was broken at Love and Pearl held at Double Game/Match Point for a very impressive victory!
Samara's Notes: Robin warned me how good Pearl was just before we got started. In fact, Altman described her as not only being the best female player there, but possibly the strongest competitor of everyone in attendance. Her assessment was not far off as Ms. Wong has a lethal forehand along with precise volleys and consistent overheads. She was not really lacking in any other areas either. We then had time to start another one (where I did not note the games).
Frank Samara/Robin Altman leading Tim Yu/Pearl Wong, 3-2 (Incomplete)! No Aces.
Brian Sears/Arlene Hyde over Dino Celis/Robin Altman, 6-4! No Aces (apparently).
Tim Yu/Marie Salamon over Kenny Lombardo/Michele Panzitta, 7-5! No Aces (apparently).
Russ Johnson/Pearl Wong over Frank Samara/Marcia Yu, 6-2! No Aces. Once more, the basic breakdown: Frank held on Double Game Point, Russ held on Double Game Point, but Marcia was the first to be broken and it was at Love after hitting a Double Fault to set up Love-30. Pearl was then broken in a battle (Double Fault for Love-30, a shift to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level the set at 2-2, but from there Samara was broken (hit his first and only Double Fault of the night to set up 15-30, the break came on Double Break Point), Johnson held at Love, Yu was broken on Double Break Point and Wong held on Double Game/Match Point to run away with the victory!
Samara's Notes: This one started off close and then suddenly got away from us. I had a strange personal trend for most of the evening (including the incomplete half-sets) where I would hold serve at Love and then the next time around get broken at Love! It changed up a bit in this One-Setter, but that tale of two services returned in the following incomplete half-set. And I remembered the games in this one as it was rather epic...and it was the last action of the night.
Russ Johnson/Pearl Wong leading Frank Samara/Marcia Yu, 3-2 (Incomplete)! Russ: 1 Ace on Frank! This is how it was going: Frank held at Love and Russ was broken despite scoring with a nice sideline Ace against Frank (while down 15-30) to make it 30-All and he then went up Game Point before going to Deuce, Break Point and the break for 0-2! Next came the pivotal game of the half-set and toughest battle of the evening as Marcia was up Double Game Point, that got reduced to Deuce, then Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point again and then a Double Fault for 4th Deuce, Break Point and the break as it was now 2-1 despite so many opportunities to go up 3-0! Pearl held in a 3-Deuce game where I can't remember the flow of the points and that evened things at 2-2. With time almost up, we decided to play one more game to decide it all...and then Samara quickly got broken at Love to end it! So bizarre!
Samara's Notes: All in all, it was a lot of fun. I thank Marie, Tim, Arlene, Kenny and Michele for supplying and/or correcting the scores that I was unable to record while I was there that night. It is greatly appreciated!
And now we shift southwest to Cedar Grove!
The Cedar Grove Results:
Moka Pathan over Jay Phoenix, 6-0! No Aces.
Moka Pathan leading Jay Phoenix, 3-2 (Incomplete)! No Aces.
Moka's Brew: In the first One-Setter, I played really clean tennis and it was over pretty quick. In the second One-Setter, Jay adjusted a little bit and started hitting a lot more balls back. We stopped because Janice Wang and Guy Dupoux were waiting on the side and all four courts were taken, two with Singles action.
Jay Phoenix/Guy Dupoux over Moka Pathan/Janice Wang, 6-4! Guy: 1 Ace!
This was a competitive set with lots of Deuce games. I made a few errors, Janice hit well from the baseline, Guy served big and played well at net, and Jay made good gets and was consistent.
Samara's Notes: I thank Moka for his timely and comprehensive report. I also want to say how I respect the fact that Moka and Jay recognized the situation unfolding around them and then they accommodated it appropriately (i.e. relenting their Singles action to make room for Doubles action). I have heard several complaints as of late (and I am not going to name names) that many others up there have refused to do the same.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Ryan Pienciak/Tito Castolo over Adam Pienciak/John Rizzo, 6-3, 7-5, to become the New # 7 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank Ryan for his very timely reporting…much appreciated!
Frank Hohorst/Diane Raum over Thomas Lee/Kathy Marabundo, 7-6 (7-5)! Frank: 4 Aces on Kathy (on the Deuce side all four times)!
There's no doubting Thomas: There were more serves from Frank that were service winners where Kathy could only barely get a racket on them. Frank was solid in hitting the corner of the service box and taking her out very wide.
Diane and Kathy had been hitting Singles with one another, so they were already warmed up before Frank and I showed up to play. Frank has excellent strokes and is very good at varying the angle and pace of the ball throughout the match. Diane is strong at the net.
Tom and Kathy were up 2-0, 4-2 and in place to go up 5-2 before Kathy got broken to make it 4-3.
Frank and Diane then went up 5-4 before each side held serve right up until the Tiebreak. There were some long points where there was a lot of shot-making using the entire court on both sides of the net.
Mike Corrado/Peter Corso over Frank Hohorst/Thomas Lee, 6-2! No Aces.
There's no doubting Thomas: Mike is a heavy topspin hitter who likes to kick his serve out wide on the Deuce side. We then played another one that we didn't get to finish.
Samara's Notes: We will get to the incomplete set at the end of this report, but let me say right now how impressed I am with the report received from Tom. Not only was it timely, it is very thorough and comprehensive…and this is coming from someone who is still very new to the league which makes it all the more difficult.
Kris Srinivasan/Janice Wang over Dennis Cabanatan/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces.
Nick Inciong/Doinks Srinivasan tied with Dennis Cabanatan/Janice Wang, 5-5 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm with Dennis serving at 30-Love)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: I thank Doinks for submitting those last two results in a very timely manner. We now go back to the one additional incomplete result submitted by Thomas.
Mike Corrado/Peter Corso tied with Frank Hohorst/Thomas Lee, 5-5 (Incomplete when the lights went out at 10pm with Tom serving at 30-Love)! No Aces.
There's no doubting Thomas: Frank said that he was at least three times older than each of our opponents!
Samara's Notes: Again, I thank everyone who reported results from this session. It was all timely, comprehensive and easy to follow. I also have to give credit for an assist from "Momma Chris" Christine Corso as she confirmed that Mike was Mike Corrado as Thomas was not entirely sure (nor was Frank H.).
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
No comments:
Post a Comment