Nickname Change

It's official, the Giraffe Man has had a nickname change. He is now to be referred to as Kashmar.

That's Russian for nightmare, and Jonny is a nightmare for opponents (he's now 13-3 on the season). Besides that, he's like part Russian because he lived there for years!

Yes, Kashmar it is...

Moment of Beauty #3 - Concord Invite

Three matches deserve three moments of beauty. Throughout a long day of tennis, three shots stick out to me. It was so long and I watched so many points that I can't even remember the sequence of shots that led to each of these final putaways. But three people and three winners stay with me today.

#1 - Set point vs. Concord in #1 doubles, somehow Johnny Kauffman ends up with a high volley/overhead, he aims it at the Concord player running back to the baseline and BOOM! He hits him right in the back to win the set. (Johnny gets another ball next practice.)

#2 - Luke approaches the net against Jimtown, and the Jimtown player smashes one to Luke's backhand volley. It was a great shot and Luke had to stretch out, and in stretching he happened to slice a perfect drop shot. It drops on the other side and proceeds to bounce back over the net onto Luke's side before his opponent touches it. Lucky. What made it even better was that the opponent's father kept yelling that it was Jimtown's point, which is incorrect.

#3 - I can't even remember which match it was, but Jonny Shenk was in a fairly long rally where he was keeping the ball back deep to the other guy. Jonny hadn't really hit a shot with a lot of pace for the whole match, and that was true for this point as well. Until the other guy left a shot short and high. Jonny ran in underneath it and pounded it away into the corner. The opponent was left shaking his head in both disappointment, disbelief and frustration. Awesome!

Moment of Beauty #2 - Northridge

The "Moment of Beauty" from the Northridge match actually turned into "Moments" last night. Several people played beautiful exciting points that have been difficult to forget, but several were so awesome, so exciting, and so similar that I couldn't decide between them.

Luke Hostetter, Jonny Shenk, and Mikey Kelly all share the "Moment of Beauty" from their very similar points. Each of the points involve the beauty of undying, never-quitting, plain-old effort. All three of these players had a point last night where they saved an overhead and came back to win the point. In Mikey's match he had an overhead hit at him twice in the point, but hustled to hit a lob that saw his player turn and then simply lower his head as the ball bounced in. Jonny Shenk seemed to be saving overheads all night, but in a specific point he saved an overhead with a perfect lob as well. Luke saved an overhead as well, but actually had to continue the point, and still ended it with an excellent lob. So this is a moment of beauty celebrating overhead saves and point-winning lobs. Hurray!