tennis, life and a few things in between

My Captain! Each skipper runs his or her team differently.

A former mate who moved to Plano said his current captain drills them weekly. Maybe the Texans are just endowed with natural skills for I can’t hit the ball right without my partner consistently nagging at me, like keep your feet on the ground or stay behind the baseline.

There is an Asian woman who’s being nicknamed the Dragon Lady, she has 10 or 20+ teams and provides sushi at practice. Some rich New Yorker. She got suspended for illegal dealing but now is back in force.

A Long Island captain was also being suspended for illegality but he ran the team anyway. A note pad/pen in hand he scouted the courts and opponents like screening his futures son or daughter-in-laws.

My 8.0 team captain is fun loving drug dealer. Ops, I think an explanation is needed here before the rumor runs wild: because he signs Tennis is my cocaine in all his emails,  so I feel a druggie is appropriated nickname. Anyway I finally made to his practice last night, 7-9pm. Six courts – no wonder we often have difficulty reserving courts at NTC. There was wine before the start and a party afterward. We watched Whitney Houston’s passing and Jeremy Lin’s 5th win for the Knicks. Soft drinks, nuts, dips, breads, wine, Black Label and Grey Goose .. at 11:12pm they wrapped up the party and headed out to Red Bull in Flushing for dinner. I was about to turn into a pumpkin or Cinderella, so I declined. Actually I had no energy to keep up with the Joneses. More pix on FB – Saturday Night Live from New York

In conclusion: I think my teammates get a lousy deal. Oh well. My 7.0’s 3rd match on Feb 10. It looked like someone felt asleep after an esay first set -:)
D1: 6-2, 6-3
D2: 6-3, 6-3
D3: 6-3, 3-6, 10-4

Congrtulations to my teammates who carried us to the semi final of Manhatan league.

The match took place at the Westside Tennis Club. Upon enter, the receptionist directed us to the main lounge instead the second floor one we usually used. There were four teams from our Divsion I. I had brief conversation with Stephanie Vogt regarding the impending match:

As previously indicated, this playoff will be played as an extension of the local season. The winner of each quarter-final will advance to the District Playoff’s on March 3rd.

PAYMENT: All playoff teams must pay $180 into match pay by Monday at 3pm.
BALLS: Home team is responsible for providing the balls
POINTS: The standard point system will be in effect for these matches

Unlike other playoff matches, this one would follow the format of the flight: 1.5 hours instead playing to the completion. My next question was

What about the split set? Who’s the home team?

The answer:

The home team is listed first. This will also be indicated on the score card.

Points are handled exactly as they have been during the season. This is an extension of the local season, so all of the rules that you have been following all season apply to this match also.

Hmmm .. who would be the winner should the two teams split all 3 courts, each earns 6.5 points? This has never happened before but possible statistically.

Watching your teammates play can be gut wrenching and nail biting. I left the courts for a little while. When I came back, a Div II captain was there and we talked about the confusion. As usual, no one in the league expected such short season, 8 matches only. Why didn’t the league tell us before hand: all we need was an extra team to make it 10 or 12-match season. There are teams with 18 or 20+ players and they certainly didn’t mind to shed few players to form the extra team. .. .. As for playoff points, here is the reply from our league coordinator:

The points earned during the Quarter-Final will be added to the season’s points to determine seeding.
So if team #4 had 60 points during the season, and earn 13 — they are at 73.
If team #3 had 61 points and earn 10 at playoff’s, they have 71.
Then team 4 would be #1 and team 3 would be #2 seed.

Huh? Since when the points-continuation is mentioned? IF I knew this, we would have played hard for our last match instead goofing around. I was bit dumbfounded.

Then it’s 9:30pm, the matches were over. The mates on the courts found out other courts scores and began to high five each other.

All timed match
1D: 6-4, 4-4
2D: 6-4, 4-1
3D: 3-6, 3-4

I felt guilty and .. .. sick. Hey, the late night light dinner at Asian Cafe on Main Street was great. [To pay for the dinner I took out a Benjamin Franklin thinking it’s Alexander Hamilton. Man I’m old and senile. Ya, I’m loaded in the winter time because my teammates like to tip me in 100. Good to be their captain!]

“As previously indicated, this playoff will be played as an extension of the local season. The winner of each quarter-final will advance to the District Playoff’s on March 3rd.”

So kids, we’re going to Washington after all.

Lesson learnt: Golfer always tells me, read it myself. I guess I was swayed by previous conversations without really reading.

Deb put me on a diet:
no more dumb questions from me for 3 months.

A good night out with 2 super tie breaks: two tight matches!! The opposing team is pretty friendly. Our opponents are good players but somehow they got very tight. I had to ask them to open the can of balls to warm up. This is not the first time that the opposing team would rather use the old balls to warm up – couldn’t figure out the thinking behind it.

1D: 3-6, 6-2, 10-4
2D: 6-0, 6-3
3D: 5-7, 6-4, 12-14

I seldom watch Aussie Open, not because timing isn’t good: ESPN would have it in the early morning. This morning I stared watching from the 4th set when Joker lead 4-0. The long rallies were plenty, nearly all from the baseline. There were little dramas when Rafael Nadal seemed was out and about, then came back, and was on the cusp to win it .. but it’s Novak Djokovic’s 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 victory. 5 hour, 53-minute endurance contest, a record in grand slam final. Both guys were spent. What’s amusing, the court got little wet when the roof was closing. So the Open had humans getting down on their knees to dry the court. Through the camera, they looked like little worms, funny and so high tech (ya right ..). Then the award ceremony. Maybe the down under just like the slow pace. The non sense just went on and on. The Asian guy (Thomas Oh ??) perhaps from Kia auto, who went on and on, as if reciting a speech, like he’s the star. No no no, dude, hand out the dough and get off the stage. No one cares what you have to say. Title sponsor is just a title sponsor, you’re a side dish, supporting cast. Nadal began to sit on the net behind him. I do NOT blame him. 6 hours of hard fought tennis, and you ask him to stand for this non sense??? So two considerate staff brought over two blue chairs for the boys to sit. Are you kidding???? When it’s Nadal’s turn, he started his prolong speech (did the Aussie Open require the athletes fill certain length of time rather than what they have to say?) by saying Good morning. Joker seconded that too. The match ended at 1:37 a.m. Monday morning in Melbourne.
I was thinking, did American dollar at work for the final started so late? Also, why the heck Aussie Open needs a title sponsor? The gov or tennis couldn’t cough up the $$? Aren’t the Aussies also in the G-7 group? Guess this G-7er is different than the other three G-7 members?

2012 Long Island Mixed Doubles 8.0/X 8.0 Long Island Nassau

Schedule Date Schedule Time Home Team Captain/Phone Visiting Team Captain/Phone Facility/Match Site

1. 1/8/2012 7:00 PM Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Nassau Indoor, Morales Chris A Morales Carefree Racquet & Health Club
2. 1/15/2012 7:00 PM Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Massapequa, Reid/Shapiro Ann M. Reid Carefree Racquet & Health Club
3. 1/29/2012 7:00 PM Long Beach, Hutchinson louis hutchinson Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Long Beach Tennis Center
4. 2/5/2012 2:00 PM Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Long Beach, Bonacasa Laura Bonacasa Carefree Racquet & Health Club
5. 2/19/2012 5:00 PM Carefree, Kolenberg Bonnie Kolenberg Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Carefree Racquet & Health Club
6. 3/4/2012 7:00 PM Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Syosset, Putnam Suzanne Putnam Carefree Racquet & Health Club
7. 3/9/2012 8:00 PM Point Set, Jaeger/Healy jennifer r jaeger Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Point Set Indoor Racquet
8. 3/25/2012 7:00 PM Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Nassau Indoor, Adwar Julia A. Adwar Carefree Racquet & Health Club
9. 4/1/2012 5:00 PM Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Lynbrook, Wade Ginger Wade Carefree Racquet & Health Club
10. 4/13/2012 9:00 AM Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Bye
11. 4/21/2012 2:00 PM Long Beach, Burgess Daniel Burgess Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Long Beach Tennis Center
12. 4/29/2012 5:00 PM Carefree, Dileo Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Carefree Racquet & Health Club
13. 5/6/2012 2:00 PM Port Washington, Grujic Branislav Grujic Carefree, Raneses Gabriel Joson Raneses Port Washington Tennis Academy