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Tennis in the Gloaming at Green Valley

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:57:06 +0000

Tuesday night my buddy Anthony and I had planned one last match outdoors before the days get too short and the weather too cold and play moves under the inflatable bubble that covers four of the nine courts at Green Valley Tennis Club in Haddon Township, N.J. My mother-in-law was in town to babysit, and I relished the rare night out for tennis while my wife was teaching, a night I’m usually changing diapers, hunting for clean pacifiers, and trying to rock our young one to sleep. The bubble was already up and rain earlier in the day caused me to expect that we would have to play indoors, but late afternoon the skies cleared up and we punched in on Court 7, starting about 5:45 p.m., most certainly my last evening outdoor tennis for the year. As usual, our games were long, deuce-ad, deuce-ad, and the first set, even though 6-3 in my favor, took a while, at least an hour. By this time the sunset sky through the trees at the end of the courts showed fiery red and orange, like a canvas by one of the Hudson River School painters.

We started the second and played another long while to 2-2, at which point we decided to play a tiebreaker. He almost skunked me, winning 7-1 after I played a courageous (okay, lucky that the angry swipe I took went in) point. Darkness by this point was coming down hard, but we agreed to play a 10-point supertiebreaker in place of the third set. We moved from Court 7 to Court 5, optimistically hopeful that the easternmost court would provide just a little more light. He started out strong and the twilight reminded me of the Scottish word I learned from the marvelous short story, “In the Gloaming” by Alice Elliott Dark, a fantastic writer and teacher I was lucky enough to learn from in grad school at Rutgers-Newark. I also thought of some early lines in The Catcher in the Rye where Holden recalls throwing a football on the lawn: “It was just before dinner and it was getting pretty dark out, but we kept chucking the ball around anyway. It kept getting darker and darker, and we could hardly see the ball any more, but we didn’t want to stop doing what we were doing.”

I felt the same, not wanting to stop, to not lose the last rays of light and the last of warm weather allowing outdoor tennis. Down 8-5, by this time near pitch dark, I mounted a comeback, and somehow held off a few match points to come back and win the tiebreaker 13-11. On match point I hit a solid serve that he couldn’t see at all. I hadn’t beaten Anthony in a while, and even though I had to enlist darkness to do it, it felt good. I would have been content losing too, however, happy to be able to steal a last few moments of summer-like evening a few days shy of October. Besides, Tuesday night is Taco Night at the Tap Room, the bar/restaurant next door to the club, and the outdoor deck was open, the tacos $2 each, and a bucket with five Mexican beers only $10. Anthony and I and several other players sat under a tree on the deck and ate and drank and told tennis stories. It’s a memory that will sustain me through the rapidly approaching days when the sun sets before I leave work, when ice begins forming on the morning windshields, and the outdoor nets go into winter storage.

Green Valley Tennis Club, Sept. 28, 2010

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Merrry Christmas, Baby — An Elvis Doubles Competition

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:57:03 +0000

Ladies, Gentleman and others, Presenting Brian Long, champion of the first annual ECEGVTCRRI (Elvis Christmas Eve Green Valley Tennis Club Round Robin Doubles Invitational), and his trophy, the 1970 Elvis Christmas Album which he will have to defend in 2010.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays She’s bigger than the rackets and much more mobile than...

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Three and Out for GVTC Members on Saturday

Joe Samuel Starnes — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:21:12 +0000

As a Joe Ely song I heard recenlty says, you’ve got to lift your leg a little higher to run with the big dogs. Green Valley Tennis Club members were 0-3 on Saturday, but performed admirably for a bunch of local old dudes. Here’s the run down:

Jim Lewis and I gave away a combined 40 years in age to the Sherill brothers, Samuel, 22, and Franklin, 24, respectively, and lost 1 & 3 on Saturday. We had a lead of 3-2 in the second set, and I was serving after holding three times in a row, but on one point I forgot to cross when Jim poached even though I agreed to the signal, and then double-faulted on the break point. But at least we made them work in the second set.

Anthony Pozzi’s run into the round of sixteen ended with a loss to a player from Texas A&M’s team, a top ten team in Division I nationally.

Marc Oberholtzer and Pozzi later lost in their first round doubles to a tough team from Philly.

Below is a shot of the Pozzi backhand from his singles win on Friday night, and here is a link to a slide show of our play from the tourney.

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Green Valley Tennis Club Amateurs Versus the Pros: An Argentine’s Analysis

Joe Samuel Starnes — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:22:30 +0000

Five 4.5 NTRP-rated members of the Green Valley Tennis Club in Haddon Township, N.J., are competing tomorrow in the Lukoil Open, a prize-money event that has drawn players from as far away as California and Texas competing for the $2,000 top prize.

I’ve already posted commentary on my match, but captain of our 4.5 team Marcelo Pascale has analyzed the draw for all of us. Marcelo, a native of Bueno Aires reared on red clay, travels regularly to Green Valley from the other side of Philly just to hit his heavy topspin forehand on the slow Har-Tru courts.

Here is Marcelo’s analysis of our singles draws with my notes in italics:

–Jim Lewis plays a guy that is not showing on any tennis sites. That is normally a good sign. So my prediction is he will win his first round and face the number one seed.

The number one seed is Punch Maleka, a 30-year-old South African native who lives in King of Prussia, Pa., and was once ranked 619 in the world.

–Marc Oberholtzer plays the guy that will win the tourney. Unseeded Justin O’Neal, who last year lost to guys like Andreas Beck 5-7 4-6 and Yen-Hsun Lu 6-7(2), 6-7(12). The current ranking of these guys are 39 and 62. But I guessan L is an L. Unseeded? I didn’t even look who is next.

O’Neal was an all-American at the University of Florida and is ranked 824 in the world. He and Maleka have played several times this year, with Maleka winning two weeks ago in three sets. Maybe it’s a different Justin O’Neal? Could that explain the unseeded status? Marc will be able to tell us pretty quickly.

–Anthony Pozzi, I like your chances. A well deserved bye on first round after a solid performance against Mr. Nichols (in USTA league play this summer). Prediction: you will move to the second day and young Joey Boyle will be posting his racquets on eBay (or what is left of them).

– I (Marcelo) play a kid that last year beat 6 and 5 some other junior that beat me 3 and 3. Not very promising but I should have a shot. No shot after that.

– Sam, (That’s me) tough player on the first round and if you get by you get Maksim Tikhomirov, a regular in the Future circuit that by the way double bagel me a couple of years ago when he was 16.

Good luck everyone.

(Gracias, Marcelo — You are the tennis Captain Extraordinaire.)

PS — I asked Marcelo to look at the doubles draw as well, and he declined. I should have known better than to ask an Argentine about doubles.

No. 1 Seed Punch Maleka

U.S. versus Spain: 0-9 Zero to nine. The number says it all. That is...

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Into the Breach: Playing a Pro Tournament

Joe Samuel Starnes — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:17:28 +0000

Some readers of this blog probably wonder, “Who in the hell is this idiot, and why does he think he can write about pro tennis? I bet he couldn’t win two points against a pro.” I feel like I might be able to win two points against Roger Federer if we played three out of five sets, heck, maybe even three. Even the Great Fed misses every now and again. We’ll never know, but next weekend you will be able to follow how I’ll do in an open pro, prize-money tournament on a much-smaller scale. I signed up today to play in the Lukoil Open at the Green Valley Tennis Club Aug. 6-8 in Haddon Township, N.J., my home club. Prize money for the winner is $2,000, and the runner-up gets $1,000. I’m not counting on this to make my mortgage, but just would be very happy if I can get a draw that gives me a chance to win a match. Hopefully, there will be others my level (4.5) and as delusional as me.

My preparation plan is not the usual ATP method. I’ve been playing only about once a week over the past month. I may get out and hit tomorrow, but only if it doesn’t rain early, because I plan to go bass fishing in the afternoon. On Sunday, I’ll be at the Nascar race in the Poconos in Northeast Pennsylvania, and Monday I’ve got other obligations. But Tuesday and Wednesday I plan to get in a good practice, and then maybe an easy hit Thursday, and Friday the first round. I have been running and stretching and working out my 42-year-old shoulder some, and the tendonitis that plagued me last year is most gone. It ain’t going to help me if I draw a seed. A Barry Bonds-sized dose of steroids wouldn’t even make a difference.

Whatever happens, I guarantee that I’ll get two matches in next weekend. I’m signed up for the doubles as well. Follow my progress here, or check out the tournament web site for scores.

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