Joe and Lennie
"What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica:
Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum
And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street"
-Shylock
The Merchant of Venice
Act 2, Scene 5
We're a-waitng photos of folks in costume at the First Annual Halloween Costume Ball which took place here at the club Saturday last. We'll post the pics as they come in. Stay tuned.
Nice weather this week. We're having considerable play. We usually stay open until the middle of November, weather permitting.
"FYI for your newsletter -- Bud Herzstein and Ruth Morss rowed in the Charles River Regatta, Bud I believe in the Senior Veterans, and Ruth in a Community Rowing Club boat." -Anon
Joe Cortes, a tournament director, wrote a re-cap of the tournaments for any of you who missed one. (Joe played in the tournaments, and with Len Singer, co-directed them, watched them, and generally hovered over them, nursed them.)
Report on Club Championship Tournaments
For the first time since 2002, all the club championship tournaments were held this season: Mixed Doubles, Women's Doubles, Men's Doubles, Women's Singles and Men's Singles. Amazing fact: all the tournaments were held and completed in September and participation was stellar as all events attracted exceptionally large draws! Club spirit seemed at an all-time high. The tennis was consistently excellent, drawing numerous spectators, esp. on the Sundays when final rounds were held.
Many thanks to Lenny Singer, men's events coordinator and food and beverage purveyor. And many, many thanks to Cela Hobbs, women's events coordinator, who almost single handedly put together the largest women's events the Club has ever seen.
For next year's tournaments, and as with the next elections coming up on Tuesday, we urge everyone to sign up early and often as we will probably have to limit draw sizes. And, we will be having the first ever Parent-Child tournament next season as well so please keep an eye out for this event.
The following is a recap of the tournaments:
Mixed Doubles Championship
The most popular event had a full 16 team draw days before the sign up deadline. Notable matches in the early rounds include the 10-8 nailbiter that RoAnnn Costin and Peter Maggs won over Nancy and Tom Dingman and the competitive 10-4 match won by 2nd seeds Molly Downer and Ken Turnbull over the teenagers Lara Maggs and Zack Miller. The top four seeds reached the semifinals, with 4th seeds Jessie von Hippel and Jim Baldwin winning a surprisingly easy contest versus 5th seeds Holly Crary and Alex Pang. Both semifinals were terrific, close matches. In one semifinal, 3rd seeds Faith Moore and Joe Cortes upset many times champion Molly Downer and her partner Ken Turnbull 6-1, 3-6, 6-0. The other semifinal's first set took almost as long as the entire other semifinal match. Top seeds Michelle Schaffer and David Hemenway squeaked by Jessie von Hippel and Jim Baldwin in that first set and rode the momentum wave to win, 7-5, 6-0. In the finals, the porch was replete with both active and porch members who witnessed a hard fought two hour battle won by defending champions and top seeds Schaffer and Hemenway over a game Moore and Cortes, 6-4, 7-5. It is noteworthy that the champs came from 15-40 down in the last game of the first set to win and were love-40 down in the 12th game of the second set to clinch the match.
The consolation draw was quite competitive and generated some excellent matches. Consolation winners were Nancy Sinsabaugh and Allen West over Ann Peters and Ken Hoffman.
Women's Doubles Championship
An unprecedented 10 teams entered the Women's Doubles and we witnessed some of the best tennis and most exciting matches in this tournament. In the round of 16, Paula Macomber and Sue Mann had a close one over Blacklaw and McInnes, 10-7. The quarterfinals exposed a glaring oversight by the tournament chairman as Cela Hobbs and her partner Susannah Greenup (formerly listed as Jacobus) upset the 4th seeds Roann Costin and Juliet Godson, 10-4. In the semifinals, second seeds Maeve Ercolani and returning CTC tournament regular, Sally Fowler, defeated Faith Moore and Tyler Sezak, 6-1, 6-4, as Faith just could not get used to a more stationary partner than the one she is used to. In the other semifinal, in a dramatic match, Greenup-Hobbs upset top seeds and overwhelming favorites in 3 sets, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3. This excellent match was filled with long rallies between teams of contrasting styles. In the end, Greenup-Hobbs prevailed with their shotmaking over the consistency of the Downer-Schaffer tandem. The Women's Doubles final was one for the ages: a marathon of excellent tennis with all four combatants contributing equally to the high level of play throughout the match. Ercolani-Fowler prevailed over Greenup-Hobbs, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 as their extended semifinal match took its toll on Greenup-Hobbs. The consolation final saw Liz Marran and Nancy Sinsabaugh defeat Judy King and Joanna Scott, 10-6.
Men's Doubles
It was a miracle that the Men's Doubles Championship was completed. A large draw of 15 teams patiently waited out a Saturday filled with rain thanks to the pleasantly distracting food and libations provided by the Club's Chief Procurement Officer, Lenny Singer. Half of the Round of 16 matches were played on Saturday morning, then the rain came down hard for a few hours. Thanks to the wonderful work of Dave deBassio and Alex the courts were again playable by 3:30 Saturday, when the rest of the Round of 16 was completed. The top 4 seeds came through to the quarterfinals, with 4th seeds Carig Lambert and John Sedgwick squeaking by 10-9 in the pro set. Another notable match had Peter Maggs and Eric Wodlinger winning also by a 10-9 score. The top 4 seeds reached the semifinals with Lambert-Sedgwick surviving another long, close match, this time against Maggs-Wodlinger. In the semis, a high priority scheduling conflict unfortunately forced Lambert-Sedgwick to default to top seeds David Hemenway and Ken Turnbull. The other semifinal saw a mild upset of the 2nd seeds, Jim Baldwin and Leif Larsen, by 3rd seeds Joe Cortes (mostly a squash player) and Alex Pang (mostly a singles player), 6-3, 6-4 in a long, competitive match not indicated by the score. Therefore the finals pitted perennial Men's Doubles champion David Hemenway and Ken Turnbull against reigning Men's Doubles Champion, Joe Cortes (who took 4 tries to wrest the crown from Hemenway with partner David Summersby the last time the tournament was held in 2004) and Alex Pang. Heading into the finals on Sunday afternoon, Cortes-Pang had already played two tough matches that day while Hemenway-Turnbull needed to play only one easy match (a 10-1 win in the quarters). It seemed fatigue took its toll as Cortes- Pang could not sustain the pace of their shots, esp. with the onslaught of lobs by Hemenway-Turnbull. The top seeds prevailed 6-4, 7-5 in another long, thrilling match consistent with most of the tournament's matches.
Women's Singles
The women's singles draw was one of the largest in Club history thanks again to the hard work of Cela Hobbs. Noteworthy was the return to the tournament of long time members such as Adele Pressman (top seed), Jessie von Hippel (3rd seed) and Renata von Tscharner. The quarterfinals saw great play from two of the newer members of the Club. Mary Tittman upset von Tscharner, 10-8 while Liz Marran was edged by 2nd seed Michele Schafer, 10-9 (7-5 in the tiebreaker). Pressman ended Tittman's fine run in the semifinals with her consistency and pace, 6-3, 6-2, as Tittman clearly tired from her 3rd match of the day. von Hippel conducted a clinic as she she took apart the tough and consistent Schaffer, 6-3,6-0. The finals was witnessed by a good group of mostly male tennis aficionados on a cool, overcast Sunday. They were not disappointed as the level of play between Pressman and von-Hippel was very high throughout the match. The points were long and, except for von Hippel's numerous, deft backhand drops from the baseline, the pace was strong. In the end, von Hippel was crowned Women's champion with a 6-4, 6-0 win that does not evidence the closeness of the match.
Men's Singles
The men's singles draw was full with 16 entrants, but there were many notable absences from among the top players in the Club. Second seed and defending champion (2003) Alex Pang was upset in the quarterfinals by new member Mike Wiggins, 10-8. Many times champion David Hemenway breezed through the top half of the draw to meet Wiggins in the final. In another long match not indicated by the score, Hemenway prevailed 6-4, 6-0 over Wiggins by using his trademark consistency and court savvy.
-Joe Cortes
| The Closing Party will take place on Sunday, Nov.12, from 5-7:00 p.m. Please come. |
Peter Maggs sent us many wonderful pictures that he took at the tournaments. Let's look at a few more.
Many thanks to Peter Maggs for the tournament photos. Peter took zillions of good pictures. Space and download time dictate that we post only a few. (We'll post more at a later time.) Peter invites readers to look at all of his tournament pictures and pictures of his trip to Kenya. Peter's photos can be found at an online photos site:
We like the idea sent in by a summer member and we've had some responses. More are promised.
The club book should be in your hands always. Much of the book's information is also available on the website. Events, Rules, Governors and Committees are all updated, as is the New Members List.
The Waiting List for membership is posted online. You can find it, in chronological order, in the FAQ section of the website.
The website has a long overdue new feature: a Champions Page (updated to include the winners of this year's tournaments). Check it out.
The website has another new and important feature, the President's Corner (updated 10-5-06). Check it out.
And we've added new info on the membership process. Check out MEMBERSHIP.
Some useful links:
Here's a link to the espn site, with pro ranking.
And a club member (let's call him Sol) suggested a link to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The site is rich.
We still have the tournament draws (from 2001 to 2004) available on-line (including all of the results), thanks to the Java Kid. We are re-locating the links, however.
"On the court, tennis players exchange not only ground strokes but lots of information. It's a richly interactive sport, both verbally and non-verbally. If players communicate clearly, simply, and consistently, the game will proceed more quickly, and with less fuss and misunderstanding. Here are a few guidelines that can make the game more fun, friendly, and fair for all...."
We've had some requests to run Craig Lambert's piece, sampled above, on Tennis Communication. (We'd better leave this link up on the newspage permanently.)
Website note: The website does have all of the information available in the club book on-line except the membership directory.
'Timelines' is for adepts.
Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2005. From there you can see the whole of the Persistent Archive of last year's news.
Website Note: The time and temperature icon below is a link to a Boston weather site.
Joe DeBassio, Webmaster.
Website Note II: The honey-comb icon is also a link. It takes the clicker to an archive of all the past news pages so that said clicker can read the news pages for the whole year (2006). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage. (Skywriter is for Initiates.)
This version is archived at: https://www.cambridgetennisclub.com/News/News2006.39.en.html
