Posts Tagged tennis

The Coliseum

Golfer has his play off match at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum immediately after the Islanders game. That’s in conflict with my fourth match: we’re short of woman and must win IF we want to stay in the race. After begging and weighting to be a supportive wife once in a long while or not letting my team down (actually its quite a let down by losing 1D matches, twice). It’s my team in the end.  Golfer was very supportive, saying no worry .. they’ll play at the Coliseum again. My plan for the night was: try to finish the match as soon as possible and rush to the Coliseum be the groupie. Got a chance to roam around the back but didn’t get to see the players’ locker room: pix on FB, on youtube.

I love ice hockey (and football): so much grace, speed and drama. I always wondered why ice hockey isn’t as popular as other major league sports: über unfair. Also wondered why the heck they say no to Wang’s new stadium. The Coliseum is so old that it may crack any time if the wind blows bit harder.

Back to tennis. I was running late but thankfully got there by 8:30pm. Our court: our opponents were very experienced, nice and enjoyable to play with. I made a late call for a wide shot, they didn’t flinch. We missed a clearly out call in the second set. Oh well, too bad, our fault. The lighting was poor. The tall guy has a mean forehand but he never hit hard at me or to me. The lady has trouble handle Ron’s serve but is experienced who hit quite few cute shots that were deadly. Toward the end, she asked Ron who’s Irene becasue I romanced few girls for recruiting before the season started and she was one of them. But guess I’m not too charming: need to hone my pick line -:)
One court:

Had one of the most exciting match last night. We were down the entire time in first set (either down a break or on serve) until we reach the tiebreak. We won the tie break 7-5 or 7-4 on a defensive lob. In the second set we were down again 0-2. With time running out, we basically try our best to fight for every point. Irene held serve to make it 1-2. Then we were down 40-0 again. We came back and won that game. That was a significant game bc that would be the last game due to time and if they won, we would have split. We won… I think I hit the guy with a high forehand volley. Oops.

Another court:

We went 6/4, 6/2 but we had been up 4/0 in the first set and they clawed their way back up to a tie grrrr. The second set we were up 5/1 and let them win one more to get to 6/2

I think we played the captains and he was a decent guy decent player but the woman was sneering ready to pick a fight from the get go. She yelled at me for swinging body waiting the serve to her as it was too distracting We called a ball out that was clearly out with the mark to prove it. That got her really going and every point got an argument or sneer. .. Then we were near the end of the 2nd set and she hit what she thought was a down the line winner and it was out so I called it out. So she said
“You’re not actually going to call that out are you ?”
And then Larry said it was out! Then she accused us of calling every ball out and that got Prince Larry going..hos lip curled and he gave her a “what for ” about how über -fair we were being throughout and even called very close ones that were likely out, in and In their favor and shut her right down and then of course we went on to win the set.

Particularly when losing so badly – being nasty on top just doesn’t make you any better or any more likeable .. and in fact makes you want to call their balls out even more!!! Im happy to play anyone and compete fair and square but there’s just no rationale for that kind of behavior.

1D: 7-6, 2-2 (timed match)
2D: 6-4, 6-2
3D: 6-3, 6-2

Leave a Comment

Queens stats

Leave a Comment

James!

I haven’t played with James in a couple of years, at least. Surprisingly we found each other on the same court last week. He’s the most fluid and poetic strokes I don’t see often. It’s very relaxing to play against him, I could actually line up my shots and do well in our many long long rallies. He seemed to impressed with my progress, and let me serve first. I took that as a compliment. We dished out a bagel easily to a hard hitter who never had a chance.
Now, talking about winning, I’ve been trying to score a victory with David over Dan and Sean .. 3 matches later I’m only able to reach few tie breaks ..
Got to work harder.

Leave a Comment

The last match

Someone questioned me if I’m still under warranty and suggested to take up bumper to bumper insurance plan, when I complained my legs and arms hurt after my back and shoulders. Don’t know I own those body parts .. till they all acting up.
Our last match of the regular season was scheduled at 8pm. Guess my brain was hurting too bec I had 8:30 in mind. When I limped onto the the court, it’s 8:10. I was just too bit heavy for my partner to carry, lost 4 and 3.
Good news is .. Pumpkin scored her team’s first goal and won 7:6; Golfer would score a goal too late that evening on ice too. Darn it, why didn’t I bring home a win??
Once again, we made the playoffs, which will take place at NTC on April 30 that weekend. The two divisions have similar scores, guess more competitive matches ahead. Mark your calendar and come to cheer us up!

Leave a Comment

One of those times ..

Besides the senior moment, I now have the menopause moment too, and it strikes often.. .. like last night. It would have been a close one but Irene just couldn’t get her act together. The girl opened match by serving it first. We danced around deuce few time but she eventually took it. I was thinking, cool, going to be a competitive match.
Ha.
I double faulted on game point, set point and match point .. hopefully I’m not going to DF on life point??!!
Sorry partner.
will try harder next time..
We even called the score wrong but our opponents corrected .. no it’s game.
Nice of them.
Wine and dine at the National Tennis Center

My weekday AM group would linger at the lobby after the game; some times llllooong after the game. And some times before the game. Many days their routine would be
.. tennis.
.. lounging around
.. lunch
.. mahjong (majiang)

.. dinner
The new lineup sheet!
I think this is the best lineup sheet I’d seen so far. The league ought to make amendment … ha ha ha ..
Good to know other captains forget things too.
The opposing cap (see the mid pix) came bit late and holding this plate.
Pretty cool
Is he wining and dinning at the NTC again??!!
And as usual, I wasn’t invited?

Leave a Comment

The winter blues

Last Saturday we played at a little friendly tourney at the Nation Tennis Center, 7-11pm. Three and half pairs of my team had joined. And we were assigned in the same court. Wondering why would we want to do that since we play each other all the time? Two courts were reserved for mixed and the tourney mixed all the mixed pairs to play, the couples’ rating ranging from 6.5 to 8.0. And they gave out trophies at the end.
.

.

.
The designated photographer Charlie took many pictures. Look at the blue hue, very sharp cerulean came to mind.
.
Our 7th match went smoothly. The opponent came prepared, two 6.5 combo and one 7.0. They stacked the game, putting the strongest – at least on paper – the 7.0 pair at third doubles. They like something different, out of ordinary: last time the team put out an ineligible pair. The players were all very nice and polite. Stephanie used to be on my team but this time (the Queens league) we couldn’t really afford her since we only have one 4.0. She is, as usually, talkative and was questioning my partner’s acumen of the game, asking him if he knew how to warm up, :). I really enjoy having her around; glad she found a new team to play on. She served very well and her forehand worked well too.
The match scores and team standings in our Division I. The Queens League has only two divisions for 7.0. The 8.0 has two divisions and 6.0 has one only. We are 9 points behind the first team but we’re one match less.
加油
大家加油
The end is near
加油
.

.

.
Slight different blues
.

.

.

.

Leave a Comment

打毛波

Our 6th match was played yesterday at NTC on clay. Crisis, Crisis, and more Crisis. The first crisis was, I’m having mid life crisis! The second crisis: I forgot to send out the lineup .. the third crisis was forgot to bring balls. It’s totally my fault: the opposing team even mentioned it in the confirmation email – thank you Doug, it’s really nice for you to do so. The third doubles players from both side (two couples: not sure about the opponents but they have the same last name .. ) each offered me a can of balls: thank you all! And Kai went to the Pro shop to get the third can. I’m brain dead and contracting Alzheimer’s disease…

Ricky and I played the second string. We were pretty tight in the first four games, everyone held own serve. Then I didn’t know what happened but Ricky took the set at 2.
The second set began with my partner served first again. Some how we were leading 4:1.
The guy served and held.
4:2.
Irene served and lost
4:3.
The lady served and held
4:4.
Holy smoke.
Then everyone held his/her own, tie break followed. I tried hard to focus and to pull myself together.
Guess we were less nervous or the Lord was moved by my sincerity, we won the tie break 7:4. Phew.

As soon as we shocked hands at the net, our first doubles team who had finished before us on court 3, said to us,

“打毛波 .. they cheat.”

My teammates referred to a point we hit to the corner of the ad court. The man was at the baseline. (Our first doubles mates were at their baseline too and saw the shot was well inside of the court.) He hesitated. The lady was near the net and she went to baseline. They had a discussion about it.
Then our opponents rendered their verdict:
It was out.
The guy even came to the net to demonstrated how far out it was and where it landed.
I remembered joking to Ricky,
“Gee .. they to have a meeting to decide a shot .. ” Some elaborated operation.

I said nothing, what’s the point?

  1. It’s their call – no need to argue. Like I said, so far I haven’t encounter anyone intentional cheat on line calls.
  2. The rule said IF the player is unsure of a shot, then the opponent gets the point – we should been have awarded the point but we didn’t.

I wasn’t going to enforce the rule because I don’t like confrontation. Both Ricky and I noticed our first point was ended with a shot that sailed long. The guy took it behind the baseline without letting it to bounce. We took it as 0:15. But really, we could have it as 15:0. I personally experienced this before, when I played elsewhere (for the yellow glove lady). I stopped a very long shot without letting it bounce. It was a tight singles match and my opponent and her teammates jumped on me ..

There are rules and there are people.. ..

..

This afternoon Dan and I lost to Irene and her honey 0:4! 4 bagels, 4 eggs at NTC Court 5 where I lost my playoffs match on Saturday. I was so tired, I hardly could move by third set. I found myself wondering off all the time. Kai said to me on Saturday
“Please, we have a match to play .. ” when he saw me watching the matches on both sides.
Today, Wah finally had it, said ..
“Have you finished watching?” ..

Irene and Honey are on a roll, they just called for a match tomorrow at 11am. Sigh. I resign. I surrender. I give up.

Leave a Comment

He makes me feel so normal ..

Leagues with 8 or more teams with 3 divisions: the 1st place team in each division, and the 2nd place team with the most points (amongst all the divisions) will advance to playoffs

The first place team from each division make playoffs (3 spots). The 4th playoff spot is determined by the team having the most points amongst all 3 divisions.

As we were approaching the exit 9P on the Grand Central Parkway from the East to the National Tennis Center, there was a parked car. I kid you not. It’s dark and we were dumbfounded. It’s not the highway shoulder for Pete’s sake. What’s more? The male driver opened his door without the slightest regard to the traffic and fellow drivers. And he got out. By then, we were exited already so I didn’t know what happened. Hopefully all was right.

It’s first round of playoffs for the Manhattan League 3 divisions. We faced the strongest team in the 7.0 mixed doubles flight: they won 122.5 points out of possible 130. The matches were scheduled at 7pm but we were advised to get there 30 minutes prior. In fact, our first and second doubles teams were called to work at around 6:45 as the courts became available. Kai and I was the third doubles, didn’t get on court till 7.

The USTA roving umpire came over performing the coin toss with a nickle. Not a quarter? Guess the economic downturn has severely affect the game as well. He’s new or I haven’t been playing the league long enough to know everyone. He asked each of us where do we live: the farthest got to call head or tail. Although I’m only 10 miles away from the NTC but I got to call because the ump deemed the Bronx where our opponents live is farther. I called head and the head it was. We decided to receive.
The guy looked very neat and composed, Rafa Nadal’s neat. He wore a short that’s more office than court. The trousers has two darker strips lined the inside of the thighs – adductors. For a moment I thought he wet himself. Then his 100+ mile per hour second serve took my mind off his pants. He has the best serve I’ve played so far on the league. Some male players would soften his serve when poor me was on the receiving end, so I didn’t get to experience or handle the real forceful men power .. until this Saturday. I wasn’t intimidated but I just couldn’t get to it -:). He aced me left and right. (AT this writing, the new world record of serving is set by Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic: 251 kmph or 156mph.)

Then couple of shots later when I finally managed to return his serve .. no .. actually it’s when I finally was able to barely get my racket on his serve. My return landed in the mid court. He rushed in for a deadly kill with a loud grunt, and felt on to the ground. The ball went out with a menacing speed, hitting the blue panel with a deafening thud. However, his grunt was very eerie, like a wounded cub or toddler whose favored toy was being taken away; almost girlie. Very contradicting from his tranquil facade.

I have always disgusted by my ugly grunt and wishing if I could trade any stokes for it. I think I’m ok with it now -:) He certainly made me feel my grunt isn’t as ugly as I thought before. SO .. thanks a ton!

Throughout the match, he aimed at Kai all the time, which was often since lovely Irene knows how to set up her partner up. Sight. I did ask Kai if there were marks left from the battle. He just laughed it off.

I were to serve the second and surprisingly held my serve till I was serving for the first set at 5:4, and at 40:love. You’d think Irene can rise to the occasion.

Think again -:(

We lost first set at 7:5. We got swept. Totally.

My Big Bro was there too and he offered similar observation on our opponent. He’s going to go back to Beijing in about three months, permanently. Happy relocating Big Bro!

I took a shower and came out finding my chauffeur and his wife were waiting, to whisk me to dinner. Guess they weren’t too mad at me for losing the match as to abandon me. They even tipped me! Being captain does have it perks. Oh well, hope the league isn’t going to find out about this. I didn’t ask for it !!!

So… we are done with Manhattan.

So I’m happy: being chauffeur to the matches in lux; having good time playing with my kids mates..

So life is good.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone on the team, for your consideration, cooperation and tolerance (of me). I really appreciated your support. We’re a team and we had good time.

The End.

Leave a Comment

Jim wrote to me..


Jim Courier wrote to me to thank me, can you image that? Not only him but Mary Joe Fernandez, the U.S. Fed Cup Captain too. Can you image that? OMG .. I can’t sleep tonight.

Thank You For Being a Captain!

Dear Irene,

On behalf of the United States Tennis Association, we’d like to thank you for being a USTA League Captain. Congratulations on the completion of your local league season! Please accept this Certificate of Appreciation as recognition of your service and dedication to our great game.

We hope you have found your role as a USTA League Captain enjoyable and rewarding. As captains, we know the effort it takes to lead a team, but we hope you share our passion and are already looking forward to continuing your role as a League Captain in the upcoming year.

Thank you again for your efforts in promoting and developing the growth of tennis throughout the United States—now and in years to come.

Sincerely,

Mary Joe Fernandez
U.S. Fed Cup Captain
Dan James
World Team Cup Captain
Jim Courier
U.S. Davis Cup Captain

Ya right.
Word is cheap .. is this a common phase ? IF it is then I felt exact that word is very cheap. How about try to improve the service and make some necessary changes?

Anyway, I played a pretty good game this afternoon, won a close set at 7:5 against two guys with David. That was some set. I’ve never played with David before and he didn’t talk at all. So it’s just me out there swinging. I couldn’t hold serve from the beginning – the guys just killed it … but then I was able to hold to serve out the first set – I was thrilled. We went on to win the second set at 2. Our time was up (1.5-hour) after two sets so we played on to play the third set, knowing we could be off court any minute. Luckily we got to finish the third set which we lost.

2/27: Our 5th match gone well – well, bit more competition would have been nice BUT no one could predict what’s going to happen on a given day! I double faulted on the first game. Our opponents were really nice and very positive. I especially like the girl who’s great forehand and first serve was lethal, it’s her personality that’s endearing.

Leave a Comment

Manhattan Mixed Doubles Playoff Regulations

2011 Metro USTA League
Manhattan Mixed Doubles Playoff Regulations

Congratulations on a successful season and reaching the playoffs. Captains and players should review the following regulations PRIOR to their first playoff match.

Venue: Matches will be played indoors at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. For directions, visit here.

Playoff Format: This is a single elimination tournament. Each court is worth 1 point. The team that wins the most points in each match is awarded the win. The team that wins each level will advance to the Regional playoff.

All match times are approximate except for the first match of the day. Matches will be called as the courts become available. The default time (15 minutes) starts when the court is called.

Eligibility: Players must have 2 local matches recorded. Only 1 default may count towards eligibility. Each team must have a minimum of 6 players available in order to participate in the playoff’s.

Once a player participates in this tournament, they may not participate in a playoff match in another region until their Metro team has been eliminated. (Please see Eastern Rule IIIG for additional details).

All players must have government issued photo ID. Random checks will be done throughout the tournament.

Check-in and Scorecards:
Captains are required to check in at the tournament desk upon arrival. Captains must present their lineup 30 minutes prior to their scheduled match time. If a player is late, the captain must put the missing player in the 3rd doubles position before the lineup is submitted.

All players must be present and ready to play 30 minutes prior to the start of their match. When the court is called, all players must report to the tournament desk, introduce themselves to their opponent and then proceed immediately to their court. Players who delay the start of a match will have a penalty point accessed.

IMPORTANT: Players will receive a 30 minute rest period between matches at the same level. Players who elect to play at 2 levels are NOT entitled to a rest period.

Officials:
USTA roving umpires will be present during the matches to maintain warm-up and rest periods, resolve disputes and enforce the rules of tennis. Officials will call foot-faults and penalize code violations. A referee will also be present to answer questions about tennis rules.

Match details:
Warm up: 10 minutes, including serves.

Games are regular scoring, with a set tie-break (first to 7 pts) when 6-6 in games is reached during the first 2 sets. If you split sets, a 10-point tiebreak will be played in lieu of the 3rd set. In doubles, order of serve and receiving order can be changed after each set.

Coman tie-break procedure is used for all tie-breaks: players change ends after the 1st point and after every 4 points thereafter.

Breaks: A 2 minute break is permitted between the 1st and 2nd set. Play is continuous between the 2nd set and 3rd set tiebreak unless there is a changeover. A maximum of 90 seconds is allowed on changeovers, 20 seconds between points.

All matches are played to completion.

All players (winners and losers) are required to turn in the balls and report their scores to the tournament desk IMMEDIATELY after their match finishes.

Captains must sign the scorecards after all courts are completed.

Player Etiquette:
Players must follow the USTA Code of Conduct at all times.

The server must call the score loudly and clearly before each serve. Players are responsible for ensuring they have heard and understood the score. If all players on a court forget the score, go back to the point that everyone agrees on.

Make all line calls clearly and immediately on your side of the court. If there is doubt, the ball is good. (A ball that is 99% out is still 100% in). Officials will overrule bad line calls.

All cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off during matches.

Bathroom breaks may be taken, but should be on a changeover and with the official’s knowledge. Players may not talk to their teammates, coaches or spectators during a bathroom break.

Spectator Etiquette
Spectators, family and team members are encouraged to attend our playoffs, as long as they abide by the following:

• May not talk to players on the court. Coaching is not allowed, and talking to players will be treated as coaching.
• May not comment or make visual signals on line calls.
• May not cause any distractions to the players.
• May not engage in any form of verbal abuse against players, spectators, or tournament staff.
• Must limit clapping and cheering as it disrupts play on adjacent courts.
• MUST turn off all cell phones and electronic devices.
• May not approach the officials to discuss matters relating to play or the players. They may, upon the request of a player, alert the official that a court needs assistance.
• May not use flash photography nor videotape matches.
• May not enter a tournament court without the permission of the tournament staff.

Spectators who violate these rules will be asked to leave.

A warning and/or a penalty may apply as a result of any player, captain or spectator interfering with match play and abusing the code of conduct. This includes disruptive behavior on or off the court.

Spectators who violate these rules will be asked to leave.

Refreshments
The tournament staff will provide snacks (i.e. bananas, granola bars) for the players. Please make sure your players bring their own water and any other dietary requirements.

Leave a Comment

Older Posts »