2/26 Results.

2/26/17:

"6 play (2 new) at Albion, 9 play at The Bubble!":

This Sunday was the first official day of the 2017 Season of GTA Tennis.  The weather was much worse than a week ago (while matters were still being kept unofficial despite full sunshine and near 70 degree temperatures) as this week the temps dropped into the 40 degree range with the wind chill making it feel more like we were in the upper 30 degree range!  But, as the session progressed, the day did end up being very sunny and it actually felt quite reasonable and seasonable despite the only minor downside was that it was quite windy at times.

But before we get to that, let's backtrack just a bit before the session got started at Albion Park in Clifton as "Hollywood" Frank Samara first made a pit stop at the Dunkin' Donuts on the corner of Valley and Fenner.

As he finished his hot coffee, Frank headed toward the door...right behind someone who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that featured two crossed racquets and the words "Mingo Tennis" emblazoned above them.  Since this gentleman was nice enough to hold the door open for Samara, Frank decided to take a chance and bring up the subject of tennis.

The man mentioned that he was out this way to meet a friend of his down the road to the courts on Maplewood Ave. to play some tennis.  He also stated they would be meeting another guy...a guy who represents the GTA.  Samara then introduced himself as that very guy.

And this other gentleman turns out to be Steve Mingo.  He is a recruit of "Big George" Jorge Solano and has been on our mailing list for a couple of seasons now.  He comes to us from the Bronx, NY as that is where he lives.  But he met Jorge playing at the Eastside Courts in Paterson where he has also met Former GTA Champion: "The Eastside Legend" Ruddy Pena and others.

His organization, Mingo Tennis, has provided tennis lessons to youth in Paterson as well as in the Bronx and around the upper Manhattan area.  In fact, Steve has also met with GTA alumnus "Broadway Dre" Andre Sayegh to discuss what else (tennis-wise) can be done for the youth of Paterson.  It is quite an honor to have him now get involved in the GTA as well. 

Samara and Mingo then arrived separately at Albion Park at 10:45.  Soon, they started hitting with one another on the North Court.  Steve told Frank that Jorge was also on the way.

Solano arrived at 11:10 and from there it was Frank and Steve hitting to Jorge.  Just as the three were starting to worry if they would ever get a fourth to join them for some Doubles, "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes walked onto the courts at 11:25.

After a ten minute hitting session, the first Doubles One-Setter of the day was underway.

Let's get to the scores!

The Albion Park Results:

Nathan Fernandes/Frank Samara over Jorge Solano/Steve Mingo, 6-4!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Debut of Steve Mingo.  It went like this: Jorge was broken (the opening rally may have been the best point of the match and it resulted in Love-15 and then it was straight to Love as Frank hit a winning volley along the way), Nathan was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, Double Fault), Steve was broken (Frank hit a winner for Love-30, an un-returned serve for 15-30, Frank hit a winning return to set up Double Break Point and then came the break), but Frank was the first to hold serve (Nate hit a winning volley to make it 30-Love and then an un-returned serve on Triple Game Point made it a Love hold) to go up 3-1.  Solano held (Steve hit a winning Backhand Volley and then he hit another winning volley to set up 30-Love only to then blow a volley for 30-15, but then an un-returned serve set up Double Game Point which was where Nate hit a drop shot winner to cut the lead to Game Point, but then came the hold) to pull to 2-3, but Fernandes also held (a winner from Frank and then an un-returned serve set up 30-Love, but then it shifted to 30-All after Steve hit a wicked volley, but then came Game Point and another un-returned serve for the hold) to go up 4-2.  Mingo was broken again (started with a Double Fault, then Love-30 only to then have it shift to Game Point as Jorge hit a winning Backhand Volley and there was also an un-returned serve along the way, it then went to Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point and then the break) to fall to 2-5.  Samara was also broken (Love-30 where Nate hit a winning volley for 15-30, but then came Double Break Point and the break) and then Big George held again (15-Love where Nate hit a winning drop shot volley for 15-All, then a Double Fault for 15-30 where Nate then blew a volley to make it 30-All and then came Game Point and the hold) to pull to 4-5.  But Nate the Great also held again (an un-returned serve started things at 15-Love, it was then 15-All before heading straight to Double Game/Match Point...and it must be said that the point that led to DG/MP was likely the second best rally of the match...and then came the hold) to get the win!  We played this one on the North Court from 11:35 to 12:10.

The Skinny: Mingo is quite obviously an experienced tennis player who displays both proper form and solid pace.  His biggest weapon is his whipping forehand which features just the right amount of topspin.

With it still being just the four of us, we decided to play a rematch One-Setter.  Jorge and Steve decided to switch their return of service sides for this one.  It seemed to make a difference.

Nathan Fernandes/Frank Samara over Jorge Solano/Steve Mingo, 7-5!  No Aces.  Here's how it went down: Steve held (Jorge hit a winning volley to make it 30-Love, it then shifted to 30-All where Jorge hit another winning volley to set up Game Point and then came the hold) and Frank was broken (un-returned serve for 15-Love, it shifted to 15-30 after Jorge hit another winning volley, then another un-returned serve made it 30-All, but then came Break Point and the break) to get off to a 0-2 start.  Jorge was broken (back-to-back un-returned serves made it 30-Love, but then it shifted straight to Break Point as Steve blew an overhead, Nate hit a winner and a winning drop shot return and then Jorge blew an overhead for the break) to allow the opposition onto the scoreboard, but then Nathan was broken at Love as Jorge hit a winning volley followed by a winning Overhead Smash and then Nate blew an overhead to break himself and fall to 1-3!  Mingo was broken (Nate hit a winning volley for Love-15 and then it went point for point until 30-All where Jorge hit a winning volley to set up Game Point, then Deuce and it was all Break Points through 3rd Deuce and one last Break Point for the break...I failed to remember who hit what winners where and when once it went beyond Deuce) and Samara held at Love as Nate started things with a winning volley, there was an un-returned serve and then the game ended on a strange note as Frank hit a defensive shot that ended up sailing high as a short, but soaring lob that just landed on the opposite side of the net and then bounced upward with a combination of backspin and wind as it started to make its way back over the net to the side from which the shot originally came.  Steve warned his partner Jorge that the shot was dropping.  Solano got close to the shot, but then backed off when he saw it drop back on the other side.  He then exclaimed "haha" and thought it was his team's point only to be informed by the other three that it was in fact the point for the opposition as he had failed to play the ball...and it was thus a most peculiar winner for Frank to secure his own Love hold.  For future reference, he was told he could have broken the plane of the net to play the ball (only in this type of circumstance and provided the racquet does not hit the net on the follow-through).  He then understood his folly as the score was now 3-3!  Solano was broken again and this time at Love as Nate started things off with a winning volley, but Fernandes was also broken again (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, it was then 30-All where Jorge blew an overhead to set up Game Point, but then Nate blew a volley for Deuce, then came Break Point and the break) to knot the score once more at 4-4!  The Bronx Bomber held (Love-30 shifted straight through Game Point and the hold...and there were likely some winners in this game that I forgot due to the fact that another player arrived midway through and we took a moment to allow him onto the courts as he headed toward the South Court with a basket of balls to practice his shots...we would later find out he came to play in the GTA) to reclaim the lead for his team at 5-4, but Hollywood held yet again (an un-returned serve, a winner from Nate and an impressive get/drop shot winner combo from Frank set up Triple Game Point which was where Jorge hit a drop shot winner of his own to make it Double Game Point, but then came the hold) to tie things again, this time at 5-5!  Big George was broken (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point where the rally of the match ended with an incredible short drop shot volley winner by Jorge to make it 2nd Deuce, then came Game Point, 3rd Deuce, Break Point and the break), but Nate the Great held (an un-returned serve, a winner from Nate and another un-returned serve set up Triple Game/Match Point, it was then on Double Game/Match Point where the hold came) to earn a hard-fought victory!  This one also took place on the North Court and lasted from 12:15 to 1:10.

The Skinny: It was not only the change of return of service sides that made this a closer contest as Jorge may have been the biggest difference maker as his volley game at the net was very effective.  Nate, in particular, was very impressed.  In fact, all four competitors seemed to take it up a notch as "the winter rust" continued to be shook off throughout the contest.

And the mystery man who arrived midway through the match was yet another off-season recruit of Samara's.  He is Ricky Albano he is a self-professed "born again rookie" as he has spent many years away from the sport.  He just got back to hitting against a wall and he is looking for others to practice with to try to return to form.

In fact, he was hesitant to get involved in any official action...but Samara insisted in getting Albano involved in at least One-Setter in order to officially add him to the ranks.  Frank said he would team him with Nate (aka "The Insurance Policy" as he offers his partners great coverage on the court).

Frank Samara/Jorge Solano over Nathan Fernandes/Ricky Albano, 6-1!  Jorge: 1 Ace on Ricky; and Frank: 1 Ace on Ricky.  It was the official GTA Debut of Ricky Albano.  The lowdown: Frank held (Jorge hit a stunning winning volley for 30-Love, it was then 30-15 where Jorge hit another winning volley to set up Double Game Point where an un-returned serve secured the hold), Nathan held (Love-30 where Nate hit a winning Backhand Volley for 15-30, it was then Double Break Point until it shifted to Deuce and then Nate hit a vicious volley winner that inadvertently hit Jorge square in the chest...though the big man defiantly stuck his chest out to absorb the hit...and now it was Game Point and then came the hold), Jorge held (15-Love shifted to 15-30 right after Nate hit a drop shot winner, but then it shifted again to Game Point after Jorge hit a winner and then there was a Double Fault for Deuce, Break point, 2nd Deuce where Jorge scored with a corner Ace against Ricky to set up Game Point where Frank wielded his first winning Windmill Overhead Smash of the season to secure the hold), but then Ricky was the first to be broken (Triple Break Point got cut down to Break Point, but then a Double Fault ended it) to fall to 1-3.  Samara held again (a short second serve Ace on Ricky for 15-Love and then it was on the way to Triple Game Point which was then cut down to Game Point, but then came the hold), Fernandes was broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point shifted to Deuce, but then another Break Point and the break) and Solano held (30-Love shifted to 30-All, then came Game/Match Point and the hold) for the win!  We played this one on the North Court as well and it lasted from 1:25 (after a five minute hitting session) to 1:55.

Midway through the above match, Andrew Truong arrived at 1:35.  Heading down from his usual place to play tennis (Cedar Grove), he mistakenly first went to Robin Hood Park where he ended up talking to "Kenny Kool" Ken Barilari.  He finally found his way to Albion Park despite Google Earth not showing any courts as the given address for GPS.

Albano said he was done and happy to just play one with us.  Samara had hoped to leave the session by 2pm (or 2:15 at the latest), but decided to stick around for one more to enable Truong to get involved in some Doubles as well.

Nathan Fernandes/Jorge Solano over Frank Samara/Andrew Truong, 6-4!  No Aces.  Here's the breakdown: Andrew held (Triple Game Point, Double Fault for Double Game Point, Game Point and the hold), Nathan held (Triple Game Point where Andrew hit a winning volley for Double Game Point where an un-returned serve secured the hold), but Frank was the first to be broken (Jorge hit a winning volley for Love-30, it then shifted to Game Point, then Deuce and all Game Points until 3rd Deuce where Jorge hit another winning volley to set up Break Point and then came the break...I likely forgot some other winners in the midst of all the Deuces) to fall to 1-2.  Jorge had a Love hold after hitting yet another winning volley for 30-Love and then Truong was broken (an un-returned serve for 15-Love, but then it shifted to Double Break Point where Frank hit a winning Overhead Smash for Break Point, but then came the break) to fall to 1-4.  Fernandes was then broken at Love as Andrew went on a tear with a winning Overhead Smash followed by a winning volley and then he hit another winning Overhead Smash to earn the break) and Samara held (Andrew hit an awesome winning volley for 30-Love and then came what was likely to be the best rally of the match which made it 30-15 where perhaps the second best rally of the match ended with a winner from Frank to set up Double Game Point where an un-returned serve secured the hold) to pull to 3-4.  Solano was broken (got off to a Love-30 start, 15-30, Double Break Point, Break Point and then the break) to level the score at 4-4.  But then Honest Andrew (so named when earlier he admitted chipping the ball when nobody else had noticed) was broken at Love after starting off with a Double Fault and then Jorge hit a winning volley and Frank blew a volley along the way and then Nate the Great held at Love after Jorge hit a winning volley to set up Triple Game/Match Point and then Nate hit a painful roller over the net that Andrew could not quite get his racquet under to return over the net...and that was how this one ended!  We played this on the North Court from 2pm to 2:28.

Samara and Solano both had to leave.  Truong was hoping to play Singles as that is the style of tennis that he prefers and Fernandes was happy to oblige.  Nate sent in the following scores to Frank via text.  I thank him for his timely reporting.

Nathan Fernandes over Andrew Truong, 6-0!  No Aces.

Nathan Fernandes over Andrew Truong, 6-3!  Andrew: 1 Ace.  Truong jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Fernandes went on a six game streak to rally for the win!

There were also the two usual afternoon sessions for the Night Owl groups up at The Wayne Bubble.  "Kevlar" Kevin Doyle sent the scores from the earlier session while both GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro and "The Riz" John Rizzo sent in the results of the later session.  I thank all three for their contributions to this report.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

2 out of 3 Sets:
Kevin Doyle/Robin Wilson over Jeanette Pegg/Marie Easton, 6-2, 6-4!  No Aces.  It took two hours to complete this match.

Lou La Forgia/Joe Rodrigues over Chris Chiaro/John Rizzo, 6-3!  No Aces.

The Riz Report: I felt pain so I left after this one.  Having a hard time walking after it now!

Chris Chiaro/Nick Inciong over Lou La Forgia/Joe Rodrigues, 6-4!  No Aces.

Chris Chiaro/Nick Inciong over Lou La Forgia/Joe Rodrigues, 6-1!  Chris: 1 Ace on Lou.

Samara's Notes: This weekend was such a great way to get the 2017 Season started and I truly hope we can build off of this unprecedented momentum. 

All the best,
Frank Samara

2/25 Results.

2/25/17:

"Mole-Capan B.O.T.S. at Albion!":

There was a session of GTA Saturday Tennis as "Holy Moly" Mike Mole and "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan got together at Albion Park in Clifton for some tennis.

Gen said they started hitting around 3pm and the session lasted an hour before they decided to make things official.  During the action, "Nate the Great" Nathan Fernandes made a cameo appearance.

The AP Result:

2 out of 3 Sets "Battle of the Sexes":
Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 6-1, 6-1!  Gen: 1 Ace.  This match lasted from 4:15 to 5pm.

Samara's Notes: I thank Gen for sending in this result mere minutes after the match had ended.

All the best,
Frank Samara

2/24 Results.

2/24/17:

"46 players (9 new, 7 returning) compete at GTA Bubblepalooza 4!":

There was a very special session of GTA Friday Night Tennis to honor the kickoff of the 2017 GTA Season.  The "Bubblepalooza" moniker was coined by "Hollywood" Frank Samara two seasons ago when two of these events were held at The Wayne Bubble that inaugural year of the idea.  But the concept and execution of this event, once again, was the result of the efforts of "The Riz" John Rizzo. 

While Rizzo's focus was primarily the invitations and then the accommodations (food, beverages, etc.), Samara's role was making sure that all those that attended had their fair share of court time at The Bubble.

Last year's event set a new record in terms of the number of official competitors in a singular session with 37 players.  This year, Rizzo and Samara set a goal of at least 40 competitors.  They cleared that hurdle quite easily when they ended up with 46 actual players plus one extended cameo appearance made by Minnie Cabanatan (wife of Dennis "The Menace" Cabanatan).  She plans on playing with us in the near future, but was feeling a bit under the weather on this particular night.

And we could have hit an even more amazing total of 50 competitors in one session had it not been for last-minute no-shows...the most infamous of which was made by "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli (who had some unforeseen intestinal issues).  His absence was the most heinous when considering the fact he took the opportunity to chastise others on the invitation list that had yet to confirm their pending participation at that particular time.

Nonetheless, the event was a tremendous success.  It was record-breaking in a few ways as not only did we have 46 competitors, but we had nine making their official GTA Debut (a new record for a singular session), seven others were making their official return to the league (another record) and one of them was making their first appearance on GTA courts in twenty years (yet another record)!

Unlike the three previous Bubblepalooza events where through the course of his work managing The Night Owl Sessions up at The Wayne Bubble, Rizzo had earned some free court time for himself along the way...and then instead of keeping that time for his own purposes, he decided to be quite generous with it...this time around he had to pay for the court time.  So for the first time, there was a $10 admission fee.

I doubt that covered his expenses (even though the rate of attendance was strong) as he also purchased eight pizza pies, a 3 foot long sub sandwich, a platter of mozzarella sticks and a custom-made two-tiered cake.

Two years ago, his idea was to create a special session soon after the 2015 Season officially got underway that would include some of his friends from those RTA Night Owl Indoor Sessions along with many more of his friends from the GTA.  This would also enable some of those RTA players to then make their official GTA Debut.

Given the fact that there are four courts at The Bubble, Rizzo thought it best to invite a certain amount of players that he had already established relationships with rather than open it up to the entire league as that could have led to a situation that would grow out of hand.  Furthermore, he relied on RSVPs in order to plan on how much food he should have in advance.

Before I go further with the details of how the session unfolded, I just want to once again thank The Riz for offering up his time, services and funds to host this event for the benefit of the GTA.  And I acted as the host of the session in the traditional sense of how we use the term "hosting", i.e. I collected the scores of all the action along the way.

Usually in my results write-ups, I detail the order of entry and/or appearance as the session progresses...but not this time around!  There were just too many people to note...and they came in waves!  All I will say is that it became our most epic session to date.  It also served as an introduction (or reintroduction) for many players.  It was an amazing way to kick off the 2017 Season.  And the goal for next year's Bubblepalooza 5 will be 50 competitors (at the very least)!

Let's get to the action!

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Jeff Angello/Jeff Angello Jr. over Tom La/Jonathan La, 6-1!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Returns of Jeff Angello, Jeff Angello Jr. and Jonathan La!  After a hitting session that began a little bit after 8pm, this one got underway on Court One and lasted until 8:35.  It was father and son versus father and son.  I believe that Jeff Junior represents PCTI (Passaic County Technical Institute) while Jonathan represents NHS (Nutley High School).  Both bring big game for 15 year old players and can more than hold their own against the adults.

Mike Mole/Bo Folchi over Dennis Cabanatan/Ryan Sherry, 6-1!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Return of Bo Folchi.  Much like the above One-Setter, hitting began a bit after 8pm and this one (contested on Court Three, aka "Show Court" as it is in front of the lobby/seating area and naturally draws an audience) also finished at 8:35.  Folchi is a Former 7-Time GTA Champion who has opted to play most of his tennis at The Nutley Tennis Club in recent years as the red clay courts there are far more forgiving on the knees.

Gary Puntasecca/Nihar Panda over Francisco Mantilla/Rana Purupati, 6-1!  Nihar: 3 Aces on Rana!  It was the official GTA Debuts of Gary Puntasecca, Nihar Panda and Rana Purupati and the official GTA Return of Francisco Mantilla!  Similar to the two scores above, hitting began shortly after 8pm...but this one did not get finished on Court Four until 8:45.  Panda and Purupati are friends (and now recruits) of "Lucky" Leo Victor.  Puntasecca is a recruit of Mantilla, who made his return to the league after 20 years!  Francisco was originally brought into the GTA by "Broadway Dre" Andre Sayegh (a City Councilman for the City of Paterson and hopefully that city's next Mayor).  Now we just hope it won't be another 20 years until we see Power FM again!

Denise Savino/Marie Salamon over Kathy Sheldon/Laurie Boughton, 7-5!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Return of Marie Salamon and the official GTA Debut of Laurie Boughton.  Like the other three results, hitting for this one also got underway shortly after 8pm.  But the ladies did not finish this one until 9pm!  When initial news reports (via e-mail and Facebook) went out about this session the next day (Saturday morning), it was mistakenly reported that six players had returned to the league.  It actually turned out to be seven as Salamon had fallen off the ranks for inactivity just prior to the end of the 2016 Season.  Boughton is a new member of the Night Owls group and it was at the suggestion of "Drill Instructor" Don Moya that she become involved with the GTA as well.

Syed Rashid/Mike Sindler over Levy Lorenzo/Dain VanDeventer, 6-1!  Mike: 2 Aces on Dain!  It was the official GTA Debut of Dain Van Deventer.  This match took place on Court Three and lasted from 8:40 to 9:10.  VanDeventer (aka DVD) used to be a member of Nutley Tennis Club.  We had been trying to bring him into the GTA for quite some time.  One of "Sadistic" Syed's signature "swing for the fences" forehands almost connected to the cranium of Dain (who was positioned at the net) and this drew "the death stare" from DVD.  Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and it was a case of all's well that end's well.

William Bobila/Fred Suba over Raj Boddu/Mark LaSalle, 6-2!  Mark: 1 Ace on Fred.  It was the official GTA Debuts of William Bobila, Fred Suba and Mark LaSalle!  This one was contested on Court One from 8:40 to 9:20.  All three new players are friends and recruits of Tom La.  It was a very impressive night for the man known as "The Hitman" who was responsible for five of the attendees (including himself).

Pranav Sinha/Brian Barbera over Mike Kazlauskas/Fernanda Toker, 6-4!  Mike: 3 Aces (2 on Brian and 1 on Pranav) all in the same game; and Brian: 1 Ace on Fernanda!  It was the official GTA Return of Brian Barbera.  This foursome faced off on Court Four from 8:50 to 9:30.  Pranav and Brian jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Mike and Fernanda fought back to make things interesting.  Barbera hopes to be more involved in GTA action this season than he had been in the past couple of years.

Don Moya/Janice Wang over Dino Celis/Natalie Guzman, 6-3!  No Aces.  It was the official GTA Debut of Janice Wang.  Court Two hosted this contest from 9:05 to 9:40.  Janice is the very good friend (and now recruit) of Don and she proved to be (as Moya promised she would be) a very steady player.  Hopefully, she (and Don) will play more GTA Tennis in the coming months and years.

Alfred Chen/Dan Hwang over Kris Srinivasan/Nick Inciong, 6-4!  Alfred: 3 Aces (2 on Nick and 1 on Kris)!  This took place on Court Three from 9:15 to 9:50.

Senthil Kumar/Ryan Sherry over Jose Gonzales/Gary Puntasecca, 6-2!  Jose: 2 Aces on Senthil!  Court One hosted this one from 9:25 to 9:55.

Jeff Angello/Jeff Angello Jr. over Nihar Panda/Rana Purupati, 6-0!  No Aces.  These four faced off on Court Four from 9:35 to 10pm.  The father/son combo was even more impressive against the fairly experienced tandem of Panda and Purupati.

Bo Folchi/Denise Savino over Mike Mole/Marie Salamon, 6-4!  Mike: 1 Ace on Denise.  This Mixed Doubles action took place on Court Two and lasted from 9:45 to 10:15.

Dennis Cabanatan/Jonathan La over Anish Mehta/Dain VanDeventer, 6-1!  No Aces.  This was contested on Court Three from 9:55 to 10:25.

Mike Kazlauskas/Mike Sindler over Syed Rashid/Ryan Sherry, 6-3!  Mike: 2 Aces (one on each) in the same game; Ryan: 1 Ace on Mike in the very first serve of the match!  They got this one done on Court One with it lasting from 10pm to 10:40.

Ryan Pienciak/Janice Wang over Fernanda Toker/Laurie Boughton, 6-1!  Ryan: 1 Ace on Fernanda.  This one took place on Court Four from 10:05 to 10:30.  Ryan was the lone, lucky man with the three ladies, but some said the true story was the ever-steady game possessed by Janice.

Dino Celis/Raj Boddu over William Bobila/Fred Suba, 7-5!  Dino: 1 Ace on William.  This was conducted on Court Two from 10:20 to 11:05.  Dino and Raj got off to a slow start (not sure how far they were down) before they rallied back to overcome the crafty and wily duo that is Bobila/Suba.

Tom La/Mark LaSalle over Dan Hwang/Pranav Sinha, 7-6 (7-5)!  No Aces.  Despite the Tiebreak score, this one got underway on Court Three at 10:30 and was over by 11:15.  The buddy tandem of La/La Salle just got by Hwang/Sinha in what proved to be the closest contest of the entire evening. 

Nick Inciong/Levy Lorenzo over Jose Gonzales/Brian Barbera, 6-2!  No Aces.  Court Four contained this battle from 10:35 to 11:15.  While sitting on the sidelines in the lobby area, Nick and Levy expressed their desire to team together as they felt they each belonged in the thus far nonexistent "Senior Division." Soon, someone coined them (perhaps it was Rizzo) as "The Legends of The Court" and then they went out and lived up to that moniker with an impressive win over the tough pairing of Gonzales and Barbera.

Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay over Bo Folchi/Marie Salamon, 6-1!  No Aces.  Court One hosted this Mixed Doubles contest from 10:45 to 11:05.  On paper, it seemed like it had the potential to be an even battle...but afterwards, Salamon joked to Samara that he "fed them to the wolves!"  Folchi also remarked what a fine tandem that Kuzavas/Pillay were...and he was especially impressed by the talents of "Spicy" Sally.

Senthil Kumar/Ryan Pienciak over Anish Mehta/Alfred Chen, 6-1!  Anish: 1 Ace on Senthil.  This one took place on Court One from 11:10 to 11:35 and fell short (by one point) of being fully completed.  Up 5-1 and with Triple Game Point in favor of Kumar/Pienciak, Chen suffered an injury and it was thought best to just forfeit that point away to allow this one to be recorded as a completed contest.

John Rizzo/Fernanda Toker over Frank Samara/Laurie Boughton, 6-4!  John: 3 Aces (2 on Frank and 1 on Laurie)!  Here's the basic breakdown: Frank was broken on Double Break Point, John was broken (Triple Break Point then shifted to Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, sideline Ace on Frank for 3rd Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point, 4th Deuce and then all Game Points until 7th Deuce, Break Point and the break), Laurie was broken on Break Point, but Fernanda was the first to hold serve and she did it quite impressively at Love for a 3-1 lead.  Samara held at Double Game Point to pull to 2-3, but then Rizzo also held (Double Fault for 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, an Ace up the T against Laurie for Game Point and then came the hold) to go up 4-2.  Boughton was broken again (Double Break Point, Break Point, then the break) to fall to 2-5, but then Toker was broken (30-15 shifted to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to have her team's lead cut to 5-3.  Hollywood held again (15-30 shifted straight through Game Point to the hold) to pull to 4-5, but The Riz also held again (30-15, another sideline Ace against Frank to go up Double Game/Match Point, the hold came on Game/Match Point) for an impressive win.  This Mixed Doubles contest took place on Court Two from 11:15 to 12:10 (likely the longest battle of the night, though the lone Women's Doubles One-Setter earlier in the night came close).  Rizzo and Boughton both came into this battle somewhat buzzed (perhaps drunk, even) and it seemed to favor John more than it did Laurie.  Still, it was fairly evenly matched and a lot of fun.  The most noteworthy improvement for John as of late is his service game as he is starting to rack up quite the Ace count.

Don Moya/Janice Wang over Dennis Cabanatan/Jonathan La, 6-1!  No Aces.  These four met on Court Four and the contest lasted from 11:20 to 11:45.

Kris Srinivasan/Raj Boddu over Nihar Panda/Rana Purupati, 6-2!  Raj: 1 Ace on Nihar; and Nihar: 1 Ace on Kris!  They got this one underway on Court Three at 11:20 and it ended just around midnight.

Ryan Sherry/Brian Barbera over Mike Mole/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-2!  No Aces.  Court One hosted this one from 11:40 to 12:05.  Doinks was a late arrival, but quite a welcome one as she enabled us to set the new record of 46 competitors in one evening. 

Dino Celis/Levy Lorenzo over Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay, 6-4!  No Aces.  Court Four featured this foursome from 11:50 to 12:20.

Dennis Cabanatan/Pranav Sinha over Tom La/Jonathan La, 6-3!  No Aces.  This one had begun on Court One at 12:10 and it ended at 12:40.

Anish Mehta/Ryan Pienciak over Raj Boddu/Brian Barbera, 6-1!  No Aces.  This was conducted on Court Two from 12:15 to 12:35.

Mike Mole/Janice Wang over Senthil Kumar/Marie Salamon, 6-2!  Mike: 1 Ace on Senthil.  Court Three was the place to be for this final Mixed Doubles One-Setter of the evening and it lasted from 12:15 to 12:45.  One of the stories of the night was the quite obvious steady improvement of one Mr. Mole.  Holy Moly, indeed!

Marijus Kuzavas/Dino Celis over Dan Hwang/Ryan Sherry, 6-2!  No Aces.  The last official One-Setter of the evening was held on Court Four from 12:25 to 12:45.

All in all, it is simply amazing how many players and how much action we had over the course of a session that lasted about four hours and forty-five minutes!  Thanks to all those who participated and helped us make GTA history.

Sincerely,
Frank Samara

2/23 Results.

2/23/17:         

"Gen/Kris host 6 at C.G., John/Chris host 8 at The Bubble!":                                          

GTA Thursday Tennis first took place at The Cedar Grove Courts (with both "The S Bomber" Genalin Capan and "The K Man" Kris Srinivasan acting as hosts) and then later in the evening it was The Night Owl session at The Wayne Bubble with both "The Riz" John Rizzo and GTA Champion: "King Crush" Chris Chiaro assuming hosting duties.

We will first go to the recap from Kris of the Cedar Grove results (with notes from Gen along the way) and then get the additional scores from The Bubble.

It is great to be back in action and the new season kicked off nicely in Cedar Grove, thanks to Gen. I got a message from Gen that that she was planning to play here at 3pm with Moka Pathan, Mike Mole and possibly "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli to join her. 

As I had to pick up my son Jay and his friends from school, it was a delayed start for me. I did see Moka waiting in his car when I set off to pick up Jay after 3 and upon my return, there was Canadian Doubles going on between Gen, Moka and Mole. Spin was a no-show. 

The Cedar Grove Results:

Kris Srinivasan/Mike Mole over Moka Pathan/Genalin Capan, 7-5!  No Aces.

Gen's Notes: The three of us started hitting at 3:30 and then Kris joined us at 4:15.  We began this One-Setter at 4:30 and it ended at 5:10. 

The K has his say: It was a close set right through its entirety. Gen seemed to be in good form as she got going right off the bat. She took with ease some of Mike's aggressive topspin shots and her net volleys were solid. Moka did pretty good himself. Even though he didn't assert himself, Moka had some amazing shots. Mole was probably the best of the lot, serving well and his ground-strokes were clean and meaty. He also showed a lot of variety with soft touches and drop shots, mixing up the pace beautifully. I feel this season looks very promising for Mike the way he played. It was a mixed bag for me and I have yet to get the pace in my shots.

Brenda Jordan arrived in the early part of our match and she was soon joined by Dawn Peterson. Somebody had placed a dead duck in the adjacent court close to the net. After removing the carcass, Brenda and Dawn got into a hitting session. It was a good warm-up session for them as they got into action in the next and final One-Setter.

Kris Srinivasan/Dawn Peterson over Mike Mole/Brenda Jordan, 7-5!  No Aces.

Moka was done for the day and Gen wanted to take it easy. So the remaining players got into a Mixed Doubles One-Setter with Dawn taking a chance on me...:-).

It turned out to be another close set after Mole and Brenda started off well. They peeled off 3 games from us to a solitary game in our favor before we showed up. Brenda was exceptionally good with her reflex shots and so was Dawn for us in packing the ball back. Mike was good, but some exaggerated serves and overly aggressive shots gave us some free points.  I had some streaky shots (good ones though) going for myself. We had the momentum and were sitting on 2 Match Points to clinch it at 6-4! But silly errors from me (a poor overhead and a net volley) cost us the game. We were in familiar territory again tied at 5-All. Like in the previous set, we managed to pull off the last two games to finish the match and the day at 6pm.

All in all, it was a good start and both the sets were intense with fighting points.  Cheers!

Samara's Notes: I thank both Gen and Kris for their very timely reporting.  It is good to know that The K Man is ready to go as our usual host up at Cedar Grove.  Once the lights come on (March 1^st, thanks to Kris) and my schedule allows it, I will be happy to assist him in those efforts whenever I can.

We now head up to Wayne for the dual report from John and Chris.  We go to Mr. Rizzo (hmm, I think I  remember that name…LOL!) first.

The Wayne Bubble Results:

Sean McHugh/Ryan Sherry over John Rizzo/Kevin Doyle, 6-3!  No Aces. 

John Rizzo over Ryan Sherry, 6-2!  No Aces.  Despite the score, the set was close and the rallies were long. 

Ryan Sherry leading John Rizzo, 3-0 (Incomplete)!  We played it as a Best of 5 games half-set as we were running out of time. 

Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar over Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak, 6-4!  No Aces.

Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak over Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar, 6-4!  Chris: 1 Ace on Lou.

Chris Chiaro/Senthil Kumar tied with Lou La Forgia/Ryan Pienciak, 5-5 (Incomplete, ran out of time)!  No Aces.

Samara's Notes: As always, I thank both John and Chris for reporting the results from these Bubble sessions for the benefit of the league.

Best wishes,

Frank Samara 

 

H-Wood's Annual Unofficial GTA Awards for 2016!

1/09/17:

"H-Wood's Annual Unofficial GTA Awards for 2016!":

Now that the official 2016 GTA Achievement Awards have been announced, it is time for "H-Wood's Annual Unofficial GTA Awards for 2016!"  This is the 14th annual edition of the Unofficial Awards while the Official GTA Achievement Awards just celebrated 24 years of existence.  Last year I got this out to the league on January 5th.  But two seasons ago, it was issued on January 12th.  So, once again, we are pretty much on schedule. 

Speaking of seasons, in 2017, the GTA will enter into its twenty-sixth season!  Along the way, we will celebrate the GTA's 25th Birthday on April 15th!  This league is already older than some of its competitors!

The following awards are a reflection of my own opinion…and are not to be taken too seriously.  As I say every year, anyone else is entitled to come up with some of their own as well. 

Some of these are repeat categories from years past and some are entirely new.  Here we go with a category carried over from last season:

Biggest Disappointment of The Year: First, let me say that the disappointments this season were far less significant than in past seasons.  All the tournaments were completed within their calendar year (that is a first…at least for the last few seasons).  So, "biggest disappointment" is somewhat of an overstatement this time around…rather it is some minor nagging issues such as the fact that not all of the matches were played out properly in the Grove Cup Tournament (the ongoing negotiation between Norman Taclob and Lou La Forgia which ultimately led to La Forgia having to drop out of it…Moka Pathan also dropping out due to the event being so drawn out and then conflicting with his schedule) and the fact that we never saw a proper finish to the M2 Quarterfinal between Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah and Dwight Thomas Sr./Dwight Thomas Jr.  Also, Moka Pathan not taking his immediate rematch against Chris Chiaro for the GTA Championship.  Other than those, most events this past season went rather smoothly.    

Since I started presenting these awards, there were four award categories that I did every year: "Most Disappointing Defeat that I was a part of;" "Most Disappointing Defeat that I was not a part of;" "Most Satisfying Victory that I was a part of;" and "Most Satisfying Victory that I was not a part of."

This is the first season where I could not really come up with any rightful winners.  I did not lose any matches where it shocked me to lose, nor did I win any matches where even I was surprised that I won.  The true disappointment is that I simply was not active enough this past season…especially in full 2 out of 3 Sets Singles Challenge Matches.  As a result, I dropped to a new all-time low in the GTA Rankings.

My hope for next season is to increase my activity level and try to make a run at getting back into The Top 10 of the Advanced Division.

Here now are two award categories that are repeated from last season (and for several seasons prior to that as well):

The Still-Reigning King of Recruiting: Kris Srinivasan!  For four straight seasons, I had to award myself this prize (years ago, Johnny Mistretta used to earn this award every year).  Then, two years ago I had to give it to Kris.  He earned it against last season.  Well, the same holds true this season...though I did a little better myself this past year.  Three years ago, he got the ball rolling up at Cedar Grove and brought in many players from the Aces to Deuces group.  This season, he was even more instrumental in welcoming players who just happened to be playing at The Cedar Grove Courts.  I will say that I am the Runner-up as I did the same with many newcomers who had been showing up at Robin Hood Park, Holster Park and Albion Park as well as still recruiting new contacts via the internet and bringing in some via other means.  Others who deserve a "shout out" in this category are Tony Shiao, John Incognito, Ryan Pienciak, Levy Lorenzo and Dino Celis.  If I am leaving anyone out, my apologies. 

Most Active Player of the Year: Nathan Fernandes!  For two straight seasons, Genalin Capan had taken this one.  Then two years ago it went to Raj Shah.  Both of them cut back their activity level significantly the past couple of seasons as each has suffered from some nagging injuries.  Last season, this award went to Kris Srinivasan.  But he had to reduce his presence on The Cedar Grove Courts somewhat due to work reasons.  Nonetheless, he still managed to host there more often than not (and I tried to pick up the slack on the times when he could not be there).  This past year (after an entire season away from the league), Nathan Fernandes returned with a vengeance as he was a steady presence at both Cedar Grove and the various locations in Clifton where sessions were held throughout the season.  As a result, he received an awesome total of 24 nominations in the Annual GTA Achievement Awards for 2016.  For the second straight season, a very close Runner-up here is Doinks Srinivasan.  Once again, she was the most highly nominated woman in the league.  She also picked up the hosting slack at Cedar Grove at times when Kris could not be there.  I again thank both of them for all they do for our league.

As stated earlier, some awards categories are not coming back this time around.  Here are a few completely new ones that I have sometimes done in the past.

One-Set Upset in Singles: 8/11 - Jay Phoenix over Frank Samara, 6-4!  This is no slight to Jay who is quite the competitor, indeed.  But afterwards, even he was somewhat surprised by the result.  He said it had been several seasons since he was able to take a set from me.  In all honesty, I had not remembered him beating me in a One-Setter before (though it is possible…as it is also quite possible that I'm losing my mind).  I remember it was a hot day at Holster Park (always hotter there as there is no shade on those courts…just one reason why we relocated to Albion Park later in the season) and he was able to weather the weather (if that makes any sense) better than I could.

One-Set Upset in Doubles: 7/16 - Joe Rodrigues/Mike Carucci over Chazz Weldon/Dean Delgado, 6-4!  This was another batted waged at Holster Park.  And while I am sure it was also quite hot that day as well, I don't remember the weather being the specific factor.  I do remember that Dean was in the midst of his substantial Summer Slump (which was often the source of humor for many of us at it grew longer…and he was quite a good sport about it).  On paper, I doubt anyone would think that J-Rod teaming with the rookie Carucci could topple the steady Weldon and the usually surefire Delgado.  But that is why we play matches on a court and not on paper.  ;-)

One-Set Comeback in Singles: 10/23 - Andrew Truong over Tommy Reszkowski, 7-6 (7-3)!  Tommy had been up 5-2 prior to Andrew rallying and forcing a Tiebreak.  I may be wrong, but I think the original idea was for Tommy to play Andrew in a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match in order to get ranked and remove himself from the Non-Competing Men's Division.  But then this One-Setter took so long, that there was not enough time left to extend it into a full match.  Had Tommy been able to shut the door in that 1st Set, he may have well been on his way to an impressive win over the tough Truong.  Now we will have to wait until next season to see how far Reszkowski can rise up the ranks.

One-Set Comeback in Doubles: 12/13 - John Incognito/Syed Rashid over Frank Samara/Mike Sindler, 7-6 (8-6)!  I know there have been greater comebacks in the past than coming back from being down 0-4 and later 1-5 (I once teamed with Timothy Wong where we were down 0-5 to Chris Chiaro and Raj Shah before winning seven straight games to win the One-Setter).  But the dominance factor also kicks in here as Mike and I won 16 of the first 18 points of the match.  It looked to be a certain blowout.  But then Syed went from blasting his shots well beyond the baseline to dialing them in and landing them in all the right places on the court.  The rest of us had all remained rather steady throughout the contest.  It was the turnaround in Syed that was the deciding factor.  If he can only gain more consistency (and he already has somewhat), he can make tremendous strides next season. 

The next section is not actual categories…more like topics of discussion.

The New Triumvirate!  In the early years of this league, I along with my cousin Dan Delli Santi and our friend Mike Ashley called ourselves "The Triumvirate" as we were not only the three most active players in the league, but also the three most dominant ones as well.  When Dan Martinelli joined the league and actually exceeded our activity level, he turned The Triumvirate into The Core Four.  And then when Delli Santi and Ashley later faded from the GTA, Samara and Martinelli were left behind to form The Foundation.  But this past season, we saw Tony Shiao bring in two of his buddies - Ryan Pienciak and Anish Mehta.  Together, this "New Triumvirate" had quite the impressive season as Shiao ended up being the Most Improved Player of The Year, Pienciak was the Rookie of The Year (and the most active player in the bunch) and Mehta was the rightful Newcomer of The Year (quite a presence in full Singles Challenge Matches).  If we add Mehta's pal Ralph Bernard into the mix, we may end up having a new force of four in the league.  Perhaps we can call them "The Fearsome Foursome?"  In any event, these three new players (in addition to Shiao) made the 2016 Season far more interesting than it would have been without them.  We hope they will maintain their steady and influential presence in the coming season.

On the Cusp!  Last season, both Shiao and Chazz Weldon were able to break into The Top 5 of the Advanced Division and finally leave the Intermediate Division behind.  Lou La Forgia came oh so close when he became the # 6 Ranked Player in the "A" Division.  This coming season, I think he will finally make that leap.  But there are others who have that potential as well.  Perhaps it will also be the current reigning GTA Intermediate Champ: Senthil Kumar.  It may also be Mike Kazlauskas, Greg Swierczek, Dennis Cabanatan, Scott Bergenfeld, Mike Mole…the list could be endless depending upon who gets hot on what day against the right opponent.

Errors and Omissions!  Looking back at the 2016 GTA Achievement Awards, I do not see any glaring errors (thankfully!)…but I did notice one omission.  In the category of Most Inspirational Player of The Year, I neglected to mention that Dino Celis had lost his father this past season.  It required him to take a trip back to the Philippines in the summer which he chose to keep rather quiet at the time.  Still, it should have garnered him an Honorable Mention at the very least.
 
This next section will provide some interesting tidbits that detail exactly why the 2016 Season is one of the biggest in GTA history.

Back in 2013, we added a record number of players to the ranks: 76 to be exact!  That total was made up of 57 male players (the previous record was 42 back in 1998) and that included the six Juniors (at that time) and then there were 19 female players (the former record on that side of the ledger was 17 back in 1999...which was then duplicated in 2011). 

To put this in proper perspective with the past few seasons, 2012 added 45 players to the ranks (33 men and 12 women), 2011 added 54 players (37 men and 17 women) and 2010 added 45 players (33 men and 12 women...the same exact numbers as 2012).

Then, in 2014, we broke those records on both sides of the ledger with 62 new male players and 27 new female players for a grand total of 89 new competitors coming into the league that season.  These were some truly amazing numbers that I suspected would be hard to top in the 2015 Season (but I also said two years ago that it would not stop me from trying).

Last year, I actually thought the 2015 Season had topped those 2014 totals by the end of that year...until I did the math.  I was somewhat surprised to find that we fell short...but not by much. 

By the end of 2015 season, we had brought in 57 new male players and 15 new female players for a grand total of 72 new competitors coming into the league this past year.  This is definitely not too shabby. 

I think I erroneously felt that 2015 would be the biggest season to date (in terms of new players making their official GTA Debut) as we were on track to exceed the 2014 totals...at least through that summer.  We then lost some of that momentum as we entered into the autumn months.   

Fast forward to 2016 where I have had those very same feelings that I did back in 2015.  I am about to "do the math" right now as I write this to find out whether or not I am right in that line of thinking. 
Well, as it turns out, I was wrong once again!  This past season, we brought in 52 new male players and 17 new female players for a grand total of 69 new competitors coming into the league this past year.  Again, this is nothing to sneeze at as it is a very solid number.  It means this past season ranks amongst the best in terms of introducing the league to new players. 

Like the season before, I do believe we lost that momentum as we headed into the autumn and I blame myself for that as I was no longer to maintain my steady presence as the host of GTA Weeknight Tennis at Albion Park in Clifton (it had been at Robin Hood Park in years past).

By the way, by the end of the 2016 Season, we have had a total of 525 male players and 194 female players who had ever competed in this league.

In closing, I just want to thank everyone for their participation this past year.  For the seventh straight season, we had many new players enter the league. 

2016 may not have exceeded 2015 or 2014 overall in that regard, but there were definitely aspects of this past season that truly outdid the year before (the amount of Doubles One-Setters that we played…especially those that were award-worthy immediately comes to mind).  If 2017 can combine all of the best aspects of the 2010 through 2016 Seasons while omitting the worst, it will end up truly being the greatest season of all-time!  Here's to the future!

I wish you all a very healthy and Happy New Year!  And I look forward to seeing you all (along with some new faces) on the courts in the coming season (which officially starts on Sunday, February 26th)!

Best wishes,
Frank Samara

The Official 2016 GTA Achievement Awards and Nominations!

1/06/17:

The Official 2016 GTA Achievement Awards and Nominations:

For the 2015 Season, the Official GTA Achievement Awards and Nominations were announced on December 31st 2015.  This year, they are being presented January 6th.  So, compared to last year, we are somewhat behind schedule with this presentation.  But two years ago they were presented on the fifth of January.  Thus, overall we are pretty much in line with past presentations time-wise.  

The 2014 and 2015 Seasons both had been two of the most active years in the league's history when we considered the amount of new players introduced to the league, the number of sessions and the increased amount of organized tournaments.  In that regard, it had been the busiest season of all-time! 

Much like the 2015 Season, some trends continued into this past 2016 Season.  Once again, we took the league to activity levels never seen before on the Women's side!  2016 was the first season in the league's history to feature two Women's Singles Tournaments, two Women's Doubles Tournaments and two Mixed Doubles Tournaments. 

Frank Samara's involvement in running the league was similar to the year before as well (meaning it was down somewhat compared to prior seasons, yet was still enough to make sure all crucial issues remained afloat). 

The biggest change this season was the Clifton location for both GTA Weeknight Tennis and GTA Sunday Tennis.  When the City of Clifton surprisingly took it upon themselves to redo five of their tennis court locations (a total of twelve courts…and long overdue!), Robin Hood Park was not one of them.  RHP had been redone in August of 2009 while seemingly no other Clifton locations had been touched in many more years than that.

The first shift this season was to Holster Park in Clifton (a location with which we have had some past history…especially the GTA Championship Matches between Tom Giarraffa and Frank Samara back in 2010).  But when the summer temps went sky high, we found that the HP experience was quite similar to our time at The MSU Courts back in the mid-2000's…no shade at all, feeling like you're baking in the sun!

So then the next shift was to Albion Park in Clifton (at the suggestion of one "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli).  This has now become the new Clifton home for the GTA (though some players still hold small session at the old stomping grounds, RHP) for good reason.  While it has the similar court setup to RHP (East to West rather than the recommended North to South), there is plenty of shade (more trees than RHP), plenty of parking and plenty of surrounding park space (including a playground for the kids that is also well-shaded).

All in all, the Clifton scene in general continues to fade over the years while there once again was an unprecedented amount of GTA action in Cedar Grove.  Kris Srinivasan, along with his wife Doinks, was more than happy to manage the overflow of talent while also often recruiting new players (who happened to be at the courts) into our league.  Samara stepped up on several occasions as well to act as host.

A few years ago (in a similar GTA Achievement Awards report) we mentioned how Kris was more than willing to take over the hosting duties there and subsequently cement Cedar Grove as a solid second location for the Global Tennis Association.  Last season, we said it could be rightfully argued that Cedar Grove has truly become the primary location for the GTA (not counting Sundays, of course).  Well, this season there is no doubt that the majority of GTA matches take place up at C.G.

In addition to all of that, we had many other players who took it upon themselves to schedule Challenge and/or Tournament Matches in Wood-Ridge, Ridgefield Park, Wayne, Montclair and Woodland Park (aka West Paterson).  Plus, in the early weeks and latter weeks of each season, there are The Night Owl sessions at The Wayne Bubble as well. 

There is absolutely no doubt that the 2016 Season ranks amongst the biggest seasons (in terms of the quantity of players and the amount of sessions and matches) in the entire 24-plus year history of the GTA!  As such, this season's activities required a great amount of research in order to properly determine the rightful nominees and winners for both the individual awards and the awards that recognize the matches that were contested.

For the last couple of years now, I felt it was necessary to explain the parameters of the categories to all the "newbies."  And I find it to be essential to do that once again given the fact that the 2016 Season has had the biggest rookie class (breaking the record set in the 2015 Season) in the league's history.  So, it once again becomes crucial to detail the process and the rules.  Plus, there will be a couple of changes this year as each season presents opportunities for certain awards to not make a return appearance from the year before while others may be resurrected from years past.  We will also be adding four new award categories this year.

There is (and always has been) a maximum of five nominees per category.  Seven years ago, we said that there were no exceptions to that rule except for the fact that there could be less than five if a particular category did not warrant the full amount.  However, five years ago we did an Academy Awards style sellout as we expanded two categories to ten nominees each!  As they started doing at the Oscar ceremony five years ago (presenting ten nominees for their Movie of The Year category), we will stay with just five nominees for our most important award (the 2016 GTA Player of The Year) and the majority of our awards, but the two categories that were granted the extra nominees were the One-Set Doubles Match of The Year Award and the One-Set Specialty Doubles Match of The Year Award. 

Since last season (and likely going forward), we are now allowing a third category to have ten nominees instead of just five: One-Set Mixed Doubles Match of The Year.  There were just so many amazing Doubles One-Setters this past year across these three categories, that to only recognize five in each one would be a true injustice.  One primary reason for this up-tick in activity is the continued increased amount of female participation. 

Let's get back to the traditional rules of the annual awards that are presented in the GTA.

The Most Improved Player of The Year Award will never include players still in their rookie year in the GTA.  It is for the players that have at least spent one prior season (could be partial) with us as that is how we're measuring the improvement…from season to season.  Sometimes, the improvements are evident by a jump in the rankings while at other times they may only be noticeably visible by the action on the court.

This season we are revisiting an award that has been an inconsistent presence in this presentation over the years: the Comeback Player of The Year Award.  This does not recognize the talents of a certain player to make a great comeback within a match.  Rather, this recognizes someone who was away from the league for a year or more or had to take themselves off the rank due to serious injury only to return again after that.  There were three players this year that fit this category.  Being nominated in this category prevents one from also being nominated in the Most Improved category.

Then there are two categories that reward those players who have just had their first season with us: Newcomer of The Year and Rookie of The Year.  The difference between the two is that the Newcomer award goes to a player who obviously has some extensive experience, but has just entered the GTA in the past year.  Whereas the Rookie award goes to a player who may just be getting started with the GTA or sometimes tennis altogether.  They may also be someone who dusted off the rust with us this year and their "tennis rebirth" somewhat made them a "born again rookie." 

For the past couple of years, the true deciding differential between the two is a Newcomer was one who made the jump from the Non-Competing Men's Division directly into the Advanced Division while the others went from the NCMD to the Intermediate Division first.  From there, the Rookies may have eventually made an additional leap up to the "A" Division.  But we can still consider a stronger player as a Newcomer if they only made a brief pit stop in the "I-M" Division before making the eventual permanent leap into the "A" Division.  It should also be noted that if a player never competed in a full 2 out of 3 Sets Singles Challenge Match to get themselves out of the Non-Competing Men's Division, they are not eligible for either award.

The Most Inspirational Player of The Year Award recognizes those who overcame some obstacles, but still turned in some gutsy performances.  Often it honors those who suffered spectacular on-court injuries.  Other times, it remembers those who dealt with off-court health issues and still found a way to return to action.  As we made the change five seasons ago, this year and all years going forward it will now be known as The Michael Ruggiano Memorial - Most Inspirational Player of The Year Award. 

For those that were not with us a season ago, Michael Ruggiano was the first cousin of both Frank Samara and Dan Delli Santi (two of the league's founders).  Had the league been started in the Summer of 1991 (as it almost was) instead of the Spring of 1992, Ruggiano would have been amongst the first players in the history of the GTA.  As it turned out, Michael never did see any official GTA action in his lifetime.  In August of 2011, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia.  The original prognosis was that he could be in remission within six months.  Instead, he was taken from us in just four months despite a determined and valiant effort.  He was fighting for his life right until the day he died (December 17th 2011).  Renaming the Most Inspirational Award in his honor is just one small way we can continue to pay tribute to him in the years to come.

For the Greatest Performances of the Year awards (Singles and Doubles), depending upon the match involved we may see just the winner or winners gain recognition for their efforts or both sides of the equation may be honored for their participation.

Some seasons ago, once we saw an increase in activity in the Intermediate and Women's Divisions, we felt the need to add additional award categories to further reward those players.  The Intermediate Division saw a new Intermediate Match of The Year Award to go along with the already existing Intermediate Player of The Year Award.  That will all remain the same this year.  In 2010, we also added a One-Set Intermediate Match of The Year Award. 

For the past couple of years, if there was a match (full 2 out of 3 Sets or a One-Setter) that featured an Advanced Division player versus an Intermediate Division player, it would fall into the Advanced match categories.  Four years ago, we changed that and began sending those types of matches into the Intermediate match categories as it helped "spread the wealth" in terms of overall Nominations.  And if such a match involves two players that are what we call "bridge" players (i.e. simultaneously ranked in both the Advanced and Intermediate Divisions), we may choose to nominate them in the Intermediate category if the Advanced category is already too full with worthy Nominations.

On the Women's side, in addition to all the categories that honor women as individuals or team participants in the league, we only had one category that recognized their contributions to on-court action: Specialty Match of The Year.  For the 2009 Awards, we split it into two categories: One-Set Specialty Match of The Year and Specialty Match of The Year (for full 2 out of 3 Set Matches).  "Specialty Matches" were any that featured women in any form: Women's Singles, Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Mixed Singles, and Mixed Gender Doubles (which could be any combo of players where one or more women were involved).

In 2010, the Women's Division finally blossomed into a fully functioning singles division.  Likewise, the Mixed Doubles Division had an unprecedented year.  Thus, we added many new awards categories to recognize the growth in these areas: Women's Match of The Year, One-Set Women's Match of The Year, Mixed Doubles Match of The Year, One-Set Mixed Doubles Match of The Year and Women's Doubles Match of The Year.  Three years ago, we also added a One-Set Women's Doubles Match of The Year.

For the past few seasons now, the Specialty Match of The Year Award and One-Set Specialty Match of The Year Awards will remain but now only focus on the matches that featured non-traditional formats such as: Man versus Woman, Men versus Women, Three Men and One Women involved in the match or Three Women and One Man involved in the match. 

We then divided the One-Set Specialty Match of The Year Award into two categories: One-Set Singles Specialty Match of The Year and One-Set Doubles Specialty Match of The Year.  Like One-Set Doubles Match of The Year, there were so many worthy One-Set Doubles Specialty Matches - that is the category that will continue to feature ten official Nominees.  The One-Set Singles Specialty Match of The Year Award will be limited to just five Nominees (as is the case with the majority of the Awards here). 

We will do all the same for this season, but also (like last year) add Singles Specialty Match of The Year and Doubles Specialty Match of The Year for full 2 out of 3 Set Specialty Matches that were played this past year.

Two award categories that were revived four years ago were the Women's Doubles Team of The Year and the Women's Doubles Match of The Year.  They carry on this year as we did see an unprecedented amount of action in the Women's Doubles Division in the 2016 Season. 

One award category that was added five years ago that will be placed on the shelf this season is the Women's Newcomer of The Year Award as there was no true female player coming into the league with a considerable wealth of experience this past year.  There were others, however, who were either just getting their start in this sport or dusting off their rustiness. 

For that latter group, we have the Women's Rookie of The Year Award.  It was dormant last season, but will be revived this season.

Four new award categories added last year and continued again this season are as follows: Doubles Player of The Year, Doubles Specialist of The Year, Women's Doubles Player of The Year and Women's Doubles Specialist of The Year.

We have always recognized a Doubles Team of The Year.  But over time, you realize that certain players excel in just about any Doubles setting you put them in (for the guys, Men's Doubles and Mixed Doubles, and for the ladies, Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles).  It seems that frequent success and/or victory is able to become much more of a foregone conclusion once one of these individuals is on a certain team.

The difference between our Doubles Players and our Doubles Specialists is that the "Players" are those that also compete in the Singles Divisions while our "Specialists" are content to only truly compete in Doubles while their names remain in the Non-Competing Singles Divisions on our GTA Rankings.

As was added for the 2010 GTA Achievement Awards, the Awards Presentation this year will once again feature a "Rationale" explanation for each category and "Honorable Mentions" to honor those who just missed the cut.  Honorable Mentions do not count as official Nominations.  Thus, they will not help to add to a player's overall Nominations Total, but will at least give them some written recognition for their achievements within a specific category.  Unlike the Nominations, Honorable Mentions are simply listed in chronological order and are not ranked.

Also, to be eligible for an Individual Award, a player must still be active in the GTA Rankings at year's end.  Match Awards are completely exempt from this rule as it is the match being awarded first and foremost (though the players do receive the wins and nominations accordingly).  The lone exception is if you had been a reigning Champ this calendar year in a given category.

Enough explanations, it is time for the Awards…and the Total Nominations count follows after all of the official Award categories.  I warn you now that this is a lot to read, but the season that was 2016 (ever since the league truly expanded back in 2010) deserves nothing less.

2016 GTA Player of The Year:
Winner: Chris Chiaro
The other Nominees:
Nathan Fernandes
Raj Shah
Marijus Kuzavas
Moka Pathan

The Rationale: Some years, it makes sense that The Top 5 Nominees (including the Winner) should be The Top 5 of The GTA Rankings at season's end.  Other years, it does not make sense to go that way.  The 2016 Season falls into the former category…well, somewhat.  The year end's Top 4 make sense here as well, but then we must drop down in the ranks a bit to find our righteous fifth nominee.  We must keep in mind that we are looking for the players that were truly the most successful, both in terms of their victories and their overall tournament and/or Championship accomplishments. 

Chris Chiaro won the GTA Championship from Moka Pathan early in the season.  Pathan decided to forego the immediate rematch (due to Ramadan) and allowed Chiaro to take on other challengers.  Then, Chris was told to wait for a winner to emerge from the Grove Cup Tournament (which, once again, took much longer than expected to complete).  But once Nathan Fernandes won the Cup and challenged Chiaro for the GTA Championship, he was dismissed in straight sets (though the 1st Set was an absolute classic).  Thus, Chiaro was the most dominant player and is the clear winner of this award.  Fernandes is the clear runner-up as he was the 2016 Grove Cup Champ and was on an undefeated run this season until he ran into Chiaro.  Raj Shah was the other Grove Cup Finalist and had an impressive victory over Rob Ryan in the Grove Cup Quarters.  Marijus Kuzavas was a steady presence in The Top 5 throughout the season and deserves recognition here for a second straight season.  As for the fifth nominee, it has to be Moka Pathan…even though he finished the season ranked 10th in the Advanced Division.  He won the GTA Championship from Ryan early in the season.  He then lost the Title to Chiaro.  As mentioned earlier, he did not take the rematch.  He also withdrew from his Grove Cup match against Fernandes in order to allow the tournament to move on in a more timely fashion.  Thus, we really don't know how much further (or how much higher) Pathan could have taken his 2016 Season.     

Honorable Mention:  In almost any other season, being one of the three players to hold the GTA Championship this past year would be enough to earn an official nomination here.  But not this season as Rob Ryan just misses the cut as he lost the GTA Championship to Pathan in his very first defense of it.  He then had a decent run through the Grove Cup until he ran into Shah.  Other than his official tournament obligations, he was somewhat inactive this season.  Anish Mehta finished the season in The Top 5 (in the 5 spot), but still needs to face a greater array of competition in the league before he earns an official nomination here.  Dino Celis was also an on and off presence in The Top 5 this past year and quite possibly the most active player in full Singles matches.  Both Tony Shiao and Chazz Weldon had a breakthrough season as each finally cracked The Top 5 which enabled them to fully graduate from the Intermediate Division. 

2016 GTA Intermediate Player of The Year:
Winner: Tony Shiao
The other Nominees:
Chazz Weldon
Senthil Kumar
Joe Rodrigues
Greg Swierczek

The Rationale: After a long time working his way up in the Intermediate Division and advancing further and further in the annual GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament, this was the year that Tony Shiao finally broke through and won the entire event.  Soon after, he broke into The Top 5 of The Advanced Division and became overqualified for competition in the I-M Division (he did this without winning the GTA Intermediate Title first as others have done in the past…Nathan Fernandes immediately comes to mind).  Chazz Weldon began the season as the GTA Intermediate Champ.  Then he, too, finally made his way into The Top 5 of The Advanced Division which forced him to vacate the I-M Title and leave the division.  This "advancement" should be the ultimate goal of any Intermediate Player.  Much like Shiao and Weldon, the reigning GTA Intermediate Champ: Senthil Kumar had a breakthrough year and he also cracked the "A" Division's Top 10.  His stated goal for the 2017 Season is to crack The Top 5 of The Advanced Division and also leave the I-M Division behind.  Joe Rodrigues finally made the long-awaited jump into the Advanced Division (making him a "bridge player" like Kumar who finds himself in both divisions at once) and he ended the 2016 Season as the Top Contender to the I-M Title.  Greg Swierczek was in the GTA Intermediate Title Match to determine a New Champ which he lost to Kumar, but he is another player who has Championship potential in this division.

Honorable Mentions: Jay Phoenix, Omar Santos, Edwin Ortega, Andrew Truong, Mike Mole, Mike Kazlauskas and Scott Bergenfeld.  These are the players that round out The Top 10 of The Intermediate Division at season's end.  All were very active in Singles Matches throughout the season.  Kazlauskas and Bergenfeld fell toward the bottom of the Top 10 bracket when they became somewhat less active in Singles toward the end of the year.

2016 GTA Doubles Team of The Year:
Winners: Norman Taclob and Tito Castolo
The other Nominees:
Chris Chiaro and Raj Shah
Ryan Pienciak and Nick Inciong
Marijus Kuzavas and Mike Kazlauskas
Nathan Fernandes and Moka Pathan

The Rationale: Taclob/Castolo are the current and still undefeated GTA Doubles Champions.  They did not have much of an active season due to having to wait for winning teams to emerge from both the M2 and Monk Memorial Men's Doubles Tournaments.  They will have to face both of those victorious teams early on in the 2017 Season.  Chiaro/Shah are the still undefeated (not counting Non-Title Matches) Former GTA Doubles Champs who were stripped of the Titles at the beginning of the season for failure to defend them in a timely manner.  They later went onto win the M2 Tournament and will have their chance to regain the Titles early in 2017.  Pienciak/Inciong were the winners of the Monk Memorial Tournament and are also entitled to a shot at the reigning GTA Doubles Champs early next season.  Kuzavas/Kazlauskas were M2 Finalists who extended Chiaro/Shah to three sets while Fernandes/Pathan gave a tough straight set tussle to Chiaro/Shah in the M2 Semis. 

Honorable Mentions: Dwight Thomas Sr./Dwight Thomas Jr. (aka The Dwights) split sets with Chiaro/Shah in the M2 Tournament and then that match never saw its proper finish due to back and forth scheduling negotiations running afoul of the time constraints of the tournament.  Had that match been conclusively concluded with The Dwights emerging victorious, they surely would have earned an actual nomination here. Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto spent the entire season in The Top 5 of The Doubles Division, but suffered somewhat of an upset loss (via a 10-Point Super Tiebreak) to Lou La Forgia/Jorge Solano during the M2 Tournament.  La Forgia/Solano could have received an Honorable Mention had they remained an active team at the end of the season.  Raj Shah/Raj Boddu were the Cedar Grove Finalists (and overall Semifinalists) in the Monk Memorial Tournament, but missed out on an official nomination here due to being so soundly defeated by Pienciak/Inciong in the Monk Memorial Final.  Pienciak's other team with buddy and frequent partner, Tony Shiao, also had a solid season.  

2016 GTA Doubles Player of The Year:
Winner: Chris Chiaro
The other Nominees:
Raj Shah
Nathan Fernandes
Ryan Pienciak
Frank Samara

The Rationale: Chris Chiaro and Raj Shah, last year's Winner and top Runner-Up in this category, duplicate that feat again this season as each is always a strong partner in just about any Doubles situation…and even stronger when they come together.  Each one makes any team more formidable whether it is in Men's Doubles or Mixed Doubles competition.  If Chiaro or Shah are not around, usually the most sought out Doubles partner is Nathan Fernandes.  He carried many teams to strong results this season.  Ryan Pienciak ended up being part of two Top 10 ranked teams by the end of the season.  Historically speaking, Frank Samara is the most decorated Men's Doubles Player ever in GTA history as he has held the GTA Doubles Championship more times (and with more partners) than anyone else.  Like last season, he once again had a solid run on the Men's Doubles side (still with Vinnie De Benedetto in the upper ranks and then many others in One-Setter situations), but was surprisingly less active on the Mixed Doubles side of the ledger this past year.

Honorable Mentions: Marijus Kuzavas, one half of his teaming with Mike Kazlauskas (aka M&M, aka The Lanky Lithuanians) also has success on the Mixed Doubles side with his wife Sally Pillay and last season with Christine Toth.  Norman Taclob, ended the season as one half of the reigning GTA Doubles Champs (with Tito Castolo as his partner), but was largely inactive beyond that.  Lou La Forgia is always a solid partner and he had a good run in The M2 with Jorge Solano and ended up in The Top 10 with Chiaro as well.  Senthil Kumar has become quite the steady force in Doubles situations.  Mike Kazlauskas and Moka Pathan both ably supported their partners and thus found themselves nominated in the Doubles Team category this year.  Same holds true for Chazz Weldon, except on the Mixed Doubles side.  John Incognito always manages to raise his game even further in Doubles situations and continues to prove to be a very steady partner.  Dan Martinelli, who may soon be nearing the end of his Singles activity in this league continues to remain a force in just about any Doubles situation.  Jorge Solano and Rob Gawley are another two guys who if they decided to forego further Singles competition could easily find themselves as official nominees in our next category next season.

2016 GTA Doubles Specialist of The Year:
Winner: Tito Castolo
The other Nominees:
Nick Inciong
Vinnie De Benedetto
Levy Lorenzo
Tom La

The Rationale: Last year, we said that a coin flip could have been used to justify determining the Winner and the top Runner-Up here as Nick Inciong just edged out Tito Castolo as the overall winner as both are such a sure thing in Doubles situations.  This year, Castolo comes out on top as he ends the season as one half of both the GTA Doubles Champions and GTA Mixed Doubles Champions.  Inciong is the solid runner-up as he was one half of the 2016 Monk Memorial Champs (with Pienciak as his partner).  Speaking of solid partners, Vinnie De Benedetto had another steady season with Samara as his main partner, but also in many other Doubles situations as well.  Levy Lorenzo has emerged this season as another sound Doubles specialist.  Tom La is another solid player who seems to prefer to just remain on the Doubles side of things.  He was inactive for much of the season with lingering injuries, but came on strong by year's end. 

Honorable Mentions: Felix Castolo is the brother of Tito and has a similar style.  He does not play with us all that often as he does not reside in the area.  Dwight Thomas Sr. and Dwight Thomas Jr. are an awesome father/son combo, but each would likely find success teaming with just about anyone.

2016 GTA Most Improved Player of The Year:
Winner: Tony Shiao
The other Nominees:
Senthil Kumar
Mike Mole
Joe Rodrigues
Jay Phoenix

The Rationale: This is one of those categories where it is such a close call between the Winner and the top Runner-Up as both improved significantly and each one's name was consistently mentioned throughout the season whenever the subject of "Most Improved Player" was brought up in conversation.  The slight difference between Tony Shiao and Senthil Kumar is the fact that Shiao made the jump out of the Intermediate Division and also won their head-to-head match-up in the Finals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament.  Shiao then went on to have key victories over Norman Taclob and Chazz Weldon as well.  Had Mike Mole not blown a 4-1 3rd Set lead over Nathan Fernandes late in the season, he may have snuck past both Shiao and Kumar to emerge as the Winner here.  Joe Rodrigues finally made the long-awaited jump into the Advanced Division…a feat that many thought he should have accomplished a long time ago.  Jay Phoenix had a bit of a rebound year results-wise and even pulled off a One-Setter victory over Frank Samara along the way.

Honorable Mentions: Marijus Kuzavas, last year's winner in this category, had another season of steady improvement…just not as dramatic as last year.  Chazz Weldon finally made the leap out of the Intermediate Division, but the skill set that enabled him to do so has pretty much been there all along.  Omar Santos and Edwin Ortega used their friendly rivalry against one another not only to rise in the ranks, but also to improve their skills and results against others as well.  Sairaj Srinivasan continues to amaze all those who play with him as he improves by leaps and bounds at such a young age.  Kevin Doyle displayed much improvement, but it was exclusively in Doubles action this past season.  There are players in the Non-Competing Men's Division that come to mind like Syed Rashid and Tommy Reszkowski, but they cannot be officially nominated until they at least make the jump into the Intermediate Division.

2016 GTA Comeback Player of The Year:
Winner: Nathan Fernandes
The other Nominees:
Fernanda Toker
Scott Bergenfeld

The Rationale: Nathan Fernandes spent an entire year abroad in England pursuing his Master's degree.   Upon his return, he not only shook off the rust quickly…but he took his game to heights heretofore unseen.  He had an amazing run through the 2016 Grove Cup Tournament which culminated in his first-ever Cup victory.  Only when he came up against the dominant GTA Champion: Chris Chiaro was he finally stopped.  Fernanda Toker is a special case when we discuss comebacks as she was in the league just last season.  But during the off-season, she broke her leg while skiing…and that led to her forfeiting the GTA Women's Championship and removing herself from the ranks completely.  So, upon her return (ahead of schedule, by the way), she was actually coming back to the league.  Like Fernandes, she made an impressive run through the GAH6 Tournament to win the entire event.  Her undefeated record finally came to an end when she had to face the other undefeated lady in the league, the New GTA Women's Champion: Laura Gawley.  Scott Bergenfeld had been away from the league for a couple of seasons.  Upon his return, it was readily obvious the he had lost a lot of weight and was now much more fit.  He dove headfirst back into competition until a couple of minor injuries slowed down his progress later in the season.

Honorable Mention: Evonne Tan seemed poised to finally make the impact upon this league that many of us thought she was capable of making seasons ago as she was now committed to entering tournaments and taking challenge matches.  But then she had a good reason to change those plans…a second pregnancy.  We hope she will be able to find the time (hard for a mother of two young children) to join us again in the relatively near future and make the run to the top that she seems more than capable of doing.

2016 GTA's Michael Ruggiano Memorial - Most Inspirational Player of The Year:
Winner: Fernanda Toker
The other Nominees:
Nathan Fernandes     
Christine Toth
Dawn Peterson
John Incognito

The Rationale: The way that Fernanda Toker fought so hard to overcome such a serious leg injury suffered in the off-season and the fact that she hit the courts far ahead of schedule is the very definition of the word "inspirational."  It is why she emerges as the top choice in this category.  Not far behind is Nathan Fernandes who not only made an inspirational return to the league, but also had to take some time away from its completion to mourn the sudden and untimely passing of his father.  At the early part of the season, Christine Toth had to go inactive for a while to take care of her ailing mother.  In fact, it cost her the GTA Mixed Doubles Championship that she had held with Marijus Kuzavas.  Her mother passed during the season.  Since that time, she has redoubled her efforts in the league.  Dawn Peterson spent much of the latter months of the season taking care of her ailing mother.  And then just a week after the season officially ended, her father passed away.  John Incognito dealt with some serious health issues that managed to sideline him for a time.  But then he used tennis as a way to get back into shape and lose a significant amount of weight in the process.    

Honorable Mentions: Like Incognito, Scott Bergenfeld is another relatively young man who has had to deal with some significant health issues.  He, too, returned to the sport fitter than before and kept playing in order to maintain (or improve) his newfound physique.  Raj Shah, for most of this past season, had to deal with serious health issues that were impacting his mother's life.  Thankfully, she made it through relatively OK.  Yet, while it rightfully caused him to reduce his playing schedule, he found a way to rise even higher in the ranks than ever before.  Frank Samara had another tough season personally as his mother's health issues continue to decline, yet he did not allow those (and other) outside issues to dramatically impact his ability to continue to run the league. Kris Srinivasan also maintained a high activity level as the primary host of GTA Tennis at The Cedar Grove Courts.  He was also often assisted by his wife, Doinks, who deserves a mention here as well.  Natalia Sout deserves mention here again this year for her inspirational, gutsy and spirited efforts out on the courts.  She is a rare combination of active athleticism, unbridled enthusiasm and unprecedented humility.  Dan Martinelli seemingly increased his level of play this past season as he always seems to "inspire" those around him.  Laura Gawley rose to the top of the Women's Division in a very classy manner and many would consider that to be inspirational as well.  As the GTA Champion, Chris Chiaro never shied away from a challenge (provided he was allowed to take one as the lengthy Grove Cup Tournament prevented that for a while).  Rob Ryan, the year after mourning the loss of his mother, had to take in his aging father.  As such, his tennis schedule lightened somewhat…yet he still had a good run in the Grove Cup.

2016 GTA Newcomer of The Year:
Winner: Anish Mehta
The other Nominees:
Ralph Bernard
Andrew Truong

The Rationale: Anish Mehta is the clear winner here as he rose higher in the ranks than the other two nominees here. In fact, he cracked The Top 5 of the Advanced Division which completely took him out of the Intermediate Division.  Ralph Bernard had a full 2 out of 3 Sets Matches victory that immediately catapulted him into the Advanced Division without even first stopping in the "I-M" Division.   Andrew Truong was the only other new player this past season to not only be part of the Intermediate Division, but then also become part of the "A" Division as well.  Like the other two players ranked above him, his tennis experience is obvious when he is out on the court.

Honorable Mentions: Praful Nair, had he not moved away during the season, would likely have been ranked above as an official nominee as I suspect he also would have found his way to the Advanced Division based on the tennis acumen he demonstrated out on the court.  T.J. Shah, Rajan Shah and Levy Lorenzo all show solid tennis experience, but remain in the Non-Competing Men's Division due to not having played a full 2 out of 3 Sets Challenge Match this past year.

2016 GTA Rookie of The Year:
Winner: Ryan Pienciak
The other Nominee:
Dennis Cabanatan

The Rationale: Ryan Pienciak remained in the Intermediate Division despite demonstrating a solid dose of tennis experience, so that is why he gains the recognition in this category.  Also, he made more of an impact on the Doubles side of the ledger than he did on the Singles side.  He will likely make the jump to the Advanced Division next season.  Dennis Cabanatan is a tough-luck situation here as he, too, remains in the Intermediate Division despite obvious and solid tennis acumen.  Late in the season, he had three consecutive One-Setter victories over Anish Mehta (the last two of which Mehta was willing to have them be counted as a match, but it did not seem fair as it had not been planned that way).  Had it end up being recorded as a match, Cabanatan could have instead been the 2016 Newcomer of The Year…though it is sometimes hard to reward what takes place in the final couple weeks of a season when we must recognize what also took place in its entirety.   

Honorable Mentions: Mike Carucci, T.J. Shah, Rajan Shah, Abhilash Gadi and Ryan Sherry are all players that can impact the league next season…they just never had the chance to play a full 2 out of 3 Sets Singles Match and get ranked accordingly.  

2016 GTA Women's Player of The Year:
Winner: Laura Gawley
The other Nominees:
Fernanda Toker
Sally Pillay
Anna Mazur
Doinks Srinivasan

The Rationale: Laura Gawley is in the power position much like the way Fernanda Toker was for the past two seasons, as an undefeated, honorable and active GTA Women's Champion.  And the fact that she ended the undefeated streak of Toker with her most recent Title defense cements her place on top of this category for the past year.  Fernanda Toker is still the clear top Runner-Up as she won the GAH6 Tournament and was still undefeated against all others until running into Gawley.  Sally Pillay was the GAH6 Finalist who gave Toker a tough run in that Final.  Anna Mazur continues to be one of the few women who remain more active in Singles than they do in Doubles.  Rounding out both The Top 5 of the Women's Division at season's end and also here is Doinks Srinivasan as she also never shies away from Singles competition.

Honorable Mentions: Genalin Capan, who had a second straight setback season (much of it due to nagging knee injuries and other issues), but was still a steady presence in this division.  Kathy Sheldon, who always remains a dangerous foe and a threat to pull off an upset at a moment's notice.

2016 GTA Most Improved Women's Player of The Year:
Winner: Natalia Sout
The other Nominees:
Sally Pillay
Brenda Jordan
Christine Toth
Doinks Srinivasan

The Rationale: Sometimes, we cannot solely measure improvement based on results or placement in the rakings.  It must be evidenced by the play that we witness on the court.  In this regard, nobody took a bigger leap than Natalia Sout.  In only her second year of playing tennis, she is now becoming a competitive force on the court…especially in Doubles (but she also finally got herself ranked in Singles this past season).  Sally Pillay also finally got herself ranked in Singles this year and moved way up in the ranks.  The only reason she doesn't win this category outright is the fact that we already knew she was quite the player a season ago.  Both Brenda Jordan and Christine Toth displayed improved skills throughout the year, though it was almost always in Doubles situations.  Doinks Srinivasan's steady improvement may not have been as evident in her results this season, but it was still quite noticeable to those who were on the court either with her or against her.    

Honorable Mentions: Laura Gawley rose to the top of the Women's Division and that is a definite improvement from a season ago, but much like here Doubles partner, Pillay…we already knew how great she was last year.  Anna Mazur continues her on-court improvement, but considering the fact that she won the GAH5 Tournament last season…this year has to be considered something of a setback by comparison.

2016 GTA Women's Rookie of The Year:
Winner: Natalie Guzman
No other Nominees.

The Rationale: Even though Natalie Guzman had some past tennis experience in high school, it was clear she had to shake off some rust and also make an effort to step her game up to go up against players with more years of tennis playing in their pocket.  And she managed to do just that throughout the season.  It seems like she is down for the long haul.  

Honorable Mention: Mindy Zhang, if only she had remained active in the Women's Division by season's end.

2016 GTA Women's Newcomer of The Year:
Winner: N/A
No other Nominees.

Honorable Mention: Stacy Casais!  If only she had managed to play a full 2 out of 3 Sets Singles Challenge Match this season, she would have been eligible for nomination and then would have won this award!  She is the quintessential candidate as well as she clearly demonstrates her considerable tennis experience once she steps out onto the court. 

2016 GTA Mixed Doubles Team of The Year:
Winners: Tito Castolo and Dawn Peterson
The other Nominees:
Rob Gawley and Laura Gawley
Chazz Weldon and Fernanda Toker
Dino Celis and Laura Gawley
Moka Pathan and Genalin Capan

The Rationale: Castolo/Peterson won the MXD2 Tournament and the up-for-grabs GTA Mixed Doubles Championship all at the same time after it had been vacated by Marijus Kuzavas/Christine Toth when that team went inactive.  Then, Castolo/Peterson successfully defended the Titles against Weldon/Toker who won the M-Dub Tournament.  So it is clear to see why Castolo/Peterson are the winners here.  The Gawleys are the top Runners-Up because Castolo/Peterson had a much tougher time with them in the Finals of The MXD2 then they did against the M-Dub Champs: Weldon/Toker.  Still, as M-Dub Champs: Weldon/Toker deserve to be next on this list.  And then they fought a tough Final against Celis/Gawley.  Pathan/Capan had a solid run in the MXD2 and have done enough to remain in The Top 3 of the Mixed Doubles Division. 

Honorable Mentions: Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay is another married couple that also proves to be a formidable tandem near the top of the ranks and they just missed out on an official nomination as they finished this season in The Top 5 of the Mixed Doubles Division.  Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, the third married couple on the scene and in this list were riding high until those other two wedded tandems came along.  Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker and Kevin Doyle/Brenda Jordan were both steady teams throughout the season.  

2016 GTA Women's Doubles Team of The Year:
Winners: Laura Gawley and Sally Pillay
The other Nominees:
Kathy Sheldon and Christine Toth
Fernanda Toker and Genalin Capan
Doinks Srinivasan and Brenda Jordan
Kathy Sheldon and Dawn Peterson

The Rationale: For the second-straight season, Gawley/Pillay are the top choice here as they have now emerged as the 2-Time (yet still undefeated) GTA Women's Doubles Champions after their tandem had gone inactive in the ranks and they had to regain them via winning the 2016 W2 Women's Doubles Tournament.  Sheldon/Toth won the first-ever W-Dub Tournament and ended the season as the Top Contenders, but they were dismissed rather easily by Gawley/Pillay in that Title defense.  The Toker/Capan team came together in the W2 Tournament and are a formidable tandem that likely just needs more time together before they advance higher in the ranks.  Srinivasan/Jordan and Sheldon/Peterson round out The Top 5 of the Women's Doubles Division at season's end.  It will be interesting to see how those teams fare next season.  Will Sheldon opt to team more with Toth?  Will the usual pairing of Sheldon and Peterson come back together in 2017?  Will Srinivasan find a more steady partner next year?  It all remains to be seen.       

Honorable Mentions:  Christine Toth/Dawn Peterson and Doinks Srinivasan/Natalia Sout, the only other two teams remaining active in the Women's Doubles Division by season's end. 

2016 Women's Doubles Player of The Year:
Winner: Laura Gawley
The other Nominees:
Sally Pillay
Fernanda Toker
Brenda Jordan
Genalin Capan

The Rationale: Laura Gawley ends the season as one half of the GTA Women's Doubles Champions (along with Sally Pillay) and was nominated twice in the Mixed Doubles Team of the Year category.  It is fairly clear that as dominant as she is in Singles, Gawley is equally dominant in Doubles as well.  Her partner, Pillay, is the top runner-up here as she is a solid compliment to Gawley in their tandem and always ranks high with her hubby, Marijus Kuzavas, in Mixed Doubles.  While Fernanda Toker is more known for her Singles acumen, she proved to be an asset in Doubles as well as she won the M-Dub Tourney with Chazz Weldon and had a good run in the W2 with Genalin Capan.  Brenda Jordan continues to emerge as one of the best choices to team with in both Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles situations and the same holds true for Genalin Capan.

Honorable Mentions: Doinks Srinivasan, Kathy Sheldon and Christine Toth…as any of these three could have been an official nominee here had the results gone their way.  Together, Sheldon and Toth had the W-Dub Tourney victory together.  But it came late in the season and then they were dismissed fairly easily by Gawley/Pillay.  But if they build a better season next year, they may get the bump up to official nods here next season. 

2016 Women's Doubles Specialist of The Year:
Winner: Dawn Peterson
The other Nominee:
Denise Savino
Sachiko Tokuda
Robin Altman
Stacy Casais

The Rationale: Once Dawn Peterson decided to remove herself from further Singles competition in the Women's Division, she became the clear winner of this category.  In fact, she would have fared well in the previous category (had she remained in the Women's Division) as she ended the season as one half of the reigning GTA Mixed Doubles Champions.  Denise Savino is an experienced Doubles specialist who played more with us (both at Nutley Tennis Club and The Wayne Bubble) this past season than she has in many years.  Hopefully, she will continue to do so next season.  Sachiko Tokuda is a deceptively solid Doubles player who just missed out (twice, I believe) in becoming part of some Doubles Tournaments where she could have increased her standing here.  Robin Altman had a good showing in the W2 along with her partner, Marie Salamon.  It was Altman who played with us deeper into the season than Salamon did and that is why she gets ranked here.  Stacy Casais is a clear Doubles Specialist who made her official GTA Debut somewhat late in the season.  Even though she says she prefers Doubles over Singles, her talent level cries out for some activity on the Singles side of the ledger next season.  So, we hope she does and that would lead to her being nominated for Doubles Player rather than Doubles Specialist next year.

Honorable Mention: Marie Salamon, who unfortunately went inactive very late in the season.  Since she plays more Doubles than Singles nowadays anyway, she may want to consider solely competing in Doubles with us when she returns next season.  If so, she will likely rank high in this category next season.

2016 Singles Match of The Year:
The Winner: 10/6 - Raj Shah over Rob Ryan, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, to successfully defend his # 2 Rank in the Advanced Division plus advance to the Finals of the Grove Cup Tournament!
The other Nominees:
9/8 - Raj Shah over Marijus Kuzavas, 6-7 (7-0), 6-3, 7-5, to become the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Semifinals of the Grove Cup Men's Singles Tournament!  Not sure of the exact length, but was told it was a marathon.  
11/8 - Nathan Fernandes over Raj Shah, 6-4, 7-5, to become the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the 2016 Grove Cup Champ and next Top Contender to the GTA Championship!
8/28 - Tony Shiao over Chazz Weldon, 6-3, 7-5, to become the New # 3 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while also advancing to The Semifinals of The Grove Cup Tournament!  Shiao is removed from the Intermediate Division (in the process). 
8/7 - Anish Mehta over Dino Celis, 6-3, 7-5, to become the New # 5 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Quarterfinals of The Grove Cup Tournament!  Mehta is removed from the Intermediate Division (in the process).  The match was nearly 2-1/2 hours long!

The Rationale: For the second time in three years, a Shah-Ryan match takes the top prize.  But this time around, Raj came out on top to finally topple the 4-Time Former GTA Champ.  And that historical significance is why it just edges out the top runner-up, Shah-Kuzavas (even though that encounter had a closer 1st Set and likely a longer duration to boot).  Shah finds himself in The Top 3 matches here as his Grove Cup Final against Fernandes was also quite epic…even if it did end in straight sets.  Shiao-Weldon and Mehta-Celis were also straight-set affairs, but both were closely contested and each had historical significance as well.

Honorable Mentions:
4/27 - Marijus Kuzavas over Dino Celis, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 5 Rank in the Advanced Division!
5/24 - Dino Celis over Marijus Kuzavas, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, to become the New # 4 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division!
5/28 - Brian Barbera over John Incognito, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, to become the New # 17 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division!
6/9 - Dan Praport over Tony Shiao, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to become the New # 19 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division!
8/9 - Lou La Forgia over Dino Celis, 6-4, 6-4, to become the New # 6 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division!
8/24 - Anish Mehta over Dino Celis, 6-4, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 6 Rank in the Advanced Division!
10/6 - Dino Celis over Anish Mehta, 6-4, 7-5, to become the New # 9 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division!

2016 One-Set Singles Match of The Year:
The Winner:  3/13 – Nathan Fernandes over Frank Samara, 7-6 (7-2)!  Only 1 MP, but 1 hour 11 minutes long!
The other Nominees:
8/8 - Chris Chiaro over Nathan Fernandes, 7-5!  Nate was up 5-3 with one Match Point!
5/10 - Frank Samara over Nathan Fernandes, 6-4!  5 Match Points, nearly an hour long!
8/30 - Anish Mehta over Dino Celis, 7-5!  Anish had jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
9/2 - John Incognito over Anish Mehta, 6-4!

The Rationale: Fernandes-Samara gets the nod here due to its duration and drama.  Nate was just shaking the rust off of a one-year layoff from the league, but Frank was also a bit rusty from the winter break.  The pride that each one takes in their game forced the other to find a way to raise their level quickly.  The top runner-up, Chiaro-Fernandes, took place while the Grove Cup was underway and many rightfully felt it was a preview of what was to come after the conclusion of the tournament.  Nate almost came away with a 6-3 win until Chris rallied back and rattled off four straight games for the victory.  Samara-Fernandes showed that the old "Wood" can still pull off the upset once in a while…but can he do it in a full 2 out of 3 Sets Match anymore?  Maybe we will see in the 2017 Season.  Mehta-Celis was an impressive One-Setter in the midst of their friendly rivalry of full Challenge Matches.  Incognito-Mehta was something of an upset and it did demonstrate that John can also pull off some surprises in One-Setter situations.  Like Samara, he must now prove in the coming season that he can once again do it in full matches, too.   

No Honorable Mentions.

2016 Doubles Match of The Year:
The Winner: 10/25 - Chris Chiaro/Raj Shah over Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), to advance to the M2 Finals while also successfully defending their # 8 Rank in the Doubles Division!
The other Nominees:
12/4 - Nick Inciong/Tom La over Senthil Kumar/Joe Rodrigues, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7), to become the New # 5 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division!
7/27 - Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas over Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, to successfully defend their # 5 Rank in the Doubles Division while advancing to the Semifinals of The M2 Men's Doubles Tournament!  The match was two hours long!
8/8 - Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas over Lou La Forgia/Jorge Solano, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, to successfully defend their # 5 Rank in the Doubles Division while advancing to The Finals of The M2 Men's Doubles Tournament!
7/15 - Moka Pathan/Nathan Fernandes over Kris Srinivasan/Senthil Kumar 6-1, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, to successfully defend their # 30 Rank in the Doubles Division while advancing to the Semifinals of The M2 Men's Doubles Tournament!

The Rationale: Even though it ended in straight sets, Chiaro/Shah-Fernandes/Pathan was the match to beat in terms of overall quality, intensity and drama.  It was hard-hitting throughout and many felt it would have been a fitting Final to the M2 Tournament rather than just a Semifinal.  Inciong/La-Kumar/Rodrigues has a similar score with an even more impressive 2nd Set Tiebreak, but it lacks a bit in historical significance.  Kuzavas/Kazlauskas had quite a run through the M2 as evidenced by their matches against Shiao/Pienciak and La Forgia/Solano.  The M2 dominates this category (four of the five nominees) and the match that got things started almost provided us with something of an upset as the newly formed team of Srinivasan/Kumar gave the more experienced Pathan/Fernandes tandem quite a challenge. 

Honorable Mentions:
3/23 - Marijus Kuzavas/Praful Nair over Lou La Forgia/Nathan Fernandes, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 68 and # 69 Ranked Teams respectively!
4/17 - Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over John Incognito/Nick Inciong, 7-5, 6-4, to become the New # 7 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division!
4/27 - Moka Pathan/Chris Chiaro over Lou La Forgia/Praful Nair, 6-4, 7-5, to successfully defend their # 12 Rank in the Doubles Division!
5/2 - Chris Chiaro/Lou La Forgia over Kris Srinivasan/Tito Castolo, 6-4, 7-5, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 27 and # 28 Ranked Teams respectively!
5/19 - Kris Srinivasan/Senthil Kumar over Greg Swierczek/Santosh Reddy, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 29 and # 30 Ranked Teams respectively!
7/18 - Kris Srinivasan/Lou La Forgia over Norman Taclob/Jay Phoenix, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 37 and # 38 Ranked Teams respectively!
7/20 - Lou La Forgia/Jorge Solano over Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto, 6-3, 5-7, 10-1 (STB), to advance to the Semifinals of The M2 Men's Doubles Tournament! 
9/17 - Kris Srinivasan/Jordan Bachvaroff over Senthil Kumar/Jose Gonzales, 6-4, 7-5, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 47 and # 48 Ranked Teams respectively!  Kris and Jordan came back in both sets.
10/13 - Dan Martinelli/Rob Gawley over Ryan Pienciak/Rick Pienciak, 7-5, 7-5, to become the New # 29 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division! 
10/30 - Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over Ryan Pienciak/Mike Carucci, 6-2, 6-7 (7-2), 10-7 (STB)!  Once it went to the STB, rank was no longer on the line.
11/20 - John Incognito/Alfred Chen over Don Moya/Pranav Sinha, 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 69 and # 70 Ranked Teams respectively!

2016 One-Set Doubles Match of The Year:
The Winner: 12/4 - Frank Samara/Jose Gonzales over Nathan Fernandes/Dino Celis, 7-6 (12-10)!  There were 7 Match Points!  Nate and Dino were up 4-0 before it became 4-4 and then game for game.  
The other Nominees:
6/26 - Mike Mole/Vinnie De Benedetto over Chris Lehmann/Dan Martinelli, 7-6 (12-10)!  8 Match Points and nearly an hour long!
8/21 - Levy Lorenzo/Chris Homick over Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (9-7)!  It had 9 Match Points and was one hour and three minutes long!
11/23 - John Incognito/Don Moya over Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak, 7-6 (10-8)!  After having been down 2-5, John and Don rallied back to eventually force the Tiebreak!  In the Breaker, they ended up winning it on the 5th Match Point!
3/6 – Frank Samara/Jorge Solano over Dino Celis/Mike Mole, 7-6 (8-6)!  8 Match Points (2 prior to the TB) that were all in favor of Samara/Solano!
11/18 - Kris Srinivasan/Jordan Bachvaroff over Dino Celis/Frank Samara, 7-6 (9-7)!  There were 4 Match Points and it was an hour and four minutes long!
7/17 - Alfred Chen/Dan Hwang over John Incognito/Nick Inciong, 7-6 (8-6)!  Incognito/Inciong saved 5 Match Points down 4-5 and then led 6-4 in the Tiebreak only to lose the last 4 points!
7/3 - Nathan Fernandes/Ayman Elbatanony over Ryan Pienciak/Adam Pienciak, 7-6 (9-7)!  Nate and Ayman were down 5-6 in the TB where they saved that Match Point!
4/10 - Moka Pathan/Brian Barbera over Chris Lehmann/Mike Carucci, 7-6 (9-7)!  It was the official GTA Debut of Mike Carucci.  Shockingly, only 39 minutes long!   
12/13 - John Incognito/Syed Rashid over Frank Samara/Mike Sindler, 7-6 (8-6)!  Frank and Mike had a 4-0 lead as John and Syed only won 2 of the first 18 points of the match. They finally won a game, but were soon down 1-5 before rallying to 6-5!  There were 3 MP's in the TB!  It was an hour and one minute long!

The Rationale: It could be a coin flip between the winner and the top runner-up here, but Samara/Gonzales over Fernandes/Celis gets the nod (even though there was one less Match Point) due to the comeback factor and the overall quality level was likely a tick higher.  But Mole/De Benedetto-Lehmann/Martinelli was quite excellent as well.  Lorenzo/Homick-Samara/De Benedetto had one more MP than the top runner-up and only suffers slightly due to the lower TB score.  Incognito/Moya versus The Pienciaks had a higher TB score than the previous runner-up, but less Match Points.  Samara/Solano over Celis/Mole had a high amount of Match Points and all in favor of the eventual winners!  Srinivasan/Bachvaroff vs. Celis/Samara also had an impressive TB score.  Chen/Hwang-Incognito/Inciong had a solid TB and many MP's as well.  Fernandes/Elbatanony versus The Pienciaks had an impressive TB, but seemingly only one Match Point.  Pathan/Barbera-Lehmann/Carucci had the same TB score as the previous runner-up, but a short duration and less details.  Incognito/Rashid-Samara/Sindler wrapped up the season with one of the most unlikely comeback scenarios (such a dramatic swing in momentum) which enabled the drama to trump the overall quality just enough to get an official nod here.  And now get ready for an unprecedented amount of Honorable Mentions…proving just how active and epic the 2016 Season truly was. 

Honorable Mentions:
2/28 - Kris Srinivasan/Tito Castolo over Marijus Kuzavas/Frank Samara, 7-6 (7-3)!  Kuzavas/Samara had been up 5-1!  Down 4-5, Srinivasan/Castolo save an MP and saved another in the TB before winning it on the 3rd MP (their 1st).
4/17 - Rob Ryan/Dino Celis over Jose Gonzales/Tito Castolo, 7-6 (8-6)!  4 Match Points!
4/24 - Dino Celis/Sukumar Mitra over Jose Gonzales/Mike Carucci, 7-6 (8-6)!  About an hour long.
4/24 - Kris Srinivasan/Nithin Poosala over Jose Gonzales/Nathan Fernandes, 7-6 (7-3)!  Kris and Nithin saved 1 MP to make it 5-5!  Kris called it "the match of the night!"
4/25 - Chris Chiaro/Nithin Poosala over Kris Srinivasan/Lou La Forgia, 7-6 (7-4)!  Once again, Kris called it "the match of the night!"
5/9 - Dan Martinelli/Syed Rashid over Leo Victor/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (7-4)!  7 Match Points, 6 of which took place before the TB!
5/20 - Kris Srinivasan/Mike Kazlauskas over Senthil Kumar/Rob Gawley, 7-5!  Down 3-5, Kumar and Gawley saved 3 MP's to extend the match.
5/24 - Chris Chiaro/Raj Tailor over Praful Nair/Lou La Forgia, 7-6 (8-6)!  There are no other details.
5/31 - Tito Castolo/Felix Castolo over Greg Swierczek/Lou La Forgia, 7-6 (7-5)!  It was the official GTA Debut of Felix Castolo.
6/6 - Raj Shah/Jorge Solano over Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (7-5)!  It was one hour long, but only had one Match Point.
6/8 - Edwin Ortega/Tito Castolo over Norman Taclob/Kris Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-2)!  Taclob and Srinivasan had a 5-1 lead prior to the TB!
6/10 - Joe Rodrigues/Nathan Fernandes over Raj Shah/Dan Martinelli, 7-6 (7-3)!  It was an hour long, but no other details.
6/16 - Kevin Doyle/Nathan Fernandes over Anish Mehta/Ryan Pienciak, 7-5!  Down 4-5, Doyle and Fernandes save 4 MP's to begin their comeback!
7/6 - Kris Srinivasan/Tito Castolo over Edwin Ortega/Michael Chang, 7-6 (8-6)!  It was the official GTA Debut of Michael Chang.  Kris reported the action as solid and the match as quite lengthy.
7/10 - Kris Srinivasan/Senthil Kumar over Raj Shah/Mike Mole, 7-6 (8-6)!  3 Match Points!
7/11 - Nathan Fernandes/Jorge Solano over Frank Samara/Dan Martinelli, 6-4!  6 Match Points and two minutes shy of an hour long!
7/13 - Chris Chiaro/Kris Srinivasan over Raj Tailor/Tito Castolo, 7-6 (7-1)!  It was described as a very solid and exciting match.
7/14 - Dino Celis/Tito Castolo over Moka Pathan/Nathan Fernandes, 7-6 (7-4)!  Nate and Moka had been up 4-1 prior to the TB!
7/17 - Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto over Mike Mole/Mark Grossman, 6-4!  6 Match Points!
7/26 - Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas over Chris Chiaro/Dino Celis, 7-6 (7-2)!  It was almost an hour long. 
8/8 - Ralph Bernard/Sairaj Srinivasan over Dennis Cabanatan/Ted Cedroski, 7-6 (7-4)!  It was the official GTA Return of Ted Cedroski.  Ralph and Sairaj had been up 5-2.  Kris described it as a great match.
8/9 - Jay Phoenix/Vinnie De Benedetto over Joe Rodrigues/Matt Meillon, 7-6 (7-5)!  There are no other details.
8/11 - Senthil Kumar/Frank Samara over Nathan Fernandes/Edwin Ortega, 7-6 (7-3)!  There were only 2 Match Points, but it was nearly an hour long.
8/15 - Raj Shah/Senthil Kumar over Nathan Fernandes/Scott Bergenfeld, 7-6 (7-4)!  Kris described it as a very competitive match.
8/21 - Chazz Weldon/Frank Samara over Chris Chiaro/Dean Delgado, 7-5!  Chiaro/Delgado had been up 5-2!  It was just six minutes shy of being an hour long.  
8/26 - Marijus Kuzavas/Nathan Fernandes over Chris Chiaro/Rick Pienciak, 7-6 (7-4)!  There are no other details.
8/26 - Jorge Solano/Dennis Cabanatan over Kris Srinivasan/Jose Gonzales, 7-5!  There were 5 Match Points!
9/9 - Chris Chiaro/Matt Meillon over Senthil Kumar/Jordan Bachvaroff, 7-6 (8-6)!  Chris and Matt were down 0-3.  There were just 2 Match Points and it was surprisingly only 45 minutes long.
9/11 - Frank Samara/Jorge Solano over Ryan Pienciak/Rick Pienciak, 7-6 (7-5)!  Eight minutes shy of an hour, but just one Match Point.
9/12 - Kris Srinivasan/Raj Boddu over Chris Chiaro/Jordan Bachvaroff, 7-6 (7-4)!  Kris and Raj had been up 5-2 prior to the TB!
9/18 - Dino Celis/Jorge Solano over Mike Mole/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (7-5)!  4 Match Points and just four minutes shy of one hour!
10/3 - Chris Chiaro/Joe Rodrigues over Dino Celis/Ryan Pienciak, 7-6 (7-4)!  It was just five minutes shy of an hour.
10/9 - Sairaj Srinivasan/Nithin Poosala over Senthil Kumar/Kris Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-2)!  Kris described it as a very good match.
10/14 - Raj Shah/Sairaj Srinivasan over Frank Samara/Santosh Reddy, 7-5!  Down 3-5, Raj and Sairaj saved a Match Point.  This was 1 hour 3 minutes long without changeovers!  
10/28 - Norman Taclob/Tito Castolo over Senthil Kumar/Richard Reicht, 7-6 (7-3)!  It was 3-3 in the TB, but no other key details.
11/3 - Nathan Fernandes/Kris Srinivasan over Raj Shah/Jordan Bachvaroff, 7-5!  Kris described it as a very good match.
11/13 - Ryan Pienciak/Abhilash Gadi over Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-6 (7-5)!  Frank and Vinnie had been up 5-2 in the TB!
11/13 - Mike Mole/Ryan Pienciak over Dino Celis/Frank Samara, 6-4!  6 Match Points!
11/16 - John Incognito/Don Moya over Dino Celis/Frank Samara, 7-6 (7-3)!  There was only one Match Point and it was just 50 minutes long.
11/22 - Senthil Kumar/Tom La over Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak, 7-6 (7-5)!  There are no other details.
11/23 - Levy Lorenzo/Ted Cedroski over Vladimir Smolyanskiy/Ray Spadaro, 7-6 (7-3)!  There are no other details.
11/26 - Jose Gonzales/Kevin Doyle over Levy Lorenzo Jr./Alex Roumi, 7-6 (7-3)!  It was the official GTA Debut of Alex Roumi.  There were no other details.
11/27 - Dino Celis/Tony Shiao over John Incognito/Nick Inciong, 7-6 (7-3)!  Incognito and Inciong had been down 2-5 prior to the TB.  
12/1 - Senthil Kumar/Syed Rashid over Ryan Pienciak/Scott Whisten, 7-6 (7-5)!  There are no other details.
12/11 - Tom La/Dan Hwang over John Incognito/Alfred Chen, 9-7!  They played out the game rather than do the TB.  There are no other details.
12/15 - Tony Shiao/Ryan Pienciak over Senthil Kumar/Tom La, 7-6 (7-4)!  Senthil and Tom were down 2-5 before going up 6-5.  Tony and Ryan were down 1-4 in the TB before taking six straight points to get the win!

2016 Intermediate Match of The Year:
The Winner: 9/6 - Greg Swierczek over Mike Kazlauskas, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, to become both the New # 16 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 1 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while advancing to the Finals of the GTA Intermediate Title Tournament!  Not sure of the exact length, but was told it was a marathon.
The other Nominees:
11/27 - Nathan Fernandes over Mike Mole, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 2 Rank in the Advanced Division!  Mole had been up 4-1 in the 3rd Set!  It was 2 hours 15 minutes long!  
7/24 - Tony Shiao over Raj Boddu, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, to successfully defend both his # 12 Rank in the Advanced Division and his # 1 Rank in the Intermediate Division while advancing to The Round of 16 of The Grove Cup Tournament!  Shiao saved 3 MP's in the 2nd Set!  The match was nearly 3 hours long!
9/24 - Senthil Kumar over Greg Swierczek, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, to win the GTA Intermediate Title Tournament and become both the New GTA Intermediate Champ and the New # 16 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division in the process!
6/10 - Omar Santos over Edwin Ortega, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 0-6, 7-5, to become both the New # 24 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 16 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division!  Once again, it was 3 out of 5 Sets format.  This one was over 3-1/2 hours long!

The Rationale: A viable argument can be made for any of The Top 3 matches here to end up as the winner, but Swierczek-Kazlauskas gets the nod here (even though the top runner-up has the same exact score) due to the fact that I believe it was even longer in duration and that it had more historical significance.  Had Mole somehow pulled off the upset on Fernandes, we would likely have to reverse the winner and runner-up here.  And Shiao-Boddu was so epic as well…especially when considering how Tony saved 3 Match Points in the 2nd Set!  The less dramatic 3rd Set score (as Boddu seemingly ran out of gas) is why it suffers here just a bit.  Kumar-Swierczek was another close contest that suffers a bit due to the 3rd Set score as well, but makes up for it with true historical significance.  Santos-Ortega had a prolific friendly rivalry this past season and this 3 out of 5 Sets encounter was clearly the best of the bunch.  But they had quite a few more battles in the upcoming Honorable Mentions.

Honorable Mentions:
4/25 - Jay Phoenix over Jorge Solano, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), to successfully defend his # 9 Rank in the Intermediate Division plus advance to the Quarterfinals of The GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!
5/10 - Tony Shiao over Ryan Pienciak, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), to successfully defend his # 8 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Quarterfinals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!
6/3 - Tony Shiao over Praful Nair, 6-4, 6-4, to successfully defend his # 19 Rank in the Advanced Division while simultaneously becoming the New # 3 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division and also advancing to the Finals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!  The match was nearly two hours long!
6/8 - Edwin Ortega over Omar Santos, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, to become both the New # 23 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 16 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division!  It was a 3 out of 5 Sets format.
7/9 - Edwin Ortega over Omar Santos, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), to successfully defend both his # 21 Rank in the Advanced Division and his # 11 Rank in the Intermediate Division!  Santos was down 0-3 in the 2nd Set prior to the TB! 
7/19 - Dean Delgado over Joe Rodrigues, 7-5, 6-4, to advance to The Grove Cup Round of 16!
8/21 - Tony Shiao over Norman Taclob, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, to become the New # 11 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while also advancing to The Quarterfinals of The Grove Cup Tournament!
8/23 - Scott Bergenfeld over Jordan Bachvaroff, 3-6, 6-0, 11-9 (STB)!  Rank was no longer on the line once they went to the STB, but still it was exciting.
9/13 - Omar Santos over Mike Mole, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), to become both the New # 22 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 10 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division!
10/28 - Omar Santos over Edwin Ortega, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, to become both the New # 22 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 5 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division!  It was 2 hours and 15 minutes long in windy conditions!
11/28 - Joe Rodrigues over Jay Phoenix, 6-4, 6-4, to successfully defend both his # 21 Rank in the Advanced Division and his # 2 Rank in the Intermediate Division! 

2016 One-Set Intermediate Match of The Year:
The Winner: 6/16 - Nathan Fernandes over Ryan Pienciak, 7-6 (7-4)!  Down 4-5, Fernandes saved an MP while serving to begin his comeback!
The other Nominees:
7/6 - Joe Rodrigues over Jay Phoenix, 7-6 (7-5)!  The conditions were very hot and humid.
9/21 - Ryan Pienciak over Dino Celis, 7-6 (7-4)!
8/28 - Nathan Fernandes over Mike Mole, 7-6 (7-1)!  It was just two minutes shy of an hour!
4/30 - Kris Srinivasan over Greg Swierczek, 7-6 (7-4)!

The Rationale: The combination of an impressive TB score, some drama and a near upset gives Fernandes over Pienciak the nod here.  Rodrigues-Phoenix had the slightly more impressive score and the sweltering conditions, but also less details.  Pienciak-Celis has an impressive TB score and is something of an upset.  Fernandes-Mole was a near upset and a sign of things to come with regard to their full Challenge Match later in the season.  Srinivasan and Swierczek have had a friendly rivalry for a few seasons now and this was another impressive One-Setter in their series of encounters.

Honorable Mentions:
5/25 - Raj Tailor over Mike Kazlauskas, 7-6 (7-2)!    
7/10 - Mike Mole over Jay Phoenix, 7-6 (7-4)! 
7/10 - Rob Ryan over Jay Phoenix, 7-5!
8/7 - Jay Phoenix over Mike Mole, 7-6 (7-4)!
8/11 - Jay Phoenix over Frank Samara, 6-4!
8/14 - Ryan Pienciak over Frank Samara, 6-4!
9/2 - Dean Delgado over Jay Phoenix, 6-4!  It was five minutes shy of an hour long.  
9/20 - Jordan Bachvaroff over Scott Bergenfeld, 7-6 (7-3)!
10/23 - Andrew Truong over Tommy Reszkowski, 7-6 (7-3)!  Tommy was up 5-2 prior to the TB.
10/29 - Jordan Bachvaroff over Mike Kazlauskas, 7-5!
10/30 - Mike Kazlauskas over Mike Mole, 7-6 (7-5)!
11/6 - Marijus Kuzavas over Kris Srinivasan, 6-4!

2016 Women's Match of The Year: 
The Winner: 9/12 - Sally Pillay over Anna Mazur, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), to successfully defend her # 2 Rank in the Women's Division while also advancing to the Finals of the 6th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Women's Singles Tournament!  Anna was up 5-4 in the 3rd Set!
The other Nominees:
4/30 - Evonne Tan over Anna Mazur, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), to become the New # 3 Ranked Player in the Women's Division and advance to the Quarterfinals of the GTA Women's Championship Tournament!  Mazur had been up 4-1 in the 3rd Set!
6/6 - Sally Pillay over Doinks Srinivasan, 6-4, 7-5, to become the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Women's Division while also advancing to the Semifinals of the GTA Women's Championship Tournament!

The Rationale: Here's another circumstance where the winner and the top runner-up can almost be decided via a coin flip, but Pillay-Mazur gets the nod over Tan-Mazur due to the fact that the earlier sets were a bit tighter and there was just a shade more historical significance.  But both were marathon matches that seemingly could have gone either way.  Pillay-Srinivasan, while a straight-set affair, was a close contest throughout and also had a solid dose of historical importance.

No Honorable Mentions.

2016 One-Set Women's Match of The Year:
The Winner: 10/15 - Fernanda Toker over Anna Mazur, 6-4!
No other Nominees.

The Rationale: For the second straight season, there was a somewhat surprising dearth of competitive Singles One-Setters on the ladies side of the ledger .  This one is the lone standout.

No Honorable Mentions.

2016 Women's Doubles Match of The Year:
The Winner: 10/23 - Kathy Sheldon/Christine Toth over Doinks Srinivasan/Natalia Sout, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), to win the 2016 W-Dub Tournament and become the New # 2 Ranked Team (aka the next Top Contenders) in the Women's Doubles Division!
The other Nominees:
8/25 - Fernanda Toker/Genalin Capan over Doinks Srinivasan/Brenda Jordan, 6-7 (7-3), 6-1, 6-3, to become the New # 10 Ranked Team in the Women's Doubles Division while advancing to The Finals of The W2 Women's Doubles Tournament!
9/17 - Doinks Srinivasan/Brenda Jordan over Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, to become the New # 4 Ranked Team in the Women's Doubles Division! 

The Rationale: Sheldon/Toth-Srinivasan/Sout was clearly the closest contest here and it was very exciting right up until the very end.  Plus, it had historical significance as well.  Toker/Capan-Srinivasan/Jordan was an excellent match that got off to a somewhat surprising start, but it faded somewhat in the end.  And then Srinivasan/Jordan-Sheldon/Peterson rightfully rounds up the only three worthy nominees this season.

No Honorable Mentions.

2016 One-Set Women's Doubles Match of The Year:
The Winner: 10/23 - Kathy Sheldon/Christine Toth over Brenda Jordan/Natalie Guzman, 7-5, in the W-Dub Second Round One-Setter!
The other Nominees:
7/11 - Doinks Srinivasan/Brenda Jordan over Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson, 7-6 (7-5)!
8/8 - Doinks Srinivasan/Brenda Jordan over Kathy Sheldon/Dawn Peterson, 7-5!

The Rationale: This is another surprisingly succinct category this season.  With three results so similar, the one that has the most historical significance is the one that comes out on top.   

No Honorable Mentions.

2016 Mixed Doubles Match of The Year:
The Winner: 10/7 - Tito Castolo/Dawn Peterson over Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to win the 2016 MXD2 Tournament and become the New GTA Mixed Doubles Champions!  Tito and Dawn were down 0-4 in the 3rd Set!  According to multiple sources, this match was somewhere between 2-1/2 and 3 hours long!
The other Nominees:
10/16 - Chazz Weldon/Fernanda Toker over Dennis Cabanatan/Sally Pillay, 6-3, 5-7, 13-11 (STB), to become the New # 13 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division and advance to the M-Dub Finals!  5 Match Points!  2 hours and 11 minutes long!
8/17 - Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, to become the New # 3 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division while advancing to The Finals of The MXD2 Mixed Doubles Tournament!
5/5 - Jose Gonzales/Natalia Sout over Dave Zhu/Jane Fan, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 29 and # 30 Ranked Teams respectively!
10/23 - Chazz Weldon/Fernanda Toker over Dino Celis/Laura Gawley, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, to win the 2016 M-Dub Tournament and become the New # 2 Ranked Team (aka the next Top Contenders) in the Mixed Doubles Division!

The Rationale: Castolo/Peterson versus The Gawleys is the clear winner here as it has the historical significance, drama, duration and overall match quality.  It was also considered to be somewhat of an upset at the time.  Usually, Super Tiebreaks detract somewhat from the importance of a match result.  But not in the case of Weldon/Toker-Cabanatan/Pillay as it still ended up being over two hours long, had 5 MP's and sent the winning team to the Finals of the M-Dub Tournament.  The Gawleys over Kuzavas/Pillay may have been a straight-set affair, but it was still just about as close as you can get and featured high-quality tennis.  Gonzales/Sout-Zhu/Fan actually has the tightest score of the bunch (when we exclude Super Tiebreaks), but lacks in historical significance.  Weldon/Toker-Celis/Gawley may lack a dramatic 3rd Set, but it was a high-quality match throughout and it did feature its own version of drama near its end (plus it also had the factor of historical importance).

Honorable Mentions:
8/3 - Moka Pathan/Genalin Capan over Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, to successfully defend their # 1 Rank in the Mixed Doubles Division while advancing to The Semifinals of The MXD2 Mixed Doubles Tournament!
8/22 - Raj Shah/Dawn Peterson over Jordan Bachvaroff/Brenda Jordan, 6-4, 7-5, to successfully defend the # 9 Rank in the Mixed Doubles Division!
8/23 - Kris Srinivasan/Laura Gawley over Frank Samara/Christine Toth, 6-4, 6-4, as both teams enter the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 26 and # 27 Ranked Teams respectively!
8/30 - Omar Santos/Christine Toth over Scott Bergenfeld/Mary Rosado, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New # 28 and # 29 Ranked Teams respectively!
10/16 - Chazz Weldon/Fernanda Toker over Senthil Kumar/Brenda Jordan, 2-6, 6-1, 10-7 (STB), as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division, and Weldon/Toker advanced to the M-Dub Semifinals!
10/19 -  Abhilash Gadi/Doinks Srinivasan over Dennis Cabanatan/Brenda Jordan, 3-6, 6-4, 10-7 (STB), as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division as the New #42 and #43 Ranked Teams respectively!
11/9 - Frank Samara/Brenda Jordan over Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, to become the New # 10 Ranked Team in the Mixed Doubles Division!
12/1 - Kevin Doyle/Dawn Peterson over Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon, 6-4, 7-5, to successfully defend the # 48 Rank in the Mixed Doubles Division while McHugh/Sheldon entered the division as the New # 54 Ranked Team!

2016 One-Set Mixed Doubles Match of The Year:
The Winner: 5/9 - Praful Nair/Doinks Srinivasan over Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley, 7-6 (12-10)!  It sounds amazing, but there are no other details.
The other Nominees:
5/12 - John Incognito/Denise Savino over Bo Folchi/Barbara Johnson, 7-6 (9-7)!  It was the official GTA Returns of both Bo Folchi and Denise Savino and it was also the official GTA Debut of Barbara Johnson.  Folchi/Johnson had a 5-3 lead with Double Game/Match Point!
5/12 - Tito Castolo/Natalia Sout over Kris Srinivasan/Dawn Peterson, 7-6 (8-6)!  Srinivasan and Peterson had been down 0-3!
5/17 - Jorge Solano/Natalia Sout over Kris Srinivasan/Natalie Guzman, 7-6 (7-3)!  Srinivasan and Guzman saved 2 MP's to force the TB where they saved one more before going down on the 4th!
5/20 - Dan Martinelli/Laura Gawley over Dave Zhu/Jane Fan, 7-5!  3 MP's, nearly an hour long!
5/29 - Greg Swierczek/Natalia Sout over Dan Martinelli/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-4)!  Kris described it as a superb match.
7/17 - Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay over Scott Bergenfeld/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-4)!  Kris described it as a close and well-contested match.
7/17 - Tony Shiao/Doinks Srinivasan over Ryan Pienciak/Fernanda Toker, 7-6 (7-4)!  There are no other details.
8/6 - Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Dave Zhu/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-4)!  There are no other details.
8/8 - Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley over Kris Srinivasan/Sally Pillay, 7-5!  Kris and Sally had been up 5-3.  Kris described it as a very exciting match and a great comeback by The Gawleys.
8/30 - Kris Srinivasan/Laura Gawley over Dino Celis/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-4)!  Kris and Laura were out to a good lead before Dino and Doinks made it 6-5.

The Rationale: It is a matter of coincidence, not laziness, that sees the winner and all subsequent nominees in this category end up here in chronological order as the season unfolded.  Even without details, we know that Praful and Doinks topping The Gawleys in a One-Setter with a 12-10 TB score has to be the rightful winner.  The top runner-up had the next best TB score and also a nice comeback from Incognito/Savino as well.  The rest of the nominees here follow suit accordingly.  The following Honorable Mentions (which are always simply listed in chronological order) were just slightly less impressive than the nominees above.

Honorable Mentions:
9/5 - Dino Celis/Laura Gawley over Kris Srinivasan/Sally Pillay, 7-5!  It was game for game till 5-5.
10/4 - Senthil Kumar/Doinks Srinivasan over Dennis Cabanatan/Natalia Sout, 7-5! Kris described it as a very close and exciting match.
10/14 - Dave Zhu/Sachiko Tokuda over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-3)!  It was seven minutes shy of an hour long.  
11/2 - Edwin Ortega/Doinks Srinivasan over Kevin Doyle/Dawn Peterson, 7-6 (7-5)!  It was 50 minutes long, but no other details.
11/22 - Kevin Doyle/Dawn Peterson over Sean McHugh/Kathy Sheldon, 7-6 (7-4)!  It was the official GTA Debut of Sean McHugh.  It was nearly an hour long.  

2016 One-Set Doubles Specialty Match of The Year:
The Winner: 3/13 – Frank Samara/Dan Martinelli over Nathan Fernandes/Anna Mazur, 7-6 (8-6)! 9 MP's, all were in favor of Samara/Martinelli. They finally won it in 1 hour 27 minutes!
The other Nominees:
11/14 - Nathan Fernandes/Doinks Srinivasan over Kris Srinivasan/Levy Lorenzo, 7-6 (10-8)!  Kris and Levy were up 4-0 prior to the TB.  There was a total of 8 Match Points!  It was exactly one hour long.
4/17 - Nathan Fernandes/Miriam Mendez over Dean Delgado/Rich Jachens, 7-6 (8-6)!  Nate and Miriam saved 5 MP's prior to the TB where there were a few more before they could finally win.  It was 1 hour 6 minutes long!
5/16 - Kris Srinivasan/Rob Gawley over Tito Castolo/Natalia Sout, 7-6 (8-6)!  Down 4-5, Castolo and Sout save an MP.  They were then up 6-3 in the TB when Srinivasan/Gawley saved 3 MP's before winning this one on the 5th MP overall!
8/29 - Marijus Kuzavas/Nathan Fernandes over Chris Chiaro/Sally Pillay, 7-6 (8-6)!  Marijus and Nate saved multiple Match Points!  It was nearly an hour long.
9/15 - Ryan Pienciak/Doinks Srinivasan over Tony Shiao/Dennis Cabanatan, 7-6 (8-6)!  Kris described it as a very closely contested match.
10/6 - Chris Chiaro/Natalie Guzman over Joe Rodrigues/Nithin Poosala, 7-6 (7-5)!  Kris described this as a very exciting match.
10/5 - Walter Porucznik/Brenda Jordan over Kris Srinivasan/Ryan Pienciak, 7-6 (7-3)!  Kris and Ryan had been up 5-1 prior to the TB.
5/16 - Jose Gonzales/Doinks Srinivasan over Praful Nair/Santosh Reddy, 7-6 (8-6)!  This sounds quite good, but there are no other details.
12/11 - Anish Mehta/Mike Sindler over Ryan Pienciak/Kathy Sheldon, 7-6 (8-6)!  There are no other details.

The Rationale: Here is another category where a coin flip could be used to decide the winner and the top runner-up.  Even though the runner-up had the more impressive TB score, the winner had one additional Match Point (all in favor of the eventual winning team…very unusual) and it went almost an hour and a half!  Both battles were exciting for those involved and anyone who was able to witness them.  The next two runner-ups stand out from the rest of the pack due to better detail and higher drama.  Then, the rest of the nominees unfold from there.  Yet, they stand out just enough from the Honorable Mentions to follow (again, an unprecedented amount this season).

Honorable Mentions:
3/1 – Frank Samara/Harvey Ranzi over Dino Celis/Robin Altman, 7-5!  4 Match Points!
3/16 – Frank Samara/Mike Mole over Moka Pathan/Genalin Capan, 7-6 (7-3)!  Intense, solid action and an hour long, but it only had 1 MP.
3/23 - Doinks Srinivasan/Sally Pillay over Jose Gonzales/Edwin Ortega, 7-6 (7-5)!
4/30 - Greg Swierczek/Doinks Srinivasan over Kris Srinivasan/Jose Gonzales, 7-6 (7-5)!
5/28 - Sally Pillay/Brenda Jordan over Kris Srinivasan/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-4)!  This sounds good, but has no details.
6/26 - Chazz Weldon/Fernanda Toker over Jorge Solano/David Cardenas, 7-5!  Nearly an hour long!
7/2 - Norman Taclob/Mike Mole over Chris Chiaro/Genalin Capan, 7-6 (7-5)!  It was nearly an hour long, but no other details.
7/7 - Raj Boddu/Doinks Srinivasan over Sairaj Srinivasan/Levy Lorenzo, 7-6 (7-5)!  Sairaj and Levy had been down 0-3 prior to the TB.
7/14 - Kris Srinivasan/Lou La Forgia over Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay, 7-5!  It was described as a very close and exciting match.
8/4 - Nathan Fernandes/Doinks Srinivasan over Scott Bergenfeld/Kris Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-4)!  There are no other details.
8/25 - Greg Swierczek/Brenda Jordan over Scott Bergenfeld/Kevin Doyle, 7-6 (7-3)!  There are no other details.
8/25 - Kris Srinivasan/Laura Gawley over Greg Swierczek/Rob Gawley, 7-5!  Kris and Laura had been down 1-4. 
9/4 - Kris Srinivasan/Genalin Capan over Jose Gonzales/Sairaj Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-4)!  It was 52 minutes long.
9/22 - Edwin Ortega/Michel Encarnacion over Senthil Kumar/Doinks Srinivasan, 7-6 (7-5)!  Senthil and Doinks had been down 1-4 prior to the TB.
9/23 - Moka Pathan/Stacy Casais over Frank Samara/Jordan Bachvaroff, 7-5!  It was the official GTA Debut of Stacy Casais.  It was 50 minutes long.  
10/6 - Sairaj Srinivasan/Nithin Poosala over Joe Rodrigues/Christine Toth, 7-6 (7-3)!  Kris described it as a very close and compelling match.
10/7 - Senthil Kumar/Kris Srinivasan over Nithin Poosala/Stacy Casais, 7-6 (7-3)!  Nithin and Stacy were up 5-3 before the TB.
11/3 - Nathan Fernandes/Doinks Srinivasan over Kris Srinivasan/Dan Martinelli, 7-5!  Kris described it as a very close match.
11/27 - Jose Gonzales/Natalia Sout over Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto, 7-5!  It was a very close contest throughout and somewhat of an upset.

2016 One-Set Singles Specialty Match of The Year:
The Winner: 7/13 - Nathan Fernandes over Genalin Capan, 7-6 (9-7)!  Nate was up 5-3 prior to the TB.  Surprisingly, it was only 50 minutes long!  Multiple MP's in the TB!
The other Nominees:
7/12 - Chazz Weldon over MaryFrances Patton, 7-6 (7-3)!  One hour and 45 minutes long in hot and humid conditions!
9/12 - Genalin Capan over Mike Mole, 7-6 (7-4)!  Gen saved 4 MP's prior to the TB!  It was one hour long!
3/11 – Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 7-5! Mike saved 3 MP's before winning it on the 7th!
8/14 - Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 7-5!  There were 3 Match Points in this one.

The Rationale: Yet another category where a valid argument could be made for either the winner or the top runner-up.  Fernandes-Capan triumphs due to the more impressive TB score, drama and details.  Weldon vs. Patton was the winner of this category last season where they had a 6-4 score, yet a 90 minute match.  This year they outdid themselves, but we know how their marathons go by now.  Still, it is quite inspiring.  The rest of the nominees here follow suit accordingly. 

Honorable Mention:
3/15 – Mike Mole over Genalin Capan, 7-5! There were just two Match Points in this one.

2016 Singles Specialty Match of The Year:
The Winner: 5/27 - Anna Mazur over Raj Tailor, 6-2, 6-4!
No other Nominees.

The Rationale: Like last year, only one full 2 out of 3 Sets "Battle of The Sexes" Match was waged this past season.  This time around, the result was quite the upset.  The ever-ready and always steady Mazur was able to withstand the firepower of Tailor, weather the storm and come out on top.  It was an impressive result.  

No Honorable Mentions.

2016 Doubles Specialty Match of The Year:
The Winner: 3/10 - Tito Castolo/Nathan Fernandes over Marijus Kuzavas/Sally Pillay, 6-2, 3-6, 10-6 (STB)!
The other Nominees:
11/13 - Nathan Fernandes/Rafaelo Kazakov over Mike Kazlauskas/Natalia Sout, 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2!  It was 2 hours and 5 minutes long!
8/20 - Mike Kazlauskas/Doinks Srinivasan over Kris Srinivasan/Sairaj Srinivasan, 6-4, 6-3!

The Rationale: The winner here prevails because the Super Tiebreak actually provided a greater sense of drama than the full 3rd Set played in the top runner-up and the straight-set affair that was the other nominee.

No Honorable Mentions.

2016 Greatest Singles Performance of The Year:
The Winner: Chris Chiaro for his 11/10 victory over Nathan Fernandes, 7-6 (12-10), 6-1, to complete his third successful GTA Championship defense of his second reign!
The other Nominees:
Laura Gawley for her 11/1 victory over Fernanda Toker, 6-3, 6-1, to complete her first successful GTA Women's Championship defense of her first reign!
Nathan Fernandes for his 11/8 victory over Raj Shah, 6-4, 7-5, to become the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the 2016 Grove Cup Champ and next Top Contender to the GTA Championship!
Laura Gawley for her 7/24 victory over Sally Pillay, 6-1, 6-1, to win the GTA Women's Championship Tournament and become the New GTA Women's Champion!
Chris Chiaro for his 5/26 victory over Moka Pathan, 6-3, 6-3, to become The New 2-Time GTA Champion!

The Rationale: The winner and the top runner-up are very similar whereby we had dominant Champions sustain said dominance with impressive victories over their Top Contenders who were both coming off of significant Tournament victories.  The edge goes to Chiaro (winning out here over Gawley) because the match against Fernandes featured a 1st Set which would have easily been the One-Set Singles Match of The Year had it been a One-Setter.  It seemed we were destined to see a full 3 Set marathon only to then have the Champ shift to a higher gear and almost completely dominate the 2nd Set.  Gawley's win over Toker was similar as the 1st Set was close, but the momentum shift was not quite as dramatic.  Still, it is a close call.  Fernandes gets recognition for breaking through with his first-ever Grove Cup victory over a very tough opponent in Shah.  Gawley and Chiaro's victories to become the Champions of their respective divisions again were sound statements to just how strong each competitor is and they both came against solid competition as well.  

Honorable Mentions:
Moka Pathan for his 4/28 victory over Rob Ryan, 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, to become the New GTA Champion!
Senthil Kumar for his 5/26 victory over Anish Mehta, 6-3, 6-2, to successfully defend his # 11 Rank in the Advanced Division and his # 2 Rank in the Intermediate Division while also advancing to the Finals of the GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament! 
Tony Shiao for his 6/14 victory over Senthil Kumar, 6-4, 6-3, to become both the New # 10 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division and the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Intermediate Division while winning the 2016 GTA Intermediate Invitational Tournament!
Chris Chiaro for his 6/28 victory over Dino Celis, 6-2, 6-0, to complete his first successful GTA Championship defense of his second reign!
Chris Chiaro for his 7/11 victory over Raj Shah, 6-4, 6-0, to complete the second successful GTA Championship defense of his second reign!
Nathan Fernandes for his 8/2 victory over Dean Delgado, 6-0, 6-0, to become the New # 7 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while advancing to The Quarterfinals of The Grove Cup Tournament!
Fernanda Toker for her 8/19 victory over Genalin Capan, 6-0, 6-2, to become the New # 4 Ranked Player in the Women's Division while advancing to the Semifinals of the 6th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Women's Singles Tournament!
Fernanda Toker for her 8/29 victory over Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1, 6-0, to become the New # 3 Ranked Player in the Women's Division while advancing to The Finals of The 6th Annual Gail-ann Hamiltom Memorial Women's Singles Tournament!
Nathan Fernandes for his 9/15 victory over Tony Shiao, 6-0, 6-1, to become the New # 4 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while also advancing to the Finals of the Grove Cup Men's Singles Tournament!
Senthil Kumar for his 9/24 victory over Greg Swierczek, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, to win the GTA Intermediate Title Tournament and become both the New GTA Intermediate Champ and the New # 16 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division in the process!
Raj Shah for his 10/6 victory over Rob Ryan, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, to successfully defend his # 2 Rank in the Advanced Division plus advance to the Finals of the Grove Cup Tournament!
Fernanda Toker for her 10/24 victory over Sally Pillay, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, to become the New # 2 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division as well as the winner of the 6th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Women's Singles Tournament! 

2016 Greatest Doubles Performance of The Year:
The Winners: Tito Castolo and Dawn Peterson for their 10/7 victory over Rob Gawley/Laura Gawley, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to win the 2016 MXD2 Tournament and become the New GTA Mixed Doubles Champions! 
The other Nominees:
Chris Chiaro and Raj Shah for their 10/25 victory over Nathan Fernandes/Moka Pathan, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), to advance to the M2 Finals while also successfully defending their # 8 Rank in the Doubles Division!
Laura Gawley and Sally Pillay for their 9/13 victory over Fernanda Toker/Genalin Capan, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, to become the New 2-Time GTA Women's Doubles Champions and win the 2016 W2 Women's Doubles Tournament!
Tito Castolo and Dawn Peterson for their 11/14 victory over Chazz Weldon/Fernanda Toker, 6-2, 6-1, to complete their first successful GTA Mixed Doubles Championship defense of their first reign!
Ryan Pienciak and Nick Inciong for their 11/5 victory over Raj Shah/Raj Boddu, 6-1, 6-2, to become the 2016 Monk Memorial Champs and the New # 2 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division (i.e. the next Top Contenders)!
 
The Rationale: Castolo and Peterson are the clear winners here as they were a makeshift team put together at the last minute to enter the MXD2 Tournament where they met up with the very experienced tandem known as The Gawleys.  They pulled off an impressive comeback upset in a marathon match!  When Chiaro and Shah got past Fernandes and Pathan, it set them on the path to then face (and conquer) Kuzavas and Kazlauskas (listed below as an Honorable Mention) and perhaps move on to regain the GTA Doubles Championship that they never lost on the court.  Gawley and Pillay had an impressive win over a tough team in Toker and Capan to become the undefeated 2-Time GTA Women's Doubles Champions.  When Weldon and Toker won the M-Dub Tournament together, many thought it would lead to them then capturing the GTA Mixed Doubles Championship.  But Castolo and Peterson shut down that idea rather quickly and convincingly.  Pienciak and Inciong had a similarly dominant victory over a team (Shah and Boddu) that, on paper, should have given them a much tougher fight.

Honorable Mentions:
Norman Taclob and Tito Castolo for their 5/22 victory over Frank Samara/Vinnie De Benedetto, 6-1, 6-3, to become the New GTA Champions!  The Titles had been stripped from Chiaro/Shah for inactivity.
Genalin Capan and Fernanda Toker for their 8/5 victory over Marie Salamon/Robin Altman, 6-1, 6-0, as both teams entered the Women's Doubles Division as the New # 12 and # 13 Ranked Teams respectively while advancing to the W2 Semifinals!
Chris Chiaro and Raj Shah for their 11/2 victory over Marijus Kuzavas/Mike Kazlauskas, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, to win the 2016 M2 Tournament and become the New # 2 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division (aka The Next Top Contenders)!
Laura Gawley and Sally Pillay for their 11/6 victory over Kathy Sheldon/Christine Toth, 6-2, 6-0, to complete the first successful GTA Women's Doubles Championship defense of their second reign!

As of the 2013 Season, we changed the way we count the nominations for the "Greatest Performances" Awards.  We used to count them as "Match-related", but now count them as "Individual" awards.  And that format of accounting occurs again this year.  The reason for that is we are recognizing an individual's efforts in those matches and not the match itself.

Speaking of nominations, here we go...

Total Nominations:
NATHAN FERNANDES - 24 TOTAL: 6 Individual, 18 Match-related (N/A in 2015, 9 total in 2014, 14 total in 2013, 11 total in 2012, 0 in 2011).
Doinks Srinivasan - 19 Total: 3 Individual, 16 Match-related (23 total in 2015, 17 total in 2014, 7 total in 2013 which was her debut season).
Laura Gawley - 15 Total: 8 Individual, 7 Match-related (16 total in 2015 which was her debut season).
Ryan Pienciak - 13 Total: 4 Individual, 9 Match-related (debut season).
Sally Pillay - 12 Total: 5 Individual, 7 Match-related (13 total in 2015, 6 total in 2014 which was her debut season).
Fernanda Toker - 11 Total: 6 Individual, 5 Match-related (4 total in 2015, 5 total in 2014 which was her debut season).
Dawn Peterson - 11 Total: 6 Individual, 5 Match-related (9 total in 2015, 4 total in 2014 which was her debut season).
Chris Chiaro - 10 Total: 6 Individual, 4 Match-related (15 total in 2015, 15 total in 2014, 17 total in 2013, 13 total in 2012, 6 total in 2011).
Marijus Kuzavas - 9 Total: 2 Individual, 7 Match-related (15 total in 2015, 0 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
Dino Celis - 9 Total: 1 Individual, 8 Match-related (7 total in 2015, 3 total in 2014, 8 total in 2013, 8 total in 2012 which was his debut season).
Frank Samara - 9 Total: 1 Individual, 8 Match-related (10 total in 2015, 15 total in 2014, 15 total in 2013, 10 total in 2012, 24 total in 2011).
Kris Srinivasan - 9 Total: 0 Individual, 9 Match-related (21 total in 2015, 12 total in 2014, 7 total in 2013 which was his debut season).
Tito Castolo - 9 Total: 5 Individual, 4 Match-related (6 total in 2015, 0 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
Brenda Jordan - 9 Total: 3 Individual, 6 Match-related (16 total in 2015, 5 total in 2014 which was her return season).
Raj Shah - 8 Total: 4 Individual, 4 Match-related (10 total in 2015, 21 total in 2014, 19 total in 2013, 12 total in 2012 which was his debut season).
Genalin Capan - 8 Total: 3 Individual, 5 Match-related (11 total in 2015, 19 total in 2014, 21 total in 2013, 24 total in 2012, 20 total in 2011).
Natalia Sout - 8 Total: 1 Individual, 7 Match-related (9 total in 2015 which was her debut season).
Tony Shiao - 7 Total: 2 Individual, 5 Match-related (3 total in 2015, 2 total in 2014, 6 total in 2013, 3 total in 2012 which was his debut season).
Mike Mole - 7 Total: 1 Individual, 6 Match-related (3 total in 2015, 2 total in 2014, 4 total in 2013 which was his debut season).
Kathy Sheldon - 7 Total: 2 Individual, 5 Match-related (13 total in 2015, 15 total in 2014, 14 total in 2013, 15 total in 2012, 8 total in 2011).
Chazz Weldon - 6 Total: 2 Individual, 4 Match-related (2 total in 2015, 4 total in 2014, 3 total in 2013, 7 total in 2012 which was his debut season).
Moka Pathan - 6 Total: 3 Individual, 3 Match-related (9 total in 2015, 14 total in 2014, 4 total in 2013, 2 total in 2012, 4 total in 2011).
Mike Kazlauskas - 6 Total: 1 Individual, 5 Match-related (10 total in 2015, 3 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
John Incognito - 6 Total: 1 Individual, 5 Match-related (5 total in 2015, 5 total in 2014, 3 total in 2013, 4 total in 2012, 10 total in 2011).
Rob Gawley - 6 Total: 1 Individual, 5 Match-related (7 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Anna Mazur - 6 Total: 1 Individual, 5 Match-related (11 total in 2015, 9 total in 2014, 7 total in 2013, 5 total in 2012, 0 total in 2011).
Anish Mehta - 5 Total: 1 Individual, 5 Match-related (debut season).
Senthil Kumar - 5 Total: 2 Individual, 3 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 1 total in 2014, 0 total in 2013 which was his debut season).
Joe Rodrigues - 5 Total: 2 Individual, 3 Match-related (4 total in 2015, 7 total in 2014, 3 total in 2013, 1 total in 2012, 6 total in 2011).
Nick Inciong - 5 Total: 3 Individual, 2 Match-related (5 total in 2015, 5 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
Christine Toth - 5 Total: 3 Individual, 2 Match-related (7 total in 2015, 4 total in 2014, 6 total in 2013, 6 total in 2012, 0 total in 2011).
Greg Swierczek - 4 Total: 1 Individual, 3 Match-related (7 total in 2015, 3 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
Dan Martinelli - 4 Total: 0 Individual, 4 Match-related (4 total in 2015, 6 total in 2014, 6 total in 2013, 5 total in 2012, 7 total in 2011).
Natalie Guzman - 4 Total: 1 Individual, 4 Match-related (debut season).
Jose Gonzales - 3 Total: 0 Individual, 3 Match-related (8 total in 2015, 7 total in 2014, 4 total in 2013 which was his debut season).
Dave Zhu - 3 Total: 0 Individual, 3 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 2 in 2014 which was his debut season).
Dennis Cabanatan - 3 Total: 1 Individual, 2 Match-related (debut season).
Jorge Solano - 3 Total: 0 Individual, 3 Match-related (2 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Vinnie De Benedetto - 3 Total: 1 Individual, 2 Match-related (2 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Levy Lorenzo - 3 Total: 1 Individual, 2 Match-related (debut season).
Scott Bergenfield - 2 Total: 1 Individual, 1 Match-related (N/A in 2015, 1 total in 2014, 3 total in 2013, 8 total in 2012, 7 total in 2011).
Jay Phoenix - 2 Total: 1 Individual, 1 Match-related (2 total in 2015, 4 total in 2014, 6 total in 2013, 11 total in 2012, 5 total in 2011).
Tom La - 2 Total: 1 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 0 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
Mike Sindler - 2 Total: 0 Individual, 2 Match-related (debut season).
Adam Pienciak - 2 Total: 0 Individual, 2 Match-related (debut season).
Chris Lehmann - 2 Total: 0 Individual, 2 Match-related (2 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Praful Nair - 2 Total: 0 Individual, 2 Match-related (debut season).
Jane Fan - 2 Total: 0 Individual, 2 Match-related (1 total in 2015, 0 in 2014, 0 in 2013 which was her debut season).
Denise Savino - 2 Total: 1 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 1 in 2014 which was her return season).
Rob Ryan - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (3 total in 2015, 4 total in 2014, 2 total in 2013, 5 total in 2012, 5 total in 2011).
Lou La Forgia - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (9 total in 2015, 1 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
Dean Delgado - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (4 total in 2015, 8 total in 2014, 11 total in 2013, 7 total in 2012, 14 total in 2011).
Norman Taclob - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (3 total in 2015, 0 total in 2014, 1 total in 2013, 4 total in 2012, 0 in 2011).
Ralph Bernard - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (debut season).
Omar Santos - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (1 total in 2015, 3 total in 2014, 2 total in 2013, 2 total in 2012, 0 total in 2011).
Edwin Ortega - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Andrew Truong - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (debut season).
Jordan Bachvaroff - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (1 total in 2015, 0 in 2014 which was his debut season).
Sairaj Srinivasan - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (1 total in 2015, 4 total in 2014, 6 total in 2013 which was his debut season).
Raj Boddu - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 2 total in 2014, 5 total in 2013, 6 total in 2012 which was his debut season).
Walter Porucznik - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Alfred Chen - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (3 total in 2015, 5 total in 2014, 3 total in 2013, 1 total in 2012, 5 total in 2011).
Rafaelo Kazakov - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 1 total in 2014, 0 total in 2013 which was his debut season).
Syed Rashid - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 0 total in 2014, 0 total in 2013, 0 total in 2012 which was his debut season).
Rich Jachens - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 1 total in 2014, 0 total in 2013, 1 total in 2012, 1 total in 2011).
Dan Hwang - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Mike Carucci - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (debut season).
Nithin Poosala - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 0 total in 2014, 0 total in 2013 which was his debut season).
Chris Homick - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (debut season).
Santosh Reddy - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Don Moya - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (return season).
Brian Barbera - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 4 total in 2014, 0 total in 2013, 7 total in 2012, 3 total in 2011).
Raj Tailor - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (1 total in 2015 which was his debut season).
Ayman Elbatanony - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 1 total in 2014 which was his debut season).
Bo Folchi - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (return season).
Sachiko Tokuda - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (debut season).
Robin Altman - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (return season).
Stacy Casais - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (debut season).
Miriam Mendez - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (0 total in 2015, 2 total in 2014, 4 total in 2013 which was her debut season).
Evonne Tan - 1 Total: 1 Individual, 0 Match-related (return season).
MaryFrances Patton - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (2 total in 2014 which was her debut season).
Barbara Johnson - 1 Total: 0 Individual, 1 Match-related (debut season).

The stories that emerge from these nomination totals are as follows.

Nathan Fernandes came back to the GTA with a vengeance and he ended up as the top nomination-getter with a whopping total of 24 nominations!  We haven't seen someone garner that many since Frank Samara did it back in 2011.

As for Samara, it was his weakest year ever with an all-time low of just nine nominations.  Fellow session host, Kris Srinivasan also had a setback year as last season he was the top nomination-getter amongst the men.  Busier personal and/or work schedules kept both of them on the sidelines more often than they would have liked.  Perhaps the 2017 Season will be kinder to each of them.

As for Mrs. Srinivasan (aka Doinks), she is once again the top nomination-getter amongst the women (last season, she was the top nomination-getter of all players in the league).  To be so heavily nominated is both a reflection of activity level and a penchant for being in nail-biter matches score-wise.

Sometimes dominance is a double-edged sword.  Case in point…two, actually…our reigning Singles Champions - Chris Chiaro and Laura Gawley.  While their seemingly invincible status leads to many nominations and awards on the individual side of the ledger, their on-court performances often lead to blowouts rather than down-to-the-wire finishes.  As a result, they can often lack a bit in this regard.

Lastly, the difference between nominations and honorable mentions is often quite slim.  No favorites are played here.  This is the best effort to determine which individuals and/or matches deserved to receive proper recognition.  There are times when some feel slighted, but they should not.  No one is left out on purpose.  Perhaps next year the balls will bounce their way and they will receive official nominations rather than simply honorable mentions.

Once again, it has truly been an amazing season of GTA Tennis.  I thank everyone who was a part of it.  And here's to an even greater 2017 Season!

Sincerely,
Frank Samara