A tale of two teams

OK, so my 4.5 team (The Blokheads) lost 0-5 Saturday to Chris Kyper’s team (Dragons) which is the best team, by far, in our flight.  There’s no shame in the setback other than the thought of losing like this makes me want to bang my head – actually that basically happened, but not to me.

We played Saturday, May 14^th at West Chester East in a big gray cloud.  At 1st singles, Kenny Koay was a few days into a Summer cold and he lost a close 3rd set match tiebreaker to Nick Gallagher who is his regular hitting partner.  This match ended up being a toss-up and it demonstrates how good Kenny is playing.  I was very impressed with his effort and it was a well played, long match – the last to finish.  At 2nd singles, Mitch Reading lost to Nick May – clearly one of Kyper’s “Air France” connections. 

At 1^st doubles, Eric Markowitz (who hasn’t played outside yet this year due to a hectic work schedule) and Trevor McAndrew lost in 3 sets against John Ellis and Lonnie Cooper.  John is perhaps the best individual player in our flight and Lonnie is a dependable partner with good hands.  There was lots of excitement in this match.  Early in the first set, Eric hit a short lob in the middle of the court.  Lonnie was at the net and John was closing in.  Lonnie ducked ever so slightly and John took the shot.  This part I can’t get out of my head – John smashed the ball full force into the back of Lonnie’s head from no more than 36″ behind Lonnie’s head.  I was on 2nd dubs and saw it happen, heard it happen and watched Lonnie briefly stumble; mutter something and then just shake it off.  This kinda reminds me of Vince Campisciano breaking his finger a few years ago and continuing to play without even a whimper.   In the second set with the match on the line, Eric was a little frustrated acclimating to the wind and outdoor conditions.  This is when he broke his only racket when the court jumped up and cracked his frame – I hate it when that happens.  Oh well, this was a good match up and very close.

At 2nd dubs, Dave Bozentka and I lost 2&4. We had to play great to win this match but it was within our grasp.  In reality, we were a little over matched but success in tennis requires figuring out how to win the close ones by exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses.  I do have a lot of confidence playing with Dave.  We were able to successfully make our opponents adjust from Plan A.  However, their Plan B was awfully good too.

At 3^rd doubles, our famous namesake returned (Pete Blok).  Pete has played twice in the last year and he played with Rob Laiacona and lost 6&3 to Ben Lehman and Chris Kyper. This was a solid performance as Chris and Ben comprise a most excellent 3^rd doubles team and they play a lot of matches in multiple leagues.  Truth be told, they were expecting me at 3rd dubs and Pete & Rob fought hard and came reasonably close to what would have been a super win.

So, all in all, not bad – we could challenge with more practice.  Ya know, that whole preparedness thing 🙂  I hope we win more matches as these are much more fun to write about.

Later in the day, my 4.0 team (Easy Killer) faced the undefeated UMLY 2 squad captained by Jim Taylor in Paoli.  First things first, Jim Taylor and Tom Mead demonstrated what great sportsmanship is all about.  Our first singles player Milos was coming from Delaware and was delayed in heavy rain which slowed traffic to a crawl.  Milos arrived 17 minutes late to the courts and he was happily greeted and allowed to play without penalty by both Jim and Tom.  They did not have to do this and we greatly appreciate the spirit of “hey this is just tennis.”  In fact, that’s what our team name is all about as in “Easy Killer (or easy big fella) – it’s just tennis.” Jim and Tom allowed us to play the match and to decide the outcome out court. Thank you gentlemen. 

EK is starting to gel.  We are 3 matches into the first 7 and we are picking up steam.  We dropped one set Saturday and we are now in first place at 3-0, 12-3 in individual matches.  The only team that remains unbeaten besides us Big Boys and we are currently trying to schedule our makeup with them. We have yet to get several of our players involved in any of our lineups but I have to say that our team this week was awesome.  I’d consider all three doubles teams capable at winning first doubles.  Chaz Irwin & Geoff Chan played fantastic at #1.  Ed Daou and Joe Sassa are continuing to make their mark this year and played outstanding tennis at 2^nd doubles.  And, at 3^rd doubles, Rob Attman and Subba K won easily.  I was so pleased to watch these guys play aggressively, dictate play and remain focused throughout the match.  Well done!

At 1^st singles, Milos Markis joined us this week (thanks to Subba) and he’s a wonderful addition to our team.  UMLY has some talented players in their lineup and at the top of the list was Tom Mead who faced Milos at 1st singles.  Tom won the first set 6-2 and Milos simply dug deep and ultimately gutted out a fantastic win against a capable opponent.  I’m not sure we would have got by Tom’s court if he played doubles and I was very impressed with Milos who played with real fortitude.  At 2^nd singles, Dave Freeburn exhibited the form that I always expect from him and he won 0&2.  Excellent match guys – the sky is the limit for this team if we can get our players out and maintain our focus.

It’s French Open time – I need to make some room on the DVR and buy some more instant coffee – it’s going to be two weeks of less sleep than I’m used to.