Spring tennis is here

It’s been two weeks since my last post and I’m not going to wait that long again – too much happens and my poor noggin can’t remember it all. In this brief span I’ve played two Interclub matches, Englunds tournament, two USTA matches and the 4.0 team I played on last year and that I still captain (Easy Killer) is 2-0 on the season. It’s also the busy season for my role as a league coordinator for the USTA.

So , I’ll start from the top. Interclub is a five court Mixed Doubles team competition played during the same time as the USTA Spring/Summer season on Sunday mornings. I play for Kinetix and it’s a fun group. We played Chester Valley week one and at 1st doubles I faced Teresa and Justin. Justin is the club pro and was clearly the stronger of the two. My partner and I decided to play Teresa and we did have some success being aggressive and keeping the ball away from Justin. At 4-4 in the first set I dumped a put away volley into the net which would have made it 5-4. That’s it for the highlights. I think it was probably a case of our opponents playing down to our level and we lost 6-4, 6-2. We didn’t offer a whole lot of resistance in the 2nd set. It was fun however as playing super nice people on a beautiful Sunday is hard to beat, hmmm – let me rephrase, playing and winning against super nice… you get the idea. I found out later than the woman is a 5.0. I guess we didn’t play that bad after all.

Our 2nd Interclub match was this past Sunday. My partner from last year Marion Halliday and I reunited to play 1st dubs against a married couple and we played a rollercoaster of a match. We played poorly and our opponents played great in the first set and we lost 1-6. We were 30 all at 4-4 in the 2nd set when before I returned serve I thought to myself, self – this next point could determine the match. I hit an 80% cross court return of serve and we won the point 2 volleys later. We won the next point after Marion scorched her return, I served it out and then we went on to win the rubber set 6-1. See – now that’s how you’re supposed to spend your weekend mornings!

Englunds – ouch! I have enjoyed Bud Tyson’s fundraiser for Kiwanis club called Englunds Main Line Classic and I’ve participated in it for the last 10 years. To me this marks the end of indoor and the beginning of the outdoor season. Bud threw us all a curve ball and inverted the shirts this year. Personally I was hoping for blue lettering to round out the rainbow in my Englunds shirt collection and instead I got an all blue shirt. The only reason I’m going on about the shirts is because it’s more interesting than the match we played. We lost bad in the first round to the eventual winners of the Mixed Open draw – two 14 year olds. We went on about 9:30pm and when we spun my racket at the net to determine serve, I asked them if the match went past 10pm, did they had to default or could they stay up past bedtime? Big mistake.

My 4.5 team is called the Blokheads. We have had this team since 2002 although few faces remain. In 2008, we went to Sectionals at 4.5 and lost to NJ on Sunday for a chance at Nationals. Since then, the talent level has come down and we are now a social team that is a bit light on players but when we get our people out we can play with anyone. Our first match of the season was against Kinetix. Their captain called me at 8pm the night before the match and said he only had 4 players. I agreed to make up one of the courts at a later date and I defaulted them on the other court. Then, they sweep us at singles and we won the doubles court we played. That leaves us tied at 2-2 and since it’s a makeup they plugged in their top two players to play the last court. The match outcome is TBD.

Our second match of the season was this past Saturday, May 7th. We played at the beautiful 14 court complex at Westtown School in West Chester, PA. We only had 6 so this week we defaulted 3rd dubs and we swept singles thanks to a supurb win by Kenny Koay at 1st singles. We lost 2nd doubles but at first dubs – Jesse Brown and I had a great chance that we didn’t capitalize on. We lost in 3 sets and if we just had one more doubles team we may have been able to come through. Oh well, tennis is a recreational activity and this team isn’t sushi grade level meaning we aren’t going to Nationals anytime soon. We will make some waves this year or at least a few ripples. That’s the plan.

At 4.0, I decided to captain the Easy Killer team that went 3-2 at Sectionals last year. Five of our players got bumped up (Ron Rubenstein, Hap Phouthavongsa, Mike Kane, Rob Laiacona and myself) but the core of the team is still strong. In fact, it’s really strong. The rub is that the overall individual availabilities have been dreadful. It has been back to back Fridays where I picked up 2 new players with less than 24 hours before the match but the good news is that we are now 2-0 and we faced two good teams.

In our first match we got past Great Valley who I wasn’t sure we could beat. We ended up sweeping doubles thanks to Billy McElroy and Chaz Irwin leading the way at 1st doubles with a straight set victory. At 2nd dubs, DJ Bozentka played his first USTA match with Randy Francis against Brian Schweitzer and Rick Martin. This match was most unfortunate with Brian injuring his calf at 4-4 in the first set. I sure hope Brian recovers soon – he’s the best player on the GV team. At 3rd doubles, Ed Daou and Joe Sassa played fantastic tennis against Bob Cohen and Howard Edson. Now this is a very tough 3rd doubles team to face at 4.0. Bob and Howard are extremely proven commodities and I considered us an underdog. Ed Daou is the one who stepped up and he simply dictated play. We won 6-0 in the first set, weathered a furious comeback and held on to close out the match 7-6 in a tight 2nd set tiebreaker. Wow!

This past Saturday, Easy Killer played Kinetix. The opponent’s captain told me they were trying to win this key matchup and that they expected to win both singles matches and 3rd dubs by placing their best doubles team at #3. Well not so fast grasshopper… At 1st singles, Mitch Reading played Lenny. Mitch has organically improved his game by developing a ferocious on court focus. He was a non-starter for four years on the team but then had his break thru year in the 2010 season going undefeated at Districts. Mitch played 4.5 in the morning and won and then he played this match at 2:30pm indoors. He was off to do landscaping after the match – oh I remember the energy of being 20 something. His opponent Lenny is a talented tennis player. I can’t help thinking that if he went a little easier on himself he could have overcome an extremely tired Mitch. Great win Mitch – I ‘m sure Lenny will be a force to be reckoned with later in the season.

We lost 2nd singles and 2nd doubles but Rob Attman and Randy Francis did a great job to win 6-3 in the 3rd set at first doubles. What this set up was the deciding match on 3rd doubles – Roger Brill and Mike O’Rourke against Joe Sassa and Ed Daou. Roger and Mike are 15+ year partners and both are sensational players. Before all the bump ups two years ago, Roger & Mike were at the very top of the 4.0 level and now they are a scary duo to face. Ed/Joe won the first set, got down 1-5 in the second set before losing it in the tiebreaker and then we won 6-3 in the 3rd set for the best win of the season. Terrific tennis again by Ed and also by Joe – we played great and we had to in order to win. Sensational effort guys – great match all around – it was fun to watch.

In our flight we still have UMLY 2 and Big Boys (both 2-0) to contend with and they are our next opponents. If we get by these teams we are looking really nice but we’ll take it one match at a time. My hope is that our availability improves and if so, the sky is the limit for this group. It’s fantastic to see this team gel. There are so many variables running a USTA team – ask any captain. So, when things go our way I try to enjoy it.

And last but not least, as I stated, it’s the busy season for my role as a league coordinator. I write the schedule, answer questions on rules and advance the teams through post season play. If you don’t think people take their recreational tennis seriously, read this. At a local woman’s match this past weekend the opponents for one of the doubles team arrived 15 minutes late. Then, the players arriving late insisted that they be allowed to warm up. The other team didn’t like that but played the match and lost 6-7, 6-3, 4-6. The team also lost the overall match 2-3. The captain emailed me the next day and asked me to retroactively assess the lateness penalty, reverse the outcome at 2nd doubles and thus reverse the outcome of the match. Only one word is necessary for my response, Really?