tennis, life and a few things in between

City View
43-34 32nd Place
Long Island City NY 11101
(718) 389-6252

Feb 15, 2011:
The Club is near the LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, inside of a warehouse with large and slow elevator. The surrounding area is very crabby and dirty, and the parking is difficult. The club itself is pretty new, nicely done but somehow, I felt the craftsmanship (bathroom, etc.) is subpar. The little wooden chests that hold hand towels, tissue boxes, etc. between courts are bit comical. Why don’t they invest more in the chairs/seatings? The white plastic lawn chairs were out of place there and cheap.

By Subway:
7 train to 33rd Street/Rawson. Walk down to the street and cross Queens Blvd. Walk back to 32nd Place and make a right. The entrance is on your left.

By Car:
Manhattan:
Queensboro Bridge (59th Street Bridge), Upper level. Keep to the left for Queens Blvd. and make a left at the light onto Thompson. At the next light, make a left onto Skillman Avenue and then a right onto 32nd Place. The entrance is on your right.
Queens/Long Island:
Long Island Expressway to Van Dam Street. Make a right onto Van Dam and cross over Queens Blvd. At the end of the block, make a right onto Skillman and a right onto 32nd Place.

Tuesday evening started out unsuspiciously normal and peace. I picked up my racket that was being restrung for $20, did my round of grocery shopping in Flushing. Picked out dishes for the dinner and I even managed to sneak in a few dumplings – my favored dill.
Then we boarded the chauffeured luxury bus headed to our 7th match at Roosevelt Island.
The forecast said snow was coming but there was very little by 9pm.
The standing of our division as of last Friday was as follow (matches played) points earned:

1. Team 1 Eng (6) 53.5
2. Team 4 McConway (6) 50
3. Team 6 Rosenberg (6) 45.5
4. Team 2 Kende/Vogy (5) 42.5
5. Team 5 Kim/Seto (7) 42.5
6. Team 3 Cuthbert (8) 13

Kai and I played first doubles. One light was out on our corner court so we had to move to another court to start the match. We won the toss so I opted to serve then promptly lost it. 兵败如山倒 defeated army retreat like a mountain collapsing, we lost first set in a few minutes. The guy was just too good with his huge serve and strong forehand. What’s more? I kept on doing the wrong thing, feeding him one point after another… to a point that the bald eagle offered to buy me a dinner …. JK. Our second D wasn’t doing well either. The only winning pair was our third D. They were leading 8:1 in the final set super tie break. Then they allowed the opponents to catch up to 8:6 ..
Golfer asked me where I was and Pumpkin kept on sending I love you note and get home safely .. I was musing on the way back: were we all nuts or what, on a stormy evening, so late into the night … couldn’t we just stay home and have a drink?

As of today, all teams in our division have played 7 matches except Team 3 who had 9. The new world raking is ..

1. T2 – 57.5
2. T1 – 56.5
3. T4 – 54
4. T6 – 53.5
5. T5 – 42.5
6. T3 – 22

So, it’s going to be a close race, very exciting! I had my swim in early this morning. I had the pool to myself really. The only two other swimmers were at the free swim side (shallow pool). So I did 40 laps without a single interruption (errrrr … in 25 minutes – I’m getting old and slow). So I’m ready to take on the world.

Tomorrow is another day anyway.

USTA Eastern section held a webinar this afternoon talking about the ratings.

In the past, mixed doubles result doesn’t count but everything counts now. As for medical appeal: last year the league had only granted 6-8 nation wide: very difficult to win. IF you played against someone who made to the Nationals .. how they do in the Nationals will affect your rating ..

Key to Type of Rating

A – Appeal
B – Benchmark – advanced to playoff or championship round
C – Computer
D – Dynamic
E – Early Start League dynamic
M – Mixed Exclusive Year-end Rating
S – Self-rate or Medical Appeal
T – Tournament Exclusive Year End Rating

Self-rated and computer rated players holding a classification of “M”, “T”, or “A” are subject to disqualification through Sectional Championships. Players granted a Medical Appeal are classified as self rated and are subject to disqualification.

_____________________

We played our 6th match. Four opponents were bit late. When it was 8:15, time to start match, the lady didn’t want to claiming she had practiced served yet. So we let her served up few .. she wasn’t charmed. I felt that a player should watch the time and pace out her/his thing within allotted time. Oh well ..

The light accidentally went out at 9:20 when second and third doubles were already concluded but first doubles was in a battle for life: down a set but on serve in the second at 5:5. They had to move to another court to won two consecutive games to split the match. Reportedly they played an exciting match, facing the set point (hence the match pt) when the opponents had them running from left to right.

The door wasn’t working after the lighting accident either so we had to exit from the emergency door.  Wow .. it was like extreme sport because we could hardly stand up due to hurricane force from bubble decompressing.   ok .. think you were exiting the space craft and immediately sucked into dark orbit.  Not good enough?  The please come up with your own imagination.  We almost got blown away into the darkness, foreign terrain where we’ve never been to that part of the club. That must be the highlight of the night -:).

Or bad manner?
Few weeks ago at the NTC, we got onto the court when its our time. The previous groups, about 8 men and 1 woman did not leave immediately. They gathered on the alley between our court and the adjacent court and talked.

Five minutes passed. There wasn’t a sign of leaving. Because of their large number of people, it was kind of dangerous for all of us.
I went over asked them to leave. The sole lady gave me a dirty look.
10 minutes elapsed and the talk was still going strong.
I went over again, asking them please leave. She looked at me and asking
“What’s the big deal ??”
I called the USTA ..
Finally they left at 16 minutes pass the hour. One lone guy would remain bit longer to change flaunt his awesome bod with extra 50 pounds.
IF the lady said something like, “oh .. just one more second and we’re leaving .. ” when I first asked, I won’t get up set. I’d picture myself probably telling her “oh .. go ahead and finish your business .. ” but instead she and her group completely ignored us.

As it happened, I ran into the woman yesterday at the Eastern year end holiday party, when new skipper was inaugurated and where grants were handed out. So she must be an active member of the local tennis community .. hence she should know the etiquette of the game? Or might not? Even if she doesn’t, don’t we all have decency and common sense? No? Am I asking for too much?

The fifth match of the season had completed and my team walked away with 9 points, barely enough to keep us in the first place, for the time being.

I checked 6 teams’ total number of player vs self rated players, as of today:
1 … 12/5
2 … 18/1
3 … 16/6
4 … 21/2
5 … 18/0
6 … 13/6