EK topples Pirates 4-1

Ok, here’s the deal.  Every year I think my 4.0 men’s team is going to Nationals and every year in our quixotic charge we either fail to make it to the first round of the playoffs (Districts) or we don’t get out of Districts.  In the 4.0 Philadelphia Area Tennis District (PATD) there are 4 flights of teams.  You have to win your flight to advance to Districts.  At Districts you compete against the other 3 flight winners for the right to represent the PATD at Sectionals against the 5 other Districts in Middle States.  The Sections are New Jersey (NJD), Delaware  (DD), Eastern PA (EPD), Central PA (CPD) and Allegheny Mountain (AMD).  The winner of Sectionals represents Middle States against the other 16 Sections for the opportunity to be National champions.  Back to our flight, we haven’t advanced out of it in two years because the team who ultimately won the PATD Districts the last two years has been Great Valley and they have advanced on tiebreakers each year ahead of us.

This year Great Valley merged with Kinetix and they are not in our flight.  The team that replaced them in our flight is the Pirates who have also advanced the last two years to Districts.  Coincidently, three years ago we narrowly defeated the Pirates (then called UMLY) in the last match of the season, in fact it came down to the last individual court of the season.  This year it seemed obvious that it would be us or the Pirates representing our flight in July at Districts.

Not so fast you say?  Good advice.  After week 1 when both the Pirates and us (Easy Killer) lost to Gulph Mills and Haverford respectively you might think I need to reassess the pecking order.  Yes and no is the answer.  Without question there is so much parity that did not exist over the past five years.  Even the teams who rank towards the bottom of our flight have players playing up at 4.5 and being competitive.  Here are the current standings 4 weeks into our 10 week season:

Team Standings– Click on a Team Name to view the Team Summary

Team Name	Team Wins	Team Losses	Ind. Wins	Ind. Losses	Sets Lost	Games Lost
Easy Killer	3	1	15	5	11	150
Haverford	3	1	13	7	17	184
Gulph Mills	3	1	10	10	22	205
Pirates	3	2	15	10	24	227
Lakeside	1	3	8	12	25	214
Fit Hits	0	5	4	21	44	295

Here’s a quick recao of our match Saturday, May 15th at 9am at Rustin High School vs. the Pirates.

At #1 singles making his debut for EK was Mike Kane.  You wouldn’t know it if you just heard him play but Mike is a solid player.  His preference is for singles and he demonstrated why last Saturday topping a very solid competitor in Forrest Patterson, Ph. D. Forrest is a gentleman and a formidable opponent.  Players like Forrest are shining examples to follow and the play with an attitude that keeps it fun and ultimately has me spending so much time detailing my tennis experiences during the weekends.  I make this point because our team name originated because so many people view their Saturday morning tennis as a life or death event and are willing to behave in any manor necessary to win.  However, this approach has nothing to do with the Pirates team – they play good tennis, are good guys, and thanks for the match.

At #2 singles, our rising star Mitch Reading demonstrated why he is becoming a rock in our lineup.  He defeated Jeffrey Labonde 1&4.  Great playing Mitch.  I didn’t see much but Mitch in his shades has to be one of the most “in style” players on the courts.  And (more importantly) making her 2010 debut for Easy Killer was Erica – Mitch’s better half.  Welcome back – you are our team’s good luck charm.  Let me know if you need the rest of the team’s schedule…

At #1 Doubles, Ron & I continued our success this season against Ron Bressler and Chris Labonde.  Like Forrest, Ron (and Chris) are fan-tabulous guys to play tennis with.  They both have nice strokes, an aggressive style and a winning personalities.  This next part is not intended to be dramatic – it’s just what happened.  Because this was a crucial test for our team, I got to the courts early.  We warmed up for 30 minutes and played 4 games of no-ad to warm up and give everyone a chance to serve and return serve.  I felt great but had a twinge in my left knee.  After exchanging lineups with Pirates captain Wlodzimierz (Vlad) Grodecki, we warmed up with our opponents for the standard 5-10 minute USTA warm up.  At this point, the twinge I felt in my left knee was starting to seriously hurt.  I suddenly couldn’t put weight on my left knee and when I attempted to serve I basically couldn’t (because you plant and push off your left foot if you are right handed like me).  Admittedly, I started to get a little freaked out.  I considered my options which were all of; play or retire.  I’m not one to retire if it’s up to me so I told my partner Ron that he needed to take every shot he could, hit winners and help me out because I could hardly move.  Ron said OK and we started play.  Chris held at love to open the match so we started down 0-1.  Ron Rubenstein (my partner) held his serve and then Ron Bressler served effectively to make it 2-1 Pirates with me serving next.  I hobbled to the line and with absolutely nothing on my serves proceeded to hold my serve thanks to 20-25mph winds and mostly my partner Ron.  After we tied up the match at 2-2 my greatest fear of not holding serve was abated – but for how long? Another 3 games?  We broke Chris to go up 3-2 and then Ron held again to make it 4-2.  I can’t explain the effect winning has on the way you feel.  My knee started to hurt less and by the time it came for me to serve again.  Although it was sensitive, I could push off it some.  We won the match 2&3 but it was certainly a lot closer than the score indicates.  I remember one clean winner I thought I had hit – a down the line return of serve – my favorite shot.  However, with a strong wind blowing Left to Right across the court, my shot down the line was 12” wide.  There were many weather affected shots and of course the lobs were tricky.  My knee is still hurting today but with rest I certainly plan to be on court next Saturday – just getting old I guess.

At #2 dubs, Matt Diaddezio and Rob Laiacona took on Dan Remillard and Vlad Grodecki.  Matt was the founding co-captain of the Blokheads many moons ago.  Matt was playing great then and now he returns a family man coming off of knee surgery.  Sounds like a familiar story huh?  Matt and Rob started off well enough winning the first set 6-1.  That’s the point where Dan and Vlad stepped it up.  I managed to see several points of this match and the points were long and aggressive – very fun to watch. Great playing Dan and Vlad.  Welcome back Matt.  I also think we need to stop referring to Vlad as “Vlad.”  He should now be referred to as “Brian Grodecki’s Dad” because his 13 year old is a rock star on the tennis court and he is way better than any of us. 

At #3 dubs – Welcome Victor!  Mel Navea and Victor Fissella are partners on a CPD team and they make a terrific first doubles team on any roster.  Mel played a few matches for us last year and this year he’s teaming with his standard partner.  Victor & Mel faced off against two post season veterans in Jim Colton and Ron Siggs.  Since this match was the last to go off we all got to see much of the action.  The wind was really kicking up but then again so were Victor’s driving shots which forced numerous errors.  This was a solid straight set victory for us and a glimpse into our future lineups.

Up next for us is a double header this weekend with Lakeside captained by Anthony Palestini.  We play Saturday in South Philly and then a makeup for what would have been week 1 at the familiar confines of Rustin High School. Both matches are at 9am.  Let’s make it a great weekend.

Here are six odd ball facts:

1) In Kentucky, 50% of people married for the first time are teenagers.  2) At Wimbledon, on average, 42,000 balls are used in 650 matches.   3) Penguins can jump as high as 6’  4) People say that cracking your bones will cause arthritis when you get older.  Actually all you are doing is popping air pockets and it does not cause arthritis.  5) Wilt Chamberlain never fouled out of a game.  6) Only female mosquitoes bite and drink blood.