USPTA Pro League Heads to Shadow Wood

Remax Retains Lead

Coming into the USPTA Pro League date at Bonita Bay on January 29, Frank Fourgeau’s Remax held a 6.5-point lead on Scott Harrington’s second-place Boston Retirement Advisors (BRA), and Remax lost very little ground to the field at Bonita Bay. Remax posted a solid 5 points against Mike Curran’s third-place Johnny Malloy’s (JM) at Bonita Bay, and still leads BRA by 5 points going into the next meet at Shadow Wood on February 8.

In the Remax-JM match-up at Bonita, Manuel Encalada and Luke Andreae of Remax pulled off the most stunning comeback of the season on Court 1. Trailing Mike Curran and Elliot DeBolt 1-6, 1-5, Manuel and Luke fought back to win the second set 7-6, and the match tiebreak to earn 2 points to JM’s 1.

On Court 2, Frank Fourgeau and Corey Knapp of Remax downed Todd Wise and Jeremy Orme, 7-6, 6-4. On Court 3, JM’s apparently unstoppable team of Larry Gagnon and Oliver Stenger posted yet another straight-set win, notching a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Jorge Magalhaes and Dave Dooley, and scoring 2 points for JM. On the Mixed court, Dan and Christie Pollin (sub) beat John and Kristina Ramsey 6-3, 6-4, to post 1 point for Remax.

Babolat up Next for Remax

This Friday, Remax will face Jeff Diggs’ Babolat, the fourth-place team which trails Remax by10 points, and which Remax outpointed by three points the first time they met. Remax has yet to be outpointed this season, and nothing in the cards suggests it will be this week.

BRA Takes on JM Next

At Shadow Wood on Friday, No.2 BRA has JM, a team over which it held a 1-point lead going into Bonita Bay, and which it now leads by three, on its dance card at Shadow Wood.  JM edged BRA in their previous meeting, taking 4.5 points to BRA’s 4; however, in posting the highest point total of the meet against sixth-place University Grill (UG) at Bonita Bay (6.5), BRA served notice to the rest of the League that it intends to compete for the title all the way down the stretch. Perhaps BRA will be generous to JM’s Captain Curran for his birthday.

  

BRA at Bonita Bay

At Bonita last session, on Court 1, BRA captain Scott Harrington and Jared Kalpin took a close one from the first-time duo of Sergio Rebolledo and Patrick Kangwa of UG. Sergio and Patrick took the first set in a breaker, but Scott and Jared took the second 6-3 and cruised 10-4 in the match-tiebreak.

On Court 2 UG captain Mike Lawver and Matt Maloney (previously playing one with Sergio), emerged with a match-tiebreak win over Joel Hampton and Tom Fisher (sub). Lawver and Maloney took the first 6-2, but Joel and Fish took the second 6-4. Lawver and Maloney proved too strong in the breaker, taking it 10-5.

Posting another two points for BRA at third doubles was Paul D’Amico and Mike Barnes, a team that is perhaps on par with JM’s Gagnon and Stenger. Paul and Mike downed Terry See and Ted Farah (sub) 6-2, 6-3. Bob Green and Kim Jones closed out the scoring for BRA, earning two points by defeating Tony Martin and Carolyn Lawver 6-2, 6-4.

League Trailers Meet at Shadow Wood

The two teams that form the rear guard of the League, fifth-place Gateway Dental (GD), led by Shawn Hedrick and Mike Lawver’s sixth-place University Grill (UG) will face each other this Friday. The two teams were pretty evenly matched when they met early in the season, with GD edging UG 4-3. Both teams posted a humble 3 points at Bonita Bay, and chances are the two teams will be neck and neck this Friday as well.

I’ve already detailed UG’s tough outing above, and GD took a pounding from Babolat at Bonita Bay as well, winning just one of the four matches. Babolat’s Court 1 duo of Denny Rager and Tyler Owens downed Ryan Sherry and Shawn Hedrick in straight sets, and Captain Diggs’ and John Jerome took Anthony Hatori and I down in a match tiebreak after we split sets.

On Court 3, Toni Halski and Rick (sub) beat Jeff Timmer and Steve Shortridge in straight sets to pick up two points for Babolat. Alex Hermeto and Kerry Kendrick provided the only match-win for GD, downing Armor Persons and Erica Cossairt in straight to post two points. 

Shadow Wood Hosts Next Pro League

Matches at Shadow Wood at the Brooks (Not Shadow Wood Preserve) this Friday will begin at 4pm with Mixed and Third Doubles, and First and Second Doubles will take to the courts at 5:30 or thereabouts. Visit Shadow Wood's website by clicking here. Hope to see you there. Game, set, match...T. A.