BRA Top Seed in Pro League Playoffs

The bottom line of the final regular season match was that AutoDrive (AD) did what it had to do, and Johnny Malloy's (JM) and Harborside Dental (HD) didn’t. Coming in, AD and JM were the second and third place teams, respectively, with only two points separating them. If JM could win by more than two points, they would have earned the right to play for the title against the season’s most dominant team, BRA.

Had we, HD, taken two more points than JM, and four more points than AD, we would have earned the right to play BRA. When it was all over, all three teams fighting for the honor tallied the same number of points (see below). 

Boston Retirement Advisors (BRA)

versus

Harborside Dental (HD)

Court No. 1

Undefeated Manuel Encalada & Tyler Owens

Manuel Encalada and Tyler Owens of Boston Retirement Advisors (BRA) remained undefeated at the top doubles position, downing my Harborside Dental (HD) teammate Sergio Rebolledo and Jose Pastrello (sub) 6-4, 6-3. Manuel and Tyler have one more bullet to dodge before posting the first undefeated season I have seen in the few years I have been playing. They will attempt to hold onto that unblemished record against Denny Rager and Jared Kalpin of AutoDrive in the playoffs at Legends on the 30^th.

Court No. 2  

T A & Matt Maloney

I finally got over the hump against Frank Fourgeau and Luke Andreae, playing with Matt Maloney (sub), my fourth partner this season. I’m afraid an asterisk needs to be placed next to the victory, because Frank hurt his back during the match. I think Matt’s big forehand and serve had more to do with the victory than Frank’s back, but what do I know (wink). Bottom line was 5-7 (and we were up 5-2- hate that!), 6-0, 10-5 in the super-tiebreak.

Court No. 3 

Fred Hindle & Dave Dooley

Mike Lawver and Mark Drons took another tough three-set defeat, going down to Fred Hindle and Dave Dooley 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 in the super-tiebreak. Mike and Mark have made a profession of these close losses this season, but the good news is that they have notched a point for the team almost every time. These two have rivaled Christie Bradley for the amount of super-tiebreaks played, but I think she has em.

Court No. 4 

At No.4 Dubs, Tony Halski stayed on the winning side of the ledger, posting his second consecutive win, this time with Mike Stevens (sub) as his partner against host Jeff Timer and Marius Espeleta (sub). Toni and Mike posted a clean 6-3, 6-3 score to tally a point for HD. I wish Toni had started that streak a little earlier in the season.

Mixed Doubles 

Mark Owens & Christie Bradley

In Mixed, can you guess what happened in Christie Bradley’s match? Yup, you guessed it; it went to a super-tiebreak. Mark Owens (sub) joined Christie in another marathon match against Erica Cossairt and Tony Martin (sub). Christie and Mark took the tough first set 7-5, lost the second 3-6, then outlasted Erica and Tony 10-8 in the breaker. I don’t think I have to do much counting to accurately say that Christie has been in more super-tiebreaks this season than anyone else in the league.

When it was all said and done, our team failed to draw any closer to second place despite winning this dual match 4 points to 3.5.

  

AutoDrive (AD) 
versus 
Johnny Malloy’s (JM)

Court 1

In what has to be considered a stunning upset, Scott Harrington and Jim Harris (sub) took out Denny Rager and Jared Kalpin in straight sets. I wish I had stayed for that one so that I had an explanation. In any event, Scott posted a point against the team that has proved to be second-best at the No.1 slot this season.

Court No. 2

Patrick Kangwa and Jeff Diggs have been resilient all season and proved it again against Elliot DeBolt and Kevin Kearns on Court No.2. Patrick and Jeff lost the first set in a tiebreak, took the second 6-2, then had to go 14-12 in the super-tiebreak to wrap things up. I think that’s the longest super-tiebreak of the season.

Court No. 3 

At third dubs, the story in this one was the battle of the super subs. Both Redpath and Fisher have subbed a number of times, each with success. Peter was trying to remain unblemished, while Tom was trying to get back on the winning track after his first loss last time out. In the end, Redpath stayed clean as he and partner John Jerome of AD topped Tom and Todd Wise 6-3, 7-6.

Court No. 4 

AD’s Larry Gagnon and Alex Hermeto squared off against Anthony Hatori and Steve Shortridge on Court No.4, in a battle of two teams that would probably be very competitive in the third doubles slot. I think “Larry the Legend” must be healthy again because he and Alex took Anthony and Steve down in straight sets (6-3, 6-4), something that has been very difficult to do all season.

Mixed Doubles 

In Mixed, Kerry Kendrick of JM partnered with Fernando Carballo (sub) to defeat Rob Vinal and Belinda Dufrene (sub) 6-3, 7-5, despite going down 0-5 in the second. It was a nice comeback to close out the match for JM.

On Friday the 30^th at Legends, it will be BRA versus AD and JM versus HD. We hope to see you there for that last Fort Myers Ritzman Tennis USPTA Pro League of the season.

	BRA	JM	HD	AD
21-Oct	8	4	6	6
4-Nov	6	4	4	6
18-Nov	7	6	6	6
2-Dec	5	7	6	5
13-Jan	6	3	6	5
27-Jan	9	3	3	5.5
10-Feb	10	7	6	.5
24-Feb	5	6	2	8
9-Mar	3.5	4	4	4
30-Mar
	59.5	44	43	46

Game, set, match...T A