Adult League Recap: 2011 Spring and Summer Seasons Wrap Up

September 22, 2011 | By Deborah-Rose Andrews

The 2011 Adult Spring/Summer season concluded in early August. The Metro Region has Men’s and Women’s teams in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Manhattan is the largest league, with 74 teams and 1,292 players who participated in the 2011 Spring/Summer season. This league plays at six different clubs, both indoors and outdoors, and on hard and Har-Tru surfaces. The Queens league has 39 teams and plays outdoors on the hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and at Alley Pond Park. The Brooklyn league is the smallest league, due to the lack of courts, as the 2011 season featured 11 teams playing at Prospect Park Tennis Center and Mill Basin. We were very happy to have a Staten Island-based team playing this season.

Playoffs are held at the district level with the winners advancing to the Regional Playoffs. In the Regional tournament, the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens teams play a round-robin event to determine who will represent the Metro area at the Section Championships.

The Manhattan and Queens District Playoffs team experienced some weather-related issues. The first night of the Manhattan District Playoffs brought torrential downpours. We were able to move inside, however the 3.0 Women’s teams were in for a long wait. They ordered food, warmed up in the lobby and patiently waited for their matches to begin. The final round began three hours after its scheduled start time. Luckily, the weather on Saturday and Sunday was beautiful and the other matches went off without a hitch.

On the night of the Queens 3.5 Men’s and Women’s Finals, a hail storm hit the area. The storm stayed just east of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, however, the lightning strikes were clear in the far distance and the thunder could be clearly heard. Some players were stuck on Long Island due to the storm damage; however, the teams had substitutes in place and the matches went off as planned.

The Metro Region Playoffs were held Aug. 5-7 outdoors at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Friday saw beautiful weather, but the forecast for Saturday predicted late night storms and we hoped to get in all of the matches. Unfortunately, the skies opened up at around 6:30 p.m., right in the middle of the 3.5 Men’s and Women’s matches. The 4.0 matches were cancelled and the 3.5 matches were delayed two hours, as players hoped for a break in the storm that never came.

Sunday’s weather forecast was dismal, but we were finally lucky, as the 4.0 Men and 4.0 Women played, and then the 3.5 Men & 3.5 Women finished their matches. The last teams playing had to deal with sporadic showers, but were able to finish, but it was so hot and humid that I’m sure those sprinkles felt good to the players!

Congratulations to the following teams who will represent Metro at the Section Championships in Syracuse.

►3.0 Women Sheila Astudillo & Shannon Smith

►3.5 Women Yao Fu Bailey & Ariane Qureshi

►4.0 Women Lynnette Cruz

►4.5 Women Eileen Melniker

►5.0 Women Pam Glick

►3.0 Men Daryl Fox & Brad Aspel

►3.5 Men Obong Akpan

►4.0 Men Ting Zhang

►4.5 Men Ian Katz & Eduardo Salanova

►5.0 Men Todd Getz

Our Senior League is in full swing right now. Our next season will be the 2011 Mixed-Doubles League. The Manhattan League begins in October, while the Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx Leagues begin in January.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and the U.S. Open.

The 4.5 Men’s Metro team, co-captained by Ian Katz & Eduardo Salanova, gather for a team photo
 


Deborah-Rose Andrews
Centercourt
USTA NTC

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