For the record, the Long Island – Hempstead Lake, Moramarco team has no captain. Both Captain and Co-Captain fields listed N/A. But Adam is more than a skipper than any of us combined – he would scout out opponents with a note book in hand: hope my kids won’t ask for it .. I simply can’t measure up ..). I met him at the captain’s meeting on Thursday. Someone said he was banned from captaining due to some shady dealings in the past but he came anyway. He was very talkative and loudly claimed that he’s the nicest team, and how fair group of players he has. When he learned that I’ve played with one of the girls on his team, his comment was ..
“If you think Darlene’s former partner was great, you would definitely enjoy her current, Cary (Gary?). He’s such a gentleman. Once during a match when she was getting hammered by the man, we kept on urging him to do the same. ..”
In the mixed doubles parlance .. hit to the girl. Simon said it zillion times. (On gentler side Wai said, many times that unless the opposing man does it first he would not hit hard at the girl.)
So Adam acted it out for us, as Cary: stood straight and shocked his head, meaning no he would not do it. Adam even added the sound effect..
“He totally refused to do the same. Never once did he hit hard at the girl.”
Heart warming. I loved it.
(But by the way, isn’t that a coaching? And coaching is forbidden.)
And they won that match, btw. Eventually Darlene and Cary won all their four matches at Albany as second (1) and third (3) doubles team.
It rained on Saturday so we moved to indoor at Tri-City Fitness at Latham. French Open was on TV, Italy’s Francesca Schiavone was battling Aussie Samantha Stosur 6–4, 7–6(7–2).
Adam’s Long Island is the first team scheduled to play against us on the second day. It rained so we moved indoor. Sean and I – the newly minted 7.0 are the second doubles. As if happened, we faced the duo whose combined ranking is 8.0. Cary (4.5) looked bored from the beginning. Sorry sport, we weren’t up to your level. And yes to Adam’s proclamation, Cary never once hit it hard to me. Actually he never once hit it hard to Sean either. No need. A little drop shot and a soft touch there, we were out of breathe. He toyed with us for the most part when he finally got bored did he hit a somewhat forceful shot to end win the point. Under such circumstance, Adam could not refrain himself from coaching from the little opening on the side.
“Come on Cary, calm down .. concentrate .. don’t let up .. hit to .. ”
Calm down? Was he ever excited (too much credit to Sean and I ..) or anxious?
I wasn’t aware that Cary and Darlene were ever in danger of losing a point. Adam would come back again and again offering his advice. It was so annoying. You had your 8.0 playing on the 7.0 level, what’s there to worry? If I was fortunately enough to be in his shoes, you would be seeing me 叹世界 with a glass of martini in feet up, watching the French Open on TV.
Sean and I lost our match quickly, 1 and 2. .. that freed me up to to see my kids playing.
Wai and Mary were in the corner and the atmosphere was tense: scores were close disputed and judge was called. What’s more, that match has produced a huge drama that played out in the parking lot. It required not only my team but the coordinator to smooth it out .. it became the talk of the town for a long time.
Anne and Kai were in another corner court (I think it’s #12?). When I got there, I heard whispers again, coming from the little enclosed corner to the end. I opened the flip, and saw herd of opposing teammates whispering tips and encouragements to their players. I said to them, please no coaching. They looked at me wearily then one by one they filed out of that cozy corner. There isn’t a million dollar on the line .. .. why would people willing to sink so low? Show me some good sportsmanship, not sneakiness.
It’s my first time to a playoff. My feeling is that the up state teams are very enjoyable to play with. They are competitive yet exhibit great sportsmanship while New York metro area teams were less so, too cutthroat.
#1 Doubles Nicholas Robert Tursi/Esther Forrester vs Kai H. Chung/Anna Leung: 4-6 6-4 1-0
#2 Doubles Cary J. Markowitz/Darlene Sotomayor vs Sean Yuen/Irene Eng: 6-1 6-2
#3 Doubles Wai Chiu Leong/Mary Wong vs Gary Spitz/Amanda L. Aniboli: 6-4 6-2
xxxx
After the rain and drama, our second match of the day against Buffalo/Western was played out door as scheduled. Weather turned out to be nice again. Competitive matches with very friendly atmosphere – the way this game should be played.
