8/26/18:
"2 play at PAC, 8 play at AP, 8 play at C.G.!":
"Hollywood" Frank Samara was finally able to host the usual GTA Sunday Tennis session at Albion Park in Clifton this week while "TNT" Tim Nguyen was unable to host the recent morning session he has begun helming at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley. There was, however, a small session of two players there who engaged in quite the Singles One-Setter (report provided by Carl "Buster" Brownson). And then there was the usual evening session at The Cedar Grove Courts with the contributors from that session being "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan, "NC-17" Nick Caputo and "The Riz" John Rizzo.
We will start this report with how things unfolded in Clifton, then grab the score from Carl in Nutley and then got to Cedar Grove for the rest.
Let's turn this report over to Tim right now!
When "Hollywood" Frank Samara pulled up to the curb on the street looking down at Albion Park, he noticed both "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis and "Sensei Sachi" Sachiko Tokuda getting out of their respective cars. As Frank soon stepped out of his, he was not alone...as he had his daughter Angie and son Dante with him as well. Soon, all five made their way down the hill toward the courts. And just as they all were about to converge upon the North Court, "The Shade Shark" Suzanne Bujara was heading to the courts from the other side of the park to join them.
At first, it looked like it may lead to a Mixed Doubles situation...but Suzanne kindly opted to hit with Angie and Dante on Center Court (as she has done in the past) while Frank was hitting against both Dino and Sachiko. This scenario did not play out all that long as both "The Webmaster" Senthil Kumar and "The Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli made their way down to the courts around 11am.
Around 11:10, "The Dark Knight" Dan Knitzer also joined us. Initially it was going to be (at Frank's suggestion) the two Dans (Knitzer and Martinelli) facing off against Dino and Senthil...but Spin decided it best to opt out of such action while he still recovers physically. So The Doc told The Wood to take his place on the North Court while he backed up the young Samaras in hitting against the ladies, Suzanne and Sachiko, on Center Court.
Also around this time (11:20), four outsiders arrived to play some Mixed Doubles on the South Court. And while they were nice people to interact with, it was some of the most heinous Mixed Doubles action you would ever want to see. Actually, you were all better off not seeing it. They left at 12:50.
As it turns out, we only had one more player on the way..."The Legendary" Chazz Weldon who arrived at noon. So we never needed more than two courts anyway. While it was a somewhat weak session attendance-wise, it was a very fun one. Likely the combination of not having a Sunday session at Albion for so long and the likelihood of some of our players being away for vacation the last week of August led to the less than normal turnout.
The weather was great (sunny and a little over 80 degrees with a near constant breeze) and so was the action...so let's get to it!
The Albion Park Results:
Dino Celis/Senthil Kumar over Dan Knitzer/Frank Samara, 6-4! No Aces. I did not write notes on the changeovers since my notebook and tennis bag were still over near Center Court, so I memorized all the following: Frank held at Love, Senthil held (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and the hold), Dan held (30-Love, Double Fault for 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold), but Dino was the first to be broken (15-Love went straight to Double Break Point, then Break Point and the break) for 1-3. Samara was also broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, but then came Break Point and the break), but then Kumar was broken at Love for 2-4. Knitzer then continued the trend of servers getting broken, but it was a bit of a battle (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then the break) until Celis was able to reverse that trend with a hold (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to knot the score at 4-4! Hollywood was broken again (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and the break), but The Webmaster rebounded with a hold (15-Love then point for point to Game/Match Point, Deuce, the 2nd Game/Match Point and the hold) for a nice comeback victory as his team took the last four straight games! We played this one on the North Court from 11:25 to 11:57.
The Skinny: For a while, the Slice and Dice attack of Samara and Knitzer (aka Slice Samara and Danny Dice) was working well against Celis and Kumar. But then errors started to creep into the games of both Dan and Frank. Knitzer tried to take the blame for the loss (due to his two Double Faults), but Samara would not allow it as he admitted to his own share of mistakes in the collapse as well. And, of course, Dino and Senthil deserve some credit as they had some zip on their shots and their level of consistency increased as the One-Setter grew older.
Dan Martinelli/Sachiko Tokuda over Frank Samara/Suzanne Bujara, 6-4! Spin: 1 Ace on Suzanne! Here's how it went down: Suzanne was broken (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Break Point, a rebound to Deuce, but then a Double Fault for Break Point and then the break), Sachiko was broken (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 shifted again to Break Point and then the break), but Frank was the first to hold (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and the hold) for 2-1. Spin also held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point where a service-line Ace against Suzanne sealed the deal), but so did Bujara (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold) for 3-2. Tokuda held at Love, but a rather proud Spin (who had some nice gets and winners in this one) said "it was my game!" So they leveled it once again, this time at 3-3. Samara held again (exactly like his partner's previous service...30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold) to put his team back up, 4-3. But from there, Martinelli also held again (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point and the hold), The Shade Shark was broken (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) while Sensei Sachi held again (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game/Match Point and the hold) for the win! We played this on Center Court from 12:02 to 12:45.
The Skinny: While Martinelli rightfully deserved the credit for the work he did to enable his partner Tokuda to hold at Love, that last hold she had in the final game was "her game" as she really came thru with some well-placed winners. The good news for Spin is his mobility is finally starting to return to him, though he still has a way to go. Also, after this one, Suzanne and Sachiko hit with each other all the way to 1:20.
Dino Celis/Senthil Kumar over Dan Knitzer/Chazz Weldon, 6-3! No Aces. This one was played on the North Court from 12:05 to 12:40.
Senthil Kumar/Frank Samara over Dan Knitzer/Chazz Weldon, 6-3! Senthil: 1 Ace on Chazz! The breakdown: Dan held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point, Double Fault for Game Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold), Frank held (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point, a rebound to Deuce, Game Point and the hold), but Chazz was the first to be broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point and the break) for 1-2. Senthil was also broken (Triple Game Point got reduced to Deuce, then a Double Fault set up Break Point and then came the break), but then Knitzer was broken (Love-15, 15-All, Double Fault for 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) for 2-3. Samara held again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15 shifted again to Break Point, then Deuce and all Game Points until 3rd Deuce, Break Point, 4th Deuce, Game Point and the hold) while Weldon was broken again (30-Love went straight to Break Point and the break) to fall to 2-5. Kumar was also broken again (Triple Break Point where a T-line Ace against Chazz made it Double Break Point, but then came the break) to have his team's lead cut to 5-3. But then The Dark Knight was also broken again (30-Love went straight to Break/Match Point and the break) to take the loss! We played this one on the North Court from 12:57 to 1:37.
The Skinny: Once Dino said he was done for the day, the guys informed Frank to come back over to the North Court as his playing services were needed. As Samara headed toward the court, he heard someone ask (he was not sure who it was) Senthil why he has not registered for the upcoming East-West Challenge. Kumar's reply about Team East was that they don't have any good players...not realizing that Knitzer is their top-ranked player. While we all got a good laugh about it, the flippant remark did serve to add some spice to the proceedings...though it was still all in good fun.
But the light response to the registration request for the EWC has made Samara change his mind about participating in it. Not only will he now join Team West, but he will also be the Team Captain as he feels it may be necessary to motivate others to follow his lead into the event. Chazz has said he will consider it, but has yet to confirm at the time of this writing.
At this time, everyone was ready to head for the hills (literally) and call it a day...except for Dan and Chazz who stayed behind to play a Singles One-Setter.
Chazz Weldon leading Dan Knitzer, 5-2 (Incomplete when Dan became fatigued at 2:23...they had begun this one on the North Court around 1:40...perhaps as late as 1:45)! No Aces.
The TDK Replay: Chazz rushed out to a 4-0 lead, proving good defense beats bad offense (perhaps I should resign myself to being a full-time pusher?). He was returning my serves excellently while also refusing to make any mistakes. From "no man's land," he found great angles. Down 1-5 on my serve, I declared I'd play only one more game, win or lose. I won, so we stopped playing with Chazz up 5-2 and due to serve.
Samara's Notes: Chazz had also reported it to me, but thought he was only up 4-2. I am going to trust Dan's word on this as I believe this set of circumstances likely etched its way into his brain more than it did to Mr. Weldon's.
Again, all in all it was a very fun session.
We now head east just a bit for the lone result from Nutley.
The Park Ave. Courts Result:
Carl Brownson over Muhammad Haque, 10-9 (7-5)! Carl and Muhammad: 1 Ace each!
Funny score explanation: Muhammad and I got to 6-All and decided to play it out as a win-by-two games set instead of going to a Tiebreaker - at least that's what we decided until we got to 9-9 and reconsidered our life choices…LOL! We then decided to play the Tiebreaker after all. The score was 7-5 in the Breaker. It was a hard-fought set as Muhammad had come back from 3-5 down in the set and then from 1-5 down in the Tiebreak before I was able to close it out.
Muhammad had to go at that time. We may try to finish it out and make it an official two of three sets sometime soon. To Be Determined!
Samara's Notes: My two cents is that they should just let it stand "as is." It has a shot at being a Nominee for One-Set Intermediate Singles Match of The Year at season's end. It also proves the two of them should face off again, but this time in a new full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match. I thank Carl for his timely and detailed reporting.
We now head west and into the evening to go to Cedar Grove for the rest! Gen will start the report.
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Kris Srinivasasn/Doinks Srinivasan over Mike Mole/Genalin Capan, 6-1, 6-3, to become the New # 7 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division! Kris: 1 Ace on Mike!
Gen's Notes: We played from 7:12 to 8:06. In the 1st Set, the Srinivasans took a commanding lead of 5-0 before Mike got us on the board for 1-5 (no bagel!). The 1st Set was quick as it only took 20 minutes. In the 2nd Set, we were tied up until 3-All. Then the Srinivasans took the next three straight games for the win! Doinks did a very nice job with some aggressive plays at the net. Kris was serving well. Mike and I had a slow start and both of us were having an off day. Congrats to Kris and Doinks Srinivasan for an impressive win tonight!
Doinks Srinivasan/Genalin Capan over Jay Phoenix/Diane Raum, 6-2! No Aces. We played from 8:10 to 8:34.
Jay Phoenix/Diane Raum over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-4! No Aces.
On Court There, there was some Men's Doubles action involving Chris Chiaro, John Rizzo, Nick Caputo and Frank Hohorst.
Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for her timely reporting…I congratulate the Srinivasans on an impressive victory…and getting back to Gen, I thank her for setting up the next part of this report.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Nick Caputo/Frank Hohorst over Chris Chiaro/John Rizzo, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-1, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 69 and # 70 Ranked Teams respectively! No Aces.
The NC-17 Screening: We had some good Doubles. The courts were pretty quite on a humid night. The match went the full three sets and it featured great points.
Samara's Notes: I thank Nick for his timely reporting. John had reported the same, but without any comment.
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
gtasamara5@gmail.com
