Semi-Finals Saturday

Hello tennis enthusiasts!!! The two tennis semi-finals matches were played today and here are the results. Many tennis enthusiasts, in fact this was the biggest crowd during the last two weeks , came to watch good tennis!!! The first match was between #1 seeded players Nancy Whitney/George Sablan and Kathie Zirretta/Dave Hinders. Nancy/George lived up to their #1 billing by ending Kathie/Dave's winning streak and now moved on to play the championship event Sunday 9/30/07 8:00am. As expected, Kathie Zirretta hit endless power baseline shots to Nancy Whitney but Nancy played near flawless defense and many times converted defensive to offensive shots. The last time Nancy displayed shots this good was two years ago when she played mix-doubles with George and won the number one position at Brentwood against Brentwood's very strong mix-doubles team. Dave Hinders, as usual, tried to take every opportunity to score from short range. He did score but not enough to overcome the strength of the #1 seeded players. He had excellent serves with good speed but Nancy who likes receiving power serves returned nearly every one. George's strategies were to use tempo, not power, to lob, to hit down the middle, or to angle the shots each time he was close enough to the net. The strategies worked. The second match was between #2 seeded players Tommie Matsushino/Leo Taylor and #3 seeded players Naomi Subala/Orlando Devera. The #3 seeded players upset the #2 seeded players and will now play the championship event Sunday 9/30/07 8:00am. Both teams started slow because of jitters possibly due to having a big crowd watch them play. Slowly but surely, Orlando started to overcome the jitters and started to attack the net winning almost every point. While Naomi kept the ball in play, Orlando found many ways to put it away. Naomi was a happy camper at the baseline. She was very steady and mixed regular ground strokes with lobs that frustrated the opponents. The opponents tried so many things to get her out of her comfort zone but all to no avail. Everyone knows that Leo Taylor is one of the top players and everyone knows that he can start slow and like a light switch, he can turn on his game. Leo can be everywhere on the court because he is a very fast and can score from everywhere. Leo hardly ever loses a match regardless who his partner is. Guess what? The real Leo Taylor did not show up and his game never picked up. At the beginning of the second set, Iris Lucero cheered, "COME ON LEO!!!" And a minute or so later, Iris said, "LEO IS WAY OFF HIS GAME." I wanted to ask Leo what happened, but knowing him as a gentleman and true professional, he will not use any excuse for losing a game. Leo is the type of player who will say that today the better team won. Tommie played good from the baseline, returned lots of balls with good pace but Naomi frustrated Tommie by mixing up the shots, some with regular ground strokes and many with lobs to various parts of the baseline. Mark your calendar. On Sunday 9/30/07 8:00am, the championship match will be played. There is no doubt this match will be exciting!!!! Both Naomi and Nancy can hit to each other all day long from the baseline. Orlando will have to be creative to find ways to score points or find ways to hit balls between George and Nancy which will be difficult because both George and Nancy have good court coverage. On the other hand, George will have to switch from tempo to sheer power to drill holes wherever possible. Orlando and Naomi are capable of upsetting the #1 seeded players just as they found the capability to upset the #2 seeded players. Can they really do it? You all come and watch the match to see if they can do it. This will surely be an exciting championship final. The winner of the mix-doubles championship final will go to Vistancia, Peoria, Arizona for the 1st Anuual All Trilogy Tennis Tournament George Sablan Director Player Development