The Five Seasons’ juggernaut Gallo team rolls on.

From Pete's email: Last night's win was sweet in coming....or should I say "sweat" in coming. Cleveland Racquet club has a rule about wearing all white. Now I know why....the white helps reflect the heat off of you when playing inside. Yes, it was a hot time last night on some of our courts. Starting with the simmering burner that Bill Oatey and yours truly were playing on, I can only add that Bill's "heated" ground strokes and his fiery service game in the second set alerted our opposition that they were playing against real contenders. Third doubles play last night also left Craig (our dedicated coach) speechless with the level of play we demonstrated. Noteworthy, was the fact that wife, Hilary, was more vociferous in her support of our play during the match than was Craig afterwards. Final score 6-0,6-2.

Our 2nd Doubles team of the "Couple" made a gallant stand to preserve their undefeated status while playing together but succumbed to their opposition which had a few lucky (eyes closed) shots in the match tie breaker that ended their winning run together. The play on this court was definitely more heated than on the 3rd Doubles court. The two Mike's played to a 6 - 6 tie in the first set and overwhelmed their opponents in the 7 point tie breaker giving them the set win. The second set was clouded with barbed accusations flowing from the other side of the net questioning the "couple's" relationship both on and off court. It is understood they finally stopped their antagonism when warned by the two "Mike's" of potential point penalties being levied. With such distractions Mike and Mike suffered a 6-2 loss in the second set and coupled with the "lucky" play of their opponents in the match tie breaker a second court was lost with the score of 7-6, 2-6, 0-1.

1st Doubles team of Gary Alshouse and Gordon Frye turned the heat up on the front burner. Their service games were superb and the "approach" and "volley" segments were text book driven. Playing for the first time together was no disadvantage to these two seasoned tennis veterans. They play good, sharp, fast tennis with now question who would dominate. Gary has proven his value as both a singles and doubles player and Gordon has impressed everyone he has played with his Federer-like court sense. Congrats on a match well played. Good Guys won 6-4,6-3.

Skipping to 1st Singles and we see Egon " the Chilean Caballero" once again riding his white stallion into the sunset well a hard fought but well, deserved win. This match was Egon's toughest to date. His opponent was equally talented with tennis skills and ability to place the ball. He seemed to handle Egon's ground strokes but had problems with Egon's passing shots and especially his $55 serve that was on tonight. Our man outlasted his opponent and played smart the entire evening often times reminding himself of certain basics during play. Egon, focused on his own play, outsmarted his opponent and out played him to a 6-1,3-6,1-0 match win.

The match of the night was unquestionable played on the 2nd Singles court. Lee Zalud was playing even tennis the first 6 games of the first set but was broken and lost 3-6. I could tell after the first couple of games of the second set that Lee had become focused and was not going to let his opponent off the hook for the rest of the night. They fought each other for every point and every point won was a point earned by that player. The point rally's seemed to lengthen as the match went on. All the other courts had finished, including Egon's which had gone to an extended match tie breaker which Egon had won. By the time Lee's second set was approaching the 5-5 score all other players and spectators had thrown their attention to the 2nd Singles' court where a crescendo of play was rising to a very heated level. Lee was able to break his opponent and go on to win the second set 7-5 throwing the match into a match tie breaker. Both players appeared exhausted by now, but Lee still had this little smirk on his face every time his niece and nephew, who were watching from above, would yell out his name in encouragement. Also, Lee was the only one of the some 100 people watching who was not aware of the fact that the out come of his match would determine the winners of the team play that night. The match tie breaker started off even up to the 2-2 score. At this point his opponent had a run of points and breaks that put him ahead of Lee by the score of 7-2. Lee got the ball back to serve at this point and from the spectators above we could hear his small niece yell out, "Come on uncle Lee, you can win, I love you". Well, that little smirk came back to his face and Lee with the determination and concentration that only Lee can express, started a run on his opponent with two service points...4-7, two more points breaking his opponents next two serves...6-7, then getting the serve back and making the next two service points...now 8-7, and then going on to win the tie breaker after coming back from a 2-7 deficit. What a come back! Lee Zalud showed us all a lot of heart last night. Thanks Lee.