June 29, 2018 – A huge crowd turned out at the Raleigh Racquet Club and endured a sweltering evening to watch some of the best tennis of the season so far. In the second double-header match of 2018, Team White Dahlia and Team RDUTennis both won in Captain’s Choice Super-Tiebreaks.
In the Team White Dahlia vs Team Mosquito Authority match, Jas Schmitt and Paul-Henri Arrigoni gave Team White Dahlia the first court win by defeating Brian Smith and Kyle Spencer 6-3 6-4 at Men’s #1. The lead was increased to 2 when White Dahlia’s Sandhya Nagaraj and Kim Ezzo bested Lena Leonchuk and Melissa Minniti 7-5 6-2 on the Women’s court. Determined to not go down easy, Team Mosquito Authority came back to win the Men’s #2 and Mixed courts in 3rd set tiebreaks as Sean Ferreira and Justin Radloff won the Men’s #2 court 4-6 6-3 10-5 over Robert Lightbourn and Jason Abhau and Fiona Degnan and Shaun Romisher won the Mixed court 5-7 6-4 10-5 over Kaitlin Bisplinghoff and Ben Hunter to setup the Captain’s Choice Super-Tiebreak. In the Captain’s Choice, Team White Dahlia’s Nagaraj and Schmitt proved too strong for Team Mosquito Authority’s Leonchuk and Ferreira and sealed the team victory by winning 10-3.
The other match of the evening featured current league leader Team RDUTennis against defending champion Team Alfred Williams & Company. Team Alfred Williams & Company jumped out to the early lead as Judson Williams and Paul Goode cruised to victory at Men’s #1 over Praveen Chandrasekhar and Jon Davis 6-0 6-2. RDUTennis came back to tie it at 1-court each when Macy Fisher and Tessie Choo won the Women’s court 6-4 7-5 over Nena Montgomery and Kristin Kepler. Meanwhile, the Men’s #2 court was going into a 3rd set tiebreak where Team AWC’s Carlos Garcia and Brent Bennett took the win over Marko Zivkovic and Jay Lewandowski 3-6 7-5 10-3 in a good match featuring the best cheering section of the night. With Team AWC up 2-1, Team RDUTennis’ Joanna Nalborska and Brian Rosenthal closed out a win on the Mixed court over Henriette Williams-Alexander and Phillip Faulkner 6-2 7-6 to force the Captain’s Choice Super-Tiebreak. Alexander-Williams and Goode were chosen to represented Team AWC and Nalborska and Davis to represent Team RDU in the tiebreak. The crowd moved courtside to watch this thrilling tiebreak that was close from start to finish with several lead changes along the way. Nalborska/Davis stayed tough during the final points to pull out the win 10-8 and keep Team RDUTennis’ unbeaten streak alive and advance their lead in the league.
Congratulations to Tom Stieber, winner of the Omega Sports gift certificate and Joan Faulkner, winner of two tickets to the Winston Salem Open from Smart Athlete Physio Therapy.
Great job of hosting by Raleigh Racquet Club and what a great crowd came out to watch the season’s best matches so far.