8/5/18:
"51 play (6 New, 4 Return) at NTC!":
There was just one session of GTA Sunday Tennis, but it certainly was a big one! Much like when the GTA players invaded Arlington Players Club (aka APC) en masse back in late June, this time around there was a similar tennis party/BBQ session at Nutley Tennis Club (aka NTC). It was at the invitation of both "Bionic" Bo Folchi and "Dynamic Dee" Denise Savino (both NTC players and Board Members).
Like the APC event, the party was organized by "The Riz" John Rizzo. NTC features five red clay courts and nice deck with two grilles for a BBQ. The deck is adjacent to (and connected to) the Clubhouse. To try to paint a mental picture for those who have yet to see or visit Nutley Tennis Club, there are a couple of steps down from the Clubhouse section of deck (almost like a big open porch) to Court One...so that is the "Show Court." Go up a slight incline of grass to Court Two. Courts One and Two are separated by a fence from Courts Three, Four and Five.
Court Three ramps down from Court Two. Court Four is between Courts Three and Five and the decline from Court Three to Court Four is fairly steep. Then, the decline from Four to Five is only slight. So, in essence, there is almost a circular pattern to the way the courts are laid out on the grounds of the Club. The setting is very private as it is at the end of a dead end street (Maple Place) and then there is a long driveway that leads to the property which borders a substantial section of trees which separate it from the park that runs just about the entire length of Nutley.
Of course, an event such as this cannot be one where we publicize it to the entire league in the form of a group-wide e-mail (i.e. a blanket invitation). It took careful planning and some list limiting because as John was inviting his usual invitees (those from his Night Owls groups at The Bubble and then those who were regular attendees of the Friday Night Bubble Parties), we also sought to include some NTC Members who have either had some past affiliation with the GTA or where they perhaps acquired knowledge (and perhaps some interest) of it. Some may have simply been more attracted to the BBQ aspect of it.
While John (with help from Bo and Denise) was the overall event host, "Hollywood" Frank Samara served as the host in the traditional sense of collecting all the scores along the way. Rizzo and Samara worked together in the setting of the matches. Unlike the APC event where we let some results (if they featured strictly APC members/players) fall by the wayside and go unrecorded, at this outing we collected every result along the way.
Much thanks to Bo and Dee for accommodating the event as it went along. The session ran from 3pm to almost total darkness (at Nutley Tennis Club, there are no lights there). Also, kudos to John who fell ill the evening before and dragged himself through this event as best he could. He even gathered the strength to play a Doubles One-Setter just before we hit total darkness...in hopes of setting a new record for the amount of official competitors at a singular session.
The long-standing record was 47 players in one session (at one of the previous Bubblepalooza events at The Wayne Bubble). Then, the APC session ended up having a total of 53 official competitors, 13 of which were new and making their official GTA Debut.
Well, this session's total turnout fell in the middle of those two previous history making sessions as we had 51 official competitors (just six of which were new and making their official GTA Debut). Two shy of the overall record is not too shabby...especially when you take into consideration the fact that the peak temperature hit 95 degrees and the "real feel" was even higher when you factor in the intense humidity!
We thank all those competitors who withstood the heat to be part of what was surely another epic session in the history of this league.
We now go to a lengthy list of results from the Nutley Tennis Club!
The NTC Results:
Tom Heidt/Laurie Boughton over Tim Nguyen/Suzanne Bujara, 6-1! No Aces. Court Three (aka The Shady Court) hosted this one from 3:10 to 3:35.
Kevin Proctor/Arlene Hyde over Senthil Kumar/Dinesh Viswanathan, 6-1! No Aces. It was the official GTA Return of Dinesh Viswanathan. This one was contested on Court One (aka The Show Court) and it lasted from 3:15 to 3:40.
Denise Savino/Nobuko Okabe over Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson, 6-1! No Aces. It was the official GTA Return of Nobuko Okabe. They played this one on Court Two (aka The High Court...as it is the highest in elevation of the five) from 3:20 to 3:45.
Nick Inciong/Fadia Nicolas over Ray Garfinkle/Vivian Lee, 6-0! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of Ray Garfinkle. Court Five (aka The Coach's Court...as it is where Coach Terry McLaughlin...the lone Teaching Pro at NTC...usually holds his lessons...more on Terry later in this report) was the scene of the crime as Iconic Inciong and Fadia Finesse fed a hot bagel to Catskills Garfinkle and Vivacious Vivian! It lasted from 3:25 to 3:45.
Samara's Notes: Ray is a longstanding member of NTC. I give him the moniker "Catskills" because his sense of humor reminds me of the traditional stand-up comics that once ruled that region. He is a good guy and I'm glad he got the chance to finally play with us.
Ryan Pienciak/Bo Folchi over Dino Celis/Zach Ott, 6-3! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of Zach Ott. Court Four (aka The Lake Court...as this court often resembles a small lake after a heavy downpour...it is always the last of the five to dry) hosted this foursome from 3:25 to 3:55.
Samara's Notes: There was some heavy hitting going on in this one as we all know the artillery that Ryan and Dino bring to the court. Bo is a Former 7-Time GTA Champion who may have lost a step since his glory days in our league, but he seemingly has improved his overall hitting skills since then. And then Zach "The Attack" Ott is a new member at NTC this year, but he has already established himself as one of their finest players.
Adam Pienciak/Doinks Srinivasan over Keith Lewkowitz/Megan Reed, 6-3! Adam: 1 Ace on Kevin on the very first point of the match! This Mixed Doubles action took place on Court Three from 3:45 to 4:15.
Kyle Eng/Kevin Proctor over Mike Sindler/Terry McLaughlin, 6-1! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of Terry McLaughlin. Court One hosted this one from 3:50 to 4:45.
Samara's Notes: I referenced Terry earlier. He was a last-minute surprise arrival to the party. As a teaching pro, my guess is that his USTA Rating would be about a 5.0. As we know that Kevin is likely to be a 4.5, we figured we wanted to get them on opposites sides of the net to challenge one another. Despite the somewhat lopsided score, the rallies were quite the spectacle...and both Kyle and Mike did more than hold their own in these exchanges. I think the reason why this one took so long is that Kevin started to feel the effects of what may have been heat stroke. Kudos to him for sticking it out and finishing it...but after this one, he was done! He did not look so good. Arlene was kind enough to leave the party with him to make sure he would be OK.
Tim Nguyen/Dinesh Viswanathan over Tom Heidt/Thiyagesh Rei, 7-6 (8-6)! No Aces. It was the official GTA Return of Thiyagesh Rei. Court Two was the setting for these two teams as they battled for almost one hour, 3:55 to 4:50!
Fadia Nicolas/Laurie Boughton over Brenda Jordan/Marie Salamon, 6-3! No Aces. This Women's Doubles action took place on Court Five from 4pm to 4:45. It likely lasted five to ten minutes longer than it normally would have as we thought it had ended earlier. As it turns out, Laurie was also starting to feel the effects of the heat...so she needed a breather and sat in the grassy corner off the court. From there, she just "zoned out" (as she put it) until Samara took a walk over to the court to assess the situation. Thankfully, she was OK...and must have caught her second wind as she would stick around to play late into the night.
Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson over Joe Renga/Suzanne Bujara, 6-0! No Aces. This Mixed Doubles action was contested on Court Four from 4:05 to 4:30.
Senthil Kumar/Ray Garfinkle over Nick Inciong/Vivian Lee, 6-1! No Aces. They played on Court One from 4:25 to 4:50.
Adam Pienciak/Ryan Pienciak over Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas, 6-3! No Aces. This big-time Men's Doubles action took place on Court Three from 4:25 to 5pm as "The Bros" got a one-set win over "The Lanky Lithuanians!"
Mike Moscara/Nick Moscara over Keith Lewkowitz/Mike Sindler, 6-3! Nick: 2 Aces (one on each and the last one was on Match Point!). It was the official GTA Debut of both Mike and Nick Moscara (father and son)! These four player faced off on Court Four for a considerable amount of time, 4:40 to 5:25.
Samara's Notes: The Moscaras are NTC members/players and both are really nice guys. It seemed like the games went long. I remember being close to that court for one of them where Keith was telling his partner, Mike Sindler, that Mike's arm was likely to fall off from the shoulder with all the serving he was doing. My guess is that game was a multiple Deuce affair...and perhaps some of the other games were as well.
Don Moya/Terry McLaughlin over Bo Folchi/Zach Ott, 6-2! No Aces. Court Five hosted what was quite likely the heaviest hitting of the entire evening as this one lasted from 4:55 to 5:30. The Coach Connection (Don is a teaching pro at The Wayne Bubble, Terry is the same at NTC) was just too much for Bo and Zach to overcome. Folchi also said he was starting to feel the effects of the heat in this one.
Kyle Eng/Dennis Cabanatan over Dino Celis/Nick Inciong, 6-4! No Aces. These two teams battled on Court Two from 5pm to 5:35.
Sally Pillay/Atsumi Komatsuzaki over Doinks Srinivasan/Fadia Nicolas, 7-5! No Aces. This Women's Doubles action took place on Court One and the "show" lasted from 5pm to 5:50.
Marie Salamon/Megan Reed over Brenda Jordan/Robin Wilson, 6-3! No Aces. The ladies were happy to have it "made in the shade" on Court Three as they played this one from 5:10 to 5:50. Robin wanted it noted that she had to serve out a 12 Deuce game!
Tim Nguyen/Denise Savino over Joe Renga/Nobuko Okabe, 6-1! No Aces. Court Five hosted this Mixed Doubles action from 5:35 to 6pm.
Senthil Kumar/Mike Kazlauskas over Marijus Kuzavas/Dan Hwang, 6-4! Marijus: 2 Aces (one on each)! These four faced off on Court Four from 5:35 to 6:15.
Joe Rodrigues/Dennis Cabanatan over Alfred Chen/Dinesh Viswanathan, 7-5! No Aces. These two teams battled on Court Two from 5:45 to 6:30.
Rob Fredericks/Sue Fredericks over Ray Garfinkle/Laurie Boughton, 6-4! Laurie: 1 Ace on Sue! It was the official GTA Debut of Rob Fredericks and the official GTA Return of Sue Fredericks. These two Mixed Doubles teams certainly (and gladly, it seemed) put on a show on Court One. Said show lasted from 6pm to 6:45.
Samara's Notes: Sue certainly looked familiar and she thought the same of me. Turns out she had played in one of our past W2 Women's Doubles Tournaments when "Superwoman" Lois "Lane" Tirrell had brought her in as her partner for that one particular tourney. The Fredericks are NTC members/players, but "Rusty" Rob has been away from the scene allowing various injuries to heal. So this was his first time playing in almost a year and he looked quite good for a guy who had not played in so long. "Fiery" Sue plays with a lot of passion and she gets a nice amount of pace on her shots. I hope we get to see more of them in our league in the future as both of them seemed to enjoy the experience.
Don Moya/Fadia Nicolas over Ryan Pienciak/Vivian Lee, 6-3! Don: 2 Aces (one on each); and Fadia: 1 Ace on Vivian! This Mixed Doubles encounter was contested on Court Three from 6:05 to 6:45.
Nick Inciong/Sally Pillay over Kyle Eng/Janice Wang, 6-2! No Aces. Still more Mixed Doubles action, this time around on Court Five as it lasted from 6:15 to 6:50.
Mike Kazlauskas/Doinks Srinivasan over Dan Hwang/Atsumi Komatsuzaki, 6-2! Mike: 1 Ace on Atsumi! And yet more Mixed Doubles...this time taking place on Court Four from 6:25 to 7pm. The ladies turned out strong for this session and that is always a good thing!
Tim Nguyen/Mike Sindler over Kevin Doyle/Tom Heidt, 6-1! No Aces. This one was conducted on Court Two from 6:35 to 7:15.
Don Moya/Janice Wang over Dino Celis/Joe Rodrigues, 6-0! No Aces. Quite the impressive victory for "The Adonis" and the New GTA Women's Champion! This took place on Court Five from 6:55 to 7:20.
Mike Mole/Senthil Kumar over Alfred Chen/Thiyagesh Rei, 6-4! No Aces. Court Three was the place to be for this one as it lasted from 6:55 to 7:30.
Nobuko Okabe/Sue Fredericks over Suzanne Bujara/Marie Salamon, 6-4! No Aces. This Women's Doubles action surely turned into a true show on Court One as the considerable crowd on the Clubhouse deck really started getting into the rallies. I do believe that Nobuko and Sue jumped out to somewhat of a lead, but then Suzanne and Marie fought back to make it a close one. Bujara's continued improvement was on display here as this one got underway at 6:55 and finished at 7:40.
Samara's Notes: While the above battle was going on, Denise informed me that she lined up a Mixed Doubles One-Setter where I would be teaming with her against The Fredericks. Please keep in mind that Sue would be jumping into that action hot on the heels of the above encounter.
Kyle Eng/Frank Hohorst over Nick Inciong/Dinesh Viswanathan, 6-3! No Aces. This foursome found some late tennis action on Court Four from 7:10 to 7:40.
Tom Heidt/Laurie Boughton over Brenda Jordan/Robin Wilson, 7-5! No Aces. Yes, this marathon One-Setter was exactly one hour long...7:20 to 8:20 on Court Two! They thought they would get one more quick one in before the night was done, but boy were they wrong! The good news is that they all had fun.
Tim Nguyen/Vivian Lee over Dino Celis/Janice Wang, 7-6 (9-7)! No Aces. And this Mixed Doubles battle was also almost an hour long...7:25 to 8:20 on Court Four. Dino and Janice had been down 0-4 before they fought back to make it interesting. This one may have a shot at being a Nominee for One-Set Mixed Doubles Match of The Year at season's end.
Marijus Kuzavas/Doinks Srinivasan over Mike Mole/Sally Pillay, 6-2! No Aces. Court Three was the host of this Mixed Doubles action that lasted from 7:35 to 8:05.
Frank Samara/Denise Savino over Rob Fredericks/Sue Fredericks, 6-2! No Aces. I did not do my usual note-taking in order to save time and get this one done before darkness, but I did remember the basic flow or endings of the games (I wrote them down at the end) as they went as follows: Sue held serve on Game Point, Frank held at Love, but Rob was the first one broken as he hit a Double Fault to set up Triple Break Point, it then went to Double Break Point where he hit another Double Fault to break himself for 1-2. Denise was also broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level it at 2-2, but from there Mrs. Fredericks was broken in a battle (Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point and the break), Samara held again (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold), Mr. Fredericks was broken again (started off with a Double Fault, shifted to 30-15, Double Fault for 30-All, Break Point and the break) and Savino held (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, a mini-shift to Game/Match Point, Deuce, 2nd Game/Match Point, 2nd Deuce, the 3rd Game/Match Point and finally the hold as the third time was the charm!) to get the win. We put on a show on Court One that lasted from 7:45 to 8:25.
Samara's Notes: It really started getting dark the longer this one lasted. There were many people watching us from The Clubhouse and deck area and it seemed to pump me up a bit. I went into this one completely cold (not temperature-wise, that's for sure!) as I did not take even one practice hit. Thankfully, I found my slice game right away and that confounded the Fredericks somewhat. Dynamic Dee was a solid partner as she had to handle a majority of the shots as they often singled her out in the rallies. I give both Rob and Sue a lot of credit...Rob for shaking off the rust so fast and Sue for playing three One-Setters in a relatively short time. She is very fit and very competitive (but in a good way).
Senthil Kumar/Don Moya over Alfred Chen/Frank Hohorst, 7-6 (7-3)! No Aces. They played this one on Court Four and it had the same start and stop times as the One-Setter above, 7:45 to 8:25.
John Rizzo/Kyle Eng over Dan Hwang/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2! No Aces. The darkest of all the courts (due to tree cover), Court Three, hosted the latest of all the One-Setters as this one got underway at 8:15. Good thing they got thru it quickly (my guess is they decided to forego the changeovers...I don't believe any of the previous action ever had to resort to that strategy) as it ended just before true and total darkness at 8:30.
Samara's Notes: As sick as Rizzo was, he could not resist the temptation to get involved in at least One-Setter to close out the session. Earlier in the evening when he thought that he certainly would not play on this occasion, I joked that I would hold it against him if he was the reason we fell short of breaking the player attendance record for a singular session. As it turns out, even with the two of us coming into play at the "last minute"...we still fell two competitors short of tying the existing record. Oh well! It was still a very enjoyable evening...great tennis...and some may argue even better food!
All the best,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com