7/18/18:
"Toker-Mazur in Lodi, Samara-Liu + 6 at DMP, Caputo-Jain at PP, Ralph-Spin + more at VHS and at C.G.!":
There were five (six, actually) official sessions of GTA Wednesday Tennis. The first one was early in the morning at the new courts in Lodi as "The Argentine Machine" Fernanda Toker and "Automatic" Anna Mazur got together for their GAH8 Semifinal Match with "The Riz" John Rizzo acting as the Chair Umpire (without the high chair…and also noting the points and games along the way), the next one was somewhat early evening at the DeMuro Park Courts in Nutley featuring the conclusion of the in-progress "Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match between "Hollywood" Frank Samara and "SWAT" Rich Liu (with Frank reporting and additional contributions to this report made by "The Dark Knight" Dan Knitzer and "Kaptain" Keith Lewkowitz); the next one was somewhat later at the Pulaski Park Courts in Bloomfield as there was another "Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match to be played – this one was between "NC-17" Nick Caputo and Umang "Ash" Jain (with Nick reporting…and first he came by DeMuro to try to play there, but all the courts were taken); the next one was at the Verona High School Courts for yet another "Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match – this last one of the evening was between "The Headhunter" Ralph Bernard and "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli (with both reporting…and then Rizzo reported action from there as well); and the final session of the night was at the Cedar Grove Courts where the contributors to this report were Rizzo (he is everywhere! LOL!) and Toker (doing double duty on this day), "Lucky" Leo Victor, "Sadistic" Syed Rashid and "The Icon" Nick Inciong.
We'll go to Lodi first and then do our best to stay organized with all the stops in between before we end up at Verona and Cedar Grove…and Verona again (the sixth session, in actuality)!
The Lodi Courts Result:
GAH8 Semifinal Match:
Fernanda Toker over Anna Mazur, 6-4, 6-4, to successfully defend her # 1 Rank in the Women's Division while advancing to the Finals of the 8th Annual Gail-ann Hamilton Memorial Women's Singles Tournament! No Aces.
The Rundown from Rizzo: The match lasted from 7:49 to 10:03! The 1st Set featured long rallies as neither lady would make a mistake! The 2nd Set had some loose games in the beginning, but then the quality picked back up again and it was a battle.
The 1st Set, Game One had Anna up 40-15 to then go to Ad Out and then Fernanda winning for 1-0; Game Two was 40-30 then game to Fernanda for 2-0; Game Three was 40-15 for Anna and then to Deuce, but then the hold for 1-2; Game Four had Fernanda down 30-40 to then go to 2 Deuces and the hold for 3-1; Game Five started off 0-30 and then went to 30-30 and then to Break Point and the break for Fernanda for a 4-1 lead; Game Six saw a Love break of Fernanda for 4-2; Game Seven had Anna up 30-0 before it went to 40-30, but then the hold to now cut it to a 4-3 lead for Fernanda; Game Eight had Fernanda up 40-15 before it went to Deuce and then to Ad In and then a shift to Ad Out and then back to Ad In to yet another Deuce and then Game Point and the hold for a 5-3 lead for Fernanda; Game Nine started with Anna up 15-0 only to then shift to Double Break/Set Point to shift to Game Point and the hold for Anna to now make it 5-4 for Fernanda; and then Game Ten was at 30-30 where Anna hits a deep forehand that Fernanda barely returns. Anna hits the easy shot into the net to set up Break/Set Point which then goes to Fernanda for the set which lasted from 7:49 to 9:02!
The 2nd Set/Game One began at 9:03 and it was a Love hold for Anna; Game Two was a Love hold for Fernanda; Game Three was 15-40 and then the break for Fernanda; Game Four was another Love hold for Fernanda for a 3-1 lead; Game Five was 40-15 and then the hold for Anna;
Game Six was 30-40, then Deuce and then the break of Fernanda for 3-All; Game Seven went from 40-0 to Break Point and then the break of Anna for a 4-3 lead for Fernanda; Game Eight started off 0-40 to go to 30-40 only to have the break for 4-All; Game Nine went from 15-0 to 15-40 and the break for Fernanda; and then Game Ten started off 40-0 to then go to 40-30 and then the hold for game, set and match!
Toker's Take: Thanks to John for coming to the match and serving as our chair umpire.
Anna's Annotation: Congratulations to Fernanda for playing very consistent, as always! I got a bad wrist injury the night before, but I didn't want to cancel...so I took two pain killers and I played. I couldn't hit hard, so I was playing her game throughout the match. Still, great play on Fernanda's side...she is the more patient and more consistent player. Good luck to her in the rest of the tournament! :-)
Samara's Notes: I thank John for the details, Anna for her commentary and I congratulate Fernanda on an impressive victory! I know their original plan was to meet at the new courts in Lodi around 7am (my guess is they had a fairly lengthy warm-up session). Not long after 10am, the results of this match began to come to me via text.
The Consequences: Fernanda is now in the GAH8 Final where her doubles partner, "J-Wow" Janice Wang awaits! Not only will the victor win the tournament, they will also be the New GTA Women's Champion!
And now it is off to Nutley we go!
The DeMuro Park Courts Results:
"Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match:
Rich Liu over Frank Samara, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, to become the New # 23 Ranked Player in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Round of 16 of the 21st Annual Grove Cup Men's Singles Tournament! No Aces.
1st Set: Frank held serve (15-Love then point for point to Game Pint, Deuce, Game Point again, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold) and Rich was broken at Love for 0-2. Samara was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, then 30-All, Break Point and the break) and then Liu held in a struggle (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, 30-15, Double Fault for 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Game Point, 2nd Deuce, Break Point, 3rd Deuce, Game Point, 4th Deuce, Game Point, 5th Deuce, Break Point, 6th Deuce, Game Point and finally the hold) to level the set at 2-2! Hollywood was broken again (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point and then the break) to fall behind for the first time at 2-3, but SWAT was also broken (15-Love, 15-All, Double Fault for 15-30, Double Break Point and the break) to tie things again, this time at 3-3. Frank held (30-Love shifted to Break Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold) to reclaim the lead at 4-3, but Rich held as well (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Double Fault for Deuce, but then Game Point again and then the hold) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Samara was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point and the break), but Liu was also broken (Triple Break Point, Double Break Point and then the break) to keep things alive at 5-5! The Wood was broken yet again (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point and the break), but The Swatter held at the most crucial time and it was at Love on Triple Game/Set Point! We started hitting on Court One at 7:35 and started playing the match exactly at 7:41. This set ended at 8:35, just six minutes shy of one hour! Just as we were about to start the next set at 8:38, "The Scorpion Dragon" Dino Celis arrived and he would remain for the entire next set. "The Speed Demon" Dan Praport arrived somewhere around 8:55 and he would also stick around for the balance of the next set.
2nd Set: Frank held (30-Love shifted to 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Game Point and the hold), Rich held at Love yet again and then Samara was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30, 30-All, Break Point and the break) for 1-2. Liu was also broken (15-Love lead went straight to Double Break Point and the break), but then Hollywood held (Love-15 shifted to 30-15, 30-All, Game Point and the hold) to take his first lead in this set at 3-2. SWAT also held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to level the set at 3-3, but Frank held again (Triple Game Point, Double Game Point and the hold) for 4-3. From there, Rich was broken again (once more, a 15-Love lead plummeted to Double Break Point and the break) while Samara did the opposite (Love-15 lead launched straight to Double Game/Set Point and the hold) to level the match at 9:08 (this set lasted exactly half an hour). Praport left at this time while Celis remained for just the first game of the next set (the set got underway at 9:10).
3rd Set: Rich held (Triple Game Point lead cut to Game Point, but then came the hold) and Frank was broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then the break) for an 0-2 start. And then came the two most pivotal games of not just the set, but the entire match! Liu got off to a Triple Break Point start only to rebound to Deuce, another Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Game Point and the hold while Samara got off to a Triple Game Point start, hit a Double Fault for Double Game Point, then fell further to Deuce, Break Point and the break to suddenly find himself down 0-4 when he was oh so close to leveling this set at 2-2! SWAT was then broken (15-Love went right to Double Break Point, then came Break Point and the break) to allow his opponent onto the scoreboard. It was at this time that he started suffering from calf cramps. He was worried he would have to forfeit due to injury, but I told him I did not want to win that way...especially with him in the lead. I gave him as much time as he felt he needed between points. The Wood was then broken yet again (15-Love then point for point to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to fall to 1-5. We also realized we were running short on time so we agreed that the next game would be the last no matter who took it...if Rich held he would win the match and if I broke him, we would continue it at another time. Rich was then broken (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break) to leave us hanging at 5-2! The time was 9:52.
The Skinny as of Thursday night: I have to give credit to Rich who played more aggressively and effectively this match (as compared to our last one). He has definitely gotten better at handling my slice shots. The one area where he admittedly failed was on Overhead Smash attempts as I sent back weak short lob shots on about six occasions and he put them all into the net. Meanwhile, I had at least half a dozen slice shots that, when my touch is on, would have been hard to counter (they likely would not be winners, but would probably draw the error). Instead, they all met the top of the tape and descended downward on my side of the net from there. We did each have one cheap roller against one another. And we also offset each other with ridiculously bad bounce shots off dead spots in the court. So, neither of us could complain that the tennis gods were favoring one of us over the other.
The Continuation of the 3rd Set (Rich was up 5-2): Frank held (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point and then the hold) and Rich was broken (Double Fault for Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point and a bounce back to Deuce, Game/Match Point, another Double Fault to bring it back to 2nd Deuce, Break Point and the break) to have his lead cut to 5-4! But then Samara quickly buries himself as his first serves were weak and Rich ate up two of them quickly on the way to Triple Break/Match Point where Frank hit a rare Double Fault to break himself and end any chances of making a miraculous comeback! This time around, we ended up on Court Three (last time we were on Court One). We both got there around 7:25. After a ten minute hitting session, the 3rd Set officially resumed at 7:36 and was over by 7:49.
The Skinny as of Wednesday night: Kudos to Rich as this win definitely puts him in contention for Most Improved Player of The Year. He is now playing with controlled aggression. Rallies that used to end in him making the unforced error now go longer and often end with him hitting a winner. He stepped up and swung harder on the returns when he needed to in that last game of the match and it paid dividends.
The Consequences: Liu now advances to the Round of 16 where he will face the Top Seed in the tourney, "The Apex Predator" Adam Pienciak!
Randy Doran/Bhumin Desai over Keith Lewkowitz/Arunraj Nair, 6-4! No Aces. They played this one on Court Two from 7:15 to 7:55 (approximately).
Randy Doran/Arunraj Nair over Keith Lewkowitz/Bhumin Desai, 6-0! No Aces. Court Two hosted this one, too. It lasted from 7:58 to 8:18.
The Kaptain's Commentary: Don't remember much about this one to be honest, except them playing well, my unforced errors, and Bhumin trying his hardest to compete. It was over in a very quick amount of time.
Rich Liu/Frank Samara over Dan Knitzer/Arthur Fontanilla, 6-4! Arthur: 1 Ace on Frank! It went like this: Dan held at Love, Rich held as Frank hit his patented Windmill Overhead Smash to score the first point and later hit a booming Overhead to bounce the ball over the fence and set up Triple Game Point and next came Double Game Point and then the hold, then Arthur was the first one to be broken (Love-30, 15-30, Double Break Point, Break Point and the break) for 1-2. Frank held (Love-15 then point for point until 30-All, Game Point and the hold) to extend his team's lead to 3-1, but then Knitzer held again (15-Love, Double Fault for 15-All, 15-30 and then a shift to Game Point and the hold) and Liu was broken (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game Point, Deuce, Break Point and the break) to level the set at 3-3. Fontanilla held (15-Love and then back-to-back Double Faults to make it 15-30, it then went to Double Break Point and then Break Point where Arthur hit an Ace against Frank that bounced right off of the service-line to make it Deuce and then came the most exciting and longest rally of the match which led to Game Point and the hold as his team had just won three straight games and took their first lead since they were up 1-0 in the very beginning! Samara responded with his second straight hold (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! The Dark Knight was finally broken (Love-30 shifted to 30-All, Break Point, Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then the break) while SWAT held (started with a Double Fault, a shift to 30-15 and then another shift to Break Point, Deuce, Game/Match Point and the hold) as now his team took three straight games to earn a hard-fought victory! This One-Setter occupied Court Three from 7:58 to 8:38.
The Skinny: Rich said he was happy to have Frank on his side in this one as Samara seemingly stepped up his game once the pressure was off his shoulders in trying to mount what would have been quite the comeback in the earlier Grove Cup match. His initial Windmill Overhead Smash was one for the highlight reel. Everyone had some fine moments in this one, either by hitting laser-like shots (Dan had several of those) or making great gets (all involved had some memorable ones). Arthur is clearly the biggest server of the four here, but it did not make enough of a difference in this battle.
Earlier in the evening, the teams over on Court Two made it clear that they wanted to have the winners from that court face the winners of Liu/Samara-Knitzer/Fontanilla. They had started a third Doubles One-Setter where Randy and Keith were going up against Arunraj and Bhumin, but they quickly scrapped it once they saw we were done. And that led to the next round of action.
Randy Doran/Bhumin Desai over Rich Liu/Frank Samara, 7-5! Bhumin: 2 Aces on Frank! Here's how it went down: Frank was broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point and the break), Bhumin was broken in a battle (30-Love, 30-15, Double Fault for 30-All, Game Point, Deuce, Break Point, 2nd Deuce, Double Fault for Break Point and then a service-line Ace against Frank for 3rd Deuce, but then came another Break Point and finally the break), Rich was broken as a 15-Love lead went straight to Double Break Point and the break and then Randy was the first to hold serve as a Love-15 start went right to Double Game Point and the hold for 3-1. Samara held (30-Love, 30-15, Double Game Point and the hold) and then Desai was broken again in yet another struggle (Love-15 went right Double Game Point, but then that was reduced to Deuce and then a Double Fault for Break Point where a corner Ace on Frank made it 2nd Deuce only to have another Double Fault bring it back to Break Point and then came the break) to level the set at 3-3! Liu was also broken again (15-Love, 15-All then onto Double Game Point which was then cut down to Deuce, Break Point and a Double Fault to break himself), but Doran was also broken (15-Love then point for point until 30-All, Break Point and the break) to knot the score once more, this time at 4-4! Hollywood was broken (Love-15 then point for point to Break Point, Deuce, Break Point again and then the break), but then The Boomin' System was broken a third straight time as he started with a Double Fault, shifted it to 30-15, but then got shifted again as it went to Break Point and the break) to keep things alive at 5-5! SWAT was also broken a third time (Love-15, 15-All then onto Double Break Point and the break), but Ravishing Randy held (15-Love shifted to 15-30 shifted again to Game/Match Point and then came the hold) to earn a hard-fought victory! We played this one on Court Three from 8:40 to 9:29. Much like Court One last week, there is the one dark corner beneath the post with the most light bulbs out of service!
The Skinny: Bhumin made his GTA Debut with us last season up at the Cedar Grove Courts. This was my first time meeting him. In addition to being a nice guy, he is a very solid player with a big serve and solid ground-strokes. But I really think Randy was the MVP in this one as he battled hard to make many great gets and keep their team moving forward.
Dan Knitzer/Arthur Fontanilla over Keith Lewkowitz/Arunraj Nair, 6-2! No Aces. Court Two hosted this one from 8:45 to 9:20.
The Kaptain's Commentary: Arthur and Dan played very well, moving around the court quite well. Arun did perform well with his net play and overall ability. I simply made too many unforced errors by hitting the ball too soft and it cost us in some important moments.
After this previous One-Setter ended, Arthur and Arunraj took Court One for an extended hitting session. Meanwhile, Dan and Keith entered into a Singles One-Setter against one another. And back on Court Three, Bhumin left...and that left Randy and Rich to have a hitting session with each other.
Dan Knitzer over Keith Lewkowitz, 6-2! Keith: 1 Ace! These two faced off on Court Two from 9:22 to 9:50.
Samara's Notes: I thank Dan for reporting that final result to me via text after I left as I had to cut out a little early (before lights out…which is closer to 10:20 at DeMuro…likely the only upside of playing there!) as I had some errands to run. Keith later had the following commentary to add.
The Kaptain's Commentary: It wasn't a Challenge Match of any sort, just two people who decided to simply play a One-Setter. The final score had Dan winning 6-2 (though in reality it probably should've been 6-0). He clearly had the edge in all facets, physically, mentally and skill-wise. He only did lose those two games because he started to practice shots he probably normally doesn't take by taking extra risks and things of the sort and it resulted in a few shots that hit the net or went a few inches too long. But as the match progressed, Dan continued to hit a variety of creative shots and balls that hit near the line. It was clearly a one-sided set and kudos to Dan for simply being a far superior player.
I did technically have one Ace. If it's gonna be included in the report, I must also state the nature of it. I played soft and the Ace was the result of a soft hit. Dan expected, like most would, that I'd hit with some authority. The one serve happened to be such a soft tap-over, it bounced twice before reaching him. So, on the scorecard, it is an Ace, but surely one that wasn't hard earned on my part or anything. It was more the result of him expecting me to actually hit the ball which I obviously didn't.
Samara's Notes: I thank Keith for his comprehensive commentary. It is very much appreciated. We now shift west just a bit to Bloomfield.
The Pulaski Park Courts Result:
"Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match:
Nick Caputo over Umang Jain, 6-0, 6-2, to successfully defend his # 17 Rank in the Advanced Division while also advancing to the Round of 16 of the 21st Annual Grove Cup Men's Singles Tournament! Nick: 1 Ace!
The NC-17 Screening: We attempted to start at 7:30pm at The Park Ave. Courts in Nutley, but there were no nets up as they continue to re-do those courts. We then went over to DeMuro in Nutley where I saw Frank playing, but there were no available courts. So, we then headed over to Pulaski Park in Bloomfield only to see that all those courts were also taken! We then waited about 20 minutes, finally got on a court, warmed up and started the match around 8:30pm, finishing about 9:30.
Jain has great strokes, but was down early. He fought back in the 2nd Set by hitting some great shots and serves. We had some great points overall with some Deuce games as well.
Samara's Notes: I thank Nick for the timely and thorough commentary. I had told Ash that I felt bad he got dealt "The Nick card" two tournaments in a row, but Mr. Jain said he was happy to go up against such a strong competitor…and that his goal is to be able to beat him some day. I say kudos to such competitive spirit. Playing strong competitors like Caputo only helps to elevate the level of all our respective games.
We now go southwest a bit to Verona.
The VHS Result, Part One:
"Grove Cup 21" Round of 32 Match:
Ralph Bernard over Dan Martinelli, 6-1, 6-3, to successfully defend his # 8 Rank in the Advanced Division while advancing to the Round of 16 of the 21st Annual Grove Cup Men's Singles Tournament! Ralph and Spin: 1 Ace each…and both in the 2nd Set!
The Spin from Spin: Ralph and Spin go "old school" at VHS (Verona High School)…for the younger members of the GTA who have flash drives, the cloud and streaming nowadays to store your video content!!!
I want to thank Ralph publicly. I really did not want him to waste his time playing someone nowhere near 100% in the mobility department. He actually was kind of concerned that maybe I should not be playing, fearing that I might just not remain upright the entire match. I appreciated his concern, but told him it was my idea to play so come what may. I think he had a good time. I know I did. For the record, I never did fall. I actually made it through the two sets which lasted about 1 hour 15 minutes total. Ralph's placement was spot-on as many times he hit winners that even with a good leg I was not going to be able to track them down. As for the lights at VHS…not very good, especially the three middle courts. My question is why put up lights if they do not do the job illuminating?!?!
Samara's Notes: I appreciate the colorful and comprehensive commentary offered up by the man often known simply as Spin! If he thinks the lights are bad at Verona (and I haven't seen them), he should come over to DeMuro to see what we've been dealing with over there…the corners of darkness! Ralph had the following to add.
The Ralph Report: My Ace was on a second serve…haha! It is amazing he wanted to play with his leg the way it is, but I give him credit. He even managed to get a couple of winners in. I felt bad like I was hunting a deer with a broken leg, but he was up for playing so...it was fun. I look forward to playing whoever is up next.
Samara's Notes: I thank Ralph for the additional comments and congratulate him on the win. Now that most of the Round of 32 is complete, I hope to start e-mailing the pairs of opponents that are already set for the Round of 16. There are still a few Round of 32 Matches left and those participants have been told that next Tuesday is the deadline for the completion of those matches.
We now head slightly north to Cedar Grove where there was a logjam situation which eventually caused some players to go to Verona High School later in the evening. So we will end up back at "VHS" at the end of this report.
The Cedar Grove Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Doubles Match:
Tommy Reszkowski/Fernanda Toker over Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5, to successfully defend their # 6 Rank in the Mixed Doubles Division! Tommy: 1 Ace on Natalia!
Toker's Take: We played from 7:45 to 9:15. They played very aggressive and controlled the 1st Set. But then we were able to figure out some things and turn it around.
Chris Chiaro/Janice Wang over Scott Bergenfeld/John Rizzo, 6-3! No Aces.
Chris Chiaro/Janice Wang over Adam Pienciak/John Rizzo, 6-4! No Aces.
Syed Rashid/Andrew Kroessler over Leo Victor/Marie Salamon, 6-0! No Aces.
Syed Rashid/Leo Victor over Andrew Kroessler/Marie Salamon, 7-6 (8-6)! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: Syed and Leo submitted the exact same results without commentary.
Mike Mole/Joe Rodrigues over Jordan Bachvaroff/Nick Inciong, 7-5! No Aces.
Nick's Notes: All three of them left after this set. I hit with Guy Dupoux for 20 minutes or so until lights out at 10pm.
Samara's Notes: I thank everyone for their very timely reporting. It is much appreciated. And now we go back to Verona for one last result.
The VHS Result, Part Two:
2 out of 3 Sets Mixed Gender Doubles Match:
Ryan Pienciak/Dennis Cabanatan over John Rizzo/Janice Wang, 6-4, 6-3! No Aces. Per the TMT Rules, Pienciak/Cabanatan entered the Doubles Division as the New # 75 Ranked Team. Rizzo/Wang are already ranked in the Mixed Doubles Division as the # 45 Ranked Team.
Samara's Notes: I thank John for all his contributions to this report. He had a very busy and very long day…and he is usually not an early riser!
Samara signing off!
