You know...they say that every true tennis fan should experience night tennis at Arthur Ashe at the US Open. As far as many are concerned...night tennis at Tennis Club of St. Croix is a close second! The raucous crowds cheering from the lawn, the patio and of course "the upper deck", created a great atmosmosphere for all the remaining players. And man...were there some matches tonight!
First up...the women! First up, ladies A doubles between "Poodle" Heckman and Laura Croney taking out everyones favorite bartender Joanie Kupfer and Barbara "9 hours" Robbins. The score was 6-0, 6-1. Truthfully, we think Joanie was thinking too much of what concoctions she was going to serve up at the bar instead of her tennis, thus only taking one game. You know Joanie just can't keep away from the bar. Next up are the #1 seeds of Sharon Quinn and Jackie Mashburn who took a match from Aimee Belmore and...what? Where was Xaulanda Simmons? Unfortunately, she was not able to make it and they had to bail on the evening...our first default of the week. They advance, but something tells me there may be a rematch of this foursome sometime in the near future. Jeri Ferrante and Emmaline Simmonds wore down Sara Petievich and Brenda Sinfield in other ladies action. Jeri and Emmaline were too tough tonight and take the match 6-2, 6-2. Rumor has it that Jeri actually had her skirt on correctly tonight...wow what a change! We all kinda miss her backwards skirt days quite honestly. ..at least I do. Tennis Club pro/motivational speaker Cece Edwards and Holly Drummond defeated Kye Walker and Deb Aronstein 6-3, 6-1. Cece and Holly played well tonight. Cece was focused as she knew she had coaching duties ahead of her (Robby and Dieter just never listen). Lastly a super showdown between the fabulously fashionable Florence Logan and Kelly "yes I am a lefty" Shirloh and the new team of Julie Millier and the every smiling Gabrielle Armstrong. Playing one up and one back, Flo and Kelly take a close first set in a tiebrake. Julie and Gabby rebound with a smartly played second set and win 6-3 to take the match to a deciding third. But...in the end the experienced team took out the rookies...Flo and Kelly advance with a 6-2 third set victory.
Big tennis and big drama was up next with the Mens B doubles. The highly anticipated showdown between the #2 seeds of Big Al Baptiste and Caleb Phelps versus Little Al Kuipers and Anton Kuipers was a real treat to watch. Kuipers dem drew repeated "nice try" from the peanut gallery, playing well but the slice and dice masters were too tough. After the match, Al and Caleb were spotted signing a contract, sealing their appearance on the Cooking Channel, hosted by Vince of Slap Chop fame. A natural fit! On court 1 Mike Petievich and Chris Schrieber put on an entertaining show against the #1 seeded team of Joel Mahepath and Earl Powell. The crowd was vocal while watching a series of great plays, great retrievals, missed opportunities and mishits (just typing that word makes me laugh...does anyone else get that?! lol). With a score of 6-1, 6-1, not sure of Mahepath/Powell broke much of a sweat...and Joel managed to keep his shirt tucked in the entire match. Seriously, there were some really great exchanges. Seriously, the points were longer and closer than the score revealed. Seriously, it was entertaining. And seriously...don'tcha just wanna pull the shirt out while walking by during a change over?! You know you do! Court 3 was a great match between Jason Miller and Carl Beckstedt versus the young guns Zach Armstrong and Julien DePersio. Big serves, bit hits, big boy tennis...the boys take the first set. Jason/Carl take the second forcing the match to go the distance. Pressure mounts and no one hold serve to take the final set. That is until Zach steps up...well done Zach...the boys dem take it 7-5 in the third. Now talk about drama...court 4 has Stamper/Goldschlagger taking on another set of Hovensa boys with Chad Caven and Keith Wilson. This was a great match...with Robby and Dieter taking the advice of their coach and playing to their physical strengths. Now...mentally that might be another story. Up 40 love and serving for the match...Robby and Dieter get broken! OH NO! Another tiebrake...people were rushing to Joanie's bar for more drinks to get them through the match! Chad and Keith put up a GREAT fight but Robby and Dieter take the deciding tiebrake!
Now...many of you commented on the blog and how much you enjoy it, and I hope you do. Now...when you see my new pal Chiso at the Club (sorry Natalie...you are replaced) who ended up helping me out after my car completely DIED at the Club. Ugh! He offered me a lift to get home tonight in order for me to write for YOU...the fans! So...when you see him tomorrow...buy him a drink and keep him happy. My car better be in the lot when get there in the morning is all I have to say. So once again buy him a drink. Better yet...buy me on.
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