"Edwin-Tim at C.G., 4 play at NTC, Rich-Fausto + 2 at PAC, Ryan-Nick at GCP!":
There were four official sessions of GTA Friday Tennis: there was an early afternoon one at The Cedar Grove Courts as "Salsa Picante" Edwin Ortega and "TNT" Tim Nguyen got together to play the very first Singles Match of the East-West Challenge Series (with both reporting). I find it very strange that this was the only action reported from that location for that entire evening, but it is way too late for me to try to chase down unreported scores now.
In the early evening hours, there was a session at The Nutley Tennis Club put together by both "Hollywood" Frank Samara and "The Riz" John Rizzo as they invited "Dynamic Dee" Denise Savino to play some Mixed Doubles once Frank was informed by "Ro Gabe" Rose Gabriele a week or more ago that she would be in for the Quarterfinals of the US Open (despite the fact that her favorite Federer had been eliminated in the interim) and she was looking to once again play on the clay courts of NTC as she was once again visiting from California.
Just slightly later than that at the nearby Park Ave. Courts in Nutley, "SWAT" Rich Liu reported a full Challenge Match he had against fellow Nutley Crew player Fausto "Mr. Mystery" Murg (and then a One-Setter followed).
And then the Main Event took place at Grover Cleveland Park in Caldwell as the first of the two "Grove Cup 21" Semifinal Matches occurred there. This one featured "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak taking on his GTA Doubles Championship partner, "NC-17" Nick Caputo (with both reporting).
Let's go to Cedar Grove first, then to both locations in Nutley and then to Caldwell to close out the report!
EWC Singles Match:
Tim Nguyen over Edwin Ortega, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 12-10 (STB)! Once they went to the Super Tiebreak, rank was no longer on the line. Nonetheless, Tim's win earns the first point for Team East! No Aces.
The Edwin Editorial: We had to finish our match with a Super Tiebreak. Tim played well and consistently...plus factoring in my many unforced errors...so he won. In the 1st Set, I kept over-hitting my shots. That continued into the 2nd Set as I found myself in trouble early on down 0-3. I finally found my range and I eventually won the set in a conventional Tiebreak. After that, we played the Super Tiebreak. Tim played better. Congrats to Tim!
Tim's Up: We met at 3pm at the usual Cedar Grove Courts, but had to go to the courts down the road because the Cedar Grove High School Tennis Team was holding practice there.
It was such a pleasure playing with Edwin. He was so good, but made several mistakes. In the 1st Set I led 2-0, but Edwin came back a bit until I eventually won it at 6-3. In the 2nd Set, I led Edwin 5-1, but he managed to come back so nicely to tie it up at 6-6 and eventually won the Tiebreak with a score of 7-5…good going, Edwin! At this point, both of us were so tired and we discussed and decided we might not be even able to go on to finish the full 3rd Set, so we both decided and agreed to do a Super 10-Point Tiebreak instead. Even with this, it was so competitive. We were so close. There were so many Deuces throughout all games in the previous set that I lost track of counting them…it was that close!
Edwin is a very good player. I think he made some mistakes in this match. He also mentioned that he was not feeling well and he played a lot the previous few days and his arms might have been tired….that was a big plus for me. The match went so well and we had so much fun. We both played well. Edwin is a good player and it could have gone either way with the scores.
On a separate note…while we were competing, Brenda Jordan showed up to practice on the wooden wall which is so close to the courts and she kindly asked if it was OK for her to hit against the wall while the match was going on. She hit the ball against the wall a few times and then decided to sit out so it would not interfere with our match. Sorry, but thank you Brenda!
Samara's Notes: I thank both for their timely and comprehensive reporting. And congratulations to Tim for scoring the first point for Team East as some may consider this result to be something of an upset. And thus, so far it is Team East leading Team West, 1-0!
Let's now move into the evening hours and head east to Nutley (going to NTC first).
The NTC Result:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
John Rizzo/Denise Savino over Frank Samara/Rose Gabriele, 6-3, 6-4, as both teams returned to the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 33 and # 34 Ranked Teams respectively! It was the official GTA Return of Rose Gabriele. No Aces.
1st Set: John held serve (15-Love then point for point to Game Point and the hold), Frank was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) and Denise held at Love for a 3-0 lead. Rose held (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point and the hold) to get her team onto the scoreboard, but Rizzo held again (Love-30 went right to Game Point, but then came Deuce, another Game Point and the hold) to put his team up 4-1. Samara held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point reduced to Deuce, Game Point again and the hold) and then Savino was broken (Love-15 went straight to Double Game Point which was reduced to Deuce, another Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to have her team's lead cut to 4-3. But from there Gabriele was broken (a 15-Love lead then plummeted to Double Break Point and the break) while The Riz held a third straight time (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game/Set Point and the hold) as this set ended at 6:02 (we had begun this one on Court One at 5:30).
2nd Set: Frank was broken at Love, John held yet again (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) and Rose was broken again (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) as her team was quickly down 0-3 having only won two points in the first three games! But then Denise was broken at Love and Samara held (15-Love, 15-All and then onto Double Game Point and the hold) to pull to 2-3 as the opposition had now won only one point in two games! Rizzo held a fifth straight time (30-Love shifted to 30-All, then came Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce and then all Game Points thru to 4th Deuce and then yet another Game Point and the hold) while Gabriele was broken yet again (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point again and then the break) for 2-5. Savino was also broken again (15-Love lead fell to Double Break Point, then came Break Point and the break) while Hollywood held again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, then came 30-All, Game Point and the hold) to pull to 4-5. But then The Riz held a sixth straight time and this time around it was at Love as he put this one away in emphatic fashion on Triple Game/Match Point at 6:45 (this set had gotten underway at 6:05)!
The Skinny: Rose had reached out to us a week or so ago to remind us she would be back in NJ for the Quarterfinals of the US Open (only to be disappointed when her favorite Federer did not make it that far) and wanted to get together to play this Friday night. Having the same four players we had the last time around, we decided to have a rematch (as the last encounter was quite the close one and it came down to a Super Tiebreak). This time around, Gabriele (despite having played a lot of tennis since the last time we saw her) had a harder time adjusting to the pace of the clay courts as all her play has been on hard courts out in California (she is originally a Nutley native). All of us except Rizzo got to the Club around 5pm and started hitting on Court Three as Court One was still in use at the time. John arrived around 5:15/5:20. At 5:25, we decided to shift our action over to Court One once we saw it was available. It is a shame it was not truly "The Show Court" this time around as nobody was there to watch us play. The Riz put on quite the show as he was clearly the MVP of the match as he made many difficult gets and was never broken on serve! Despite not having played on the clay for quite some time, he got reacquainted with the pace of the courts soon enough. His partner Denise seemed somewhat sluggish as she had talked about having been busy working earlier in the day. She did have a handful of her nice short-angle volleys along the way nonetheless. I was fairly steady, but still had a half dozen or so dumb errors along the way. Rose just started to find her rhythm on the court only to have it be too late as the match ended at that time.
Rose was very nice to bring wine, ham, cheese and fruits for us all to enjoy on the deck after the match and we hung out until it was so dark that we could barely see our way out of the place! It was a fun night...and we hope Rose can visit us at least twice again next season.
We now shift ever so slightly to the east to go to Park Ave.
The Park Ave. Courts Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match:
Rich Liu over Fausto Murg, 6-3, 6-2, to successfully defend his # 4 Rank in the Intermediate Division! In the process, Murg enters the Intermediate Division as the New # 43 Ranked Player. No Aces.
Fausto Murg over Rich Liu, 6-2! Fausto: 2 Aces!
The Rich Recap: Fausto came to life in this One-Setter as he posted an impressive comeback win!
Randy Doran/Arthur Fontanilla over Rich Liu/Fausto Murg, 6-4! No Aces.
The Rich Recap: This was a fun and very competitive set. When the teams were decided, it looked like it would be completely lopsided as the "heavy hitters" (by Nutley standards) Arthur and Randy would be teamed together. But Fausto and I decided to accept the challenge. It started off 3-0 in favor of Art and Randy, but "the underdogs" came back to tie it at 3-3. Then we took a lead at 4-3. At 4-4, with Randy serving down Love-40, it looked like "the good guys" would easily prevail (we celebrated too early…LOL!). Then at 30-40, Art made an amazing net shot off a hard forehand from me. From there, the momentum shifted as Big Art and Ravishing Randy went on to win it at 6-4.
Samara's Notes: I thank Rich for his timely, comprehensive and entertaining reporting.
We now head back out west to Caldwell for the dual report of the Main Event.
The Grover Cleveland Park Result:
"Grove Cup 21" Semifinal Match:
Nick Caputo over Ryan Pienciak, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5, to become the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Finals of the 21st Annual Grove Cup Men's Singles Tournament!
The Ryan Report: We played at Grover Cleveland Park in Caldwell (started at 6:30, ended at 8:50). It was a tough match full of streaky playing by both of us. It took Nick awhile to get in a groove and I was playing really well in the 1st Set. He found his shots in the 2nd Set, right as my game fell apart. I could do nothing right in the 2nd Set as every angle shot went wide, every deep shot went long, and every drop shot hung up nice and fat like a watermelon at a Gallagher concert! Nick, meanwhile, was putting tons of pressure on me and playing great. Even the 3rd Set started off streaky for me as Nick was serving at 4-1 (up two breaks). I decided then (much too late in the match, in retrospect) to switch my strategy a bit and it worked. I broke Nick, held, and broke him again to even it out at 4-4. I was broken and Nick was serving at 5-4 for the win. The balls were pretty dead at this point, so we both had a hard time serving well. I broke him for 5-5. He broke me for 6-5. And then Nick finally held for 7-5. I was exhausted! Great match! Now we get back to the important business of beating Chris and Nate in their challenge for our GTA Doubles Championship!
The NC-17 Screening: Who needs a Semifinal in NY with Del Potro and Nadal when you could have seen "The Lumberjack" and "NC17" slugging it out in the Grove Cup Semifinal in Caldwell instead?!?! It was a great, hard-fought 3 Set Match. Much respect for my friend and doubles partner! Champions die hard, for sure! Looking forward to recovering as my entire body hurts! His recap above says it all.
Samara's Notes: I thank both for their timely and comprehensive reporting. I offer hearty congratulations to Nick for being the first into the Finals of this year's Grove Cup Tournament, but also must give major kudos to Ryan as I do believe he is the first player in the GTA to take Nick to a 3rd Set! And now Mr. Caputo awaits the winner of the other Semi – "Daddy O" Paul Daddio versus "Super Mario" Marijus Kuzavas, a rematch of a Grove Cup Quarterfinal last season (I had previously said it was also the Semi last year).
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
