Memorial Day Weekend Marsha Day Madness 2009!

This past weekend I participated in my 2nd annual Marsha Day tournament sponsored by MTG AKA Metro Tennis Group AKA Gay New York Tennis. Unlike all the other GLTA (Gay & Lesbian Tennis Association - sorry for all the acronyms) tourneys, this one is open to only members of the New York group. Because of that, I find Marsha Day to be a bit more relaxed and easy-going than other tournaments. Most people know each other and have played with each other many times before so it's also a big homo gossip fest and a silly good time. On the other hand, the competition can be fierce as old rivals square off and burried annomosities sometimes rear their ugly head.

I don't get involved in that shit. Due to my living below the poverty level economic status, I hadn't been playing much tennis and wasn't expecting much so I was just hoping for some competetive matches and to be entertained by lots of tennis gays queening out.

As fate would have it, my first match was against my co-founder of The Soceity of Hotness: The Official Balthaser-Hormillosa Fan Club, JP.

It was an early match, at 8am, so I don't blame most of our fans for not showing. You girls need your beauty sleep! I had never beaten JP, but our confrontations have always been competitive, so I knew I was in for a good match. I started out real shaky but then picked up my game, almost bringing the first set to a tie breaker. The second set did go to a tie breaker which I narrowly pulled out. Then we went to a 10 point super tie breaker for the third set and indeed the match. JP seemed to kinda lose it in the super tie breaker - it must have been all the papparazzi and photos distracting him. And I had Rick and Baby Reno there pulling for me. Thanks boys!


I pulled out my first C win 4-6, 7-6, 10-4 (or something like that).

My second match did not go so well. I lost 1-6, 1-6 to David Hart. He's a tricky sly fellow, and I found I really need to work on my drop shots and consistancy if I want to be competitive in C singles.

Meanwhile, Rick was burning through the draw. On the top of his game, he was powering past opponents, leaving them shells of shame. I mean, just look at his focus and determination. That's my man.


Neither of our doubles matches went particularly well - in that we didn't win - Charlie and I put up a mighty fight but I hit too many unforced errors and it was a rather dissappointing loss given that we could have - and should have - won. So after that I was out, but was pleased that I had beaten JP for the first time and won my first C match.


Flash forward to Monday for the Marquee Matchup - Tim Robinson vs. Rick Smetana in the A Final. This was definitely the best match of live tennis I've ever seen. They are good friends, both knew each other's playing style intimately. At first, it looked like Rick was going to roll over Tim. He won the first set 6-2. Then, Tim turned it on and fought to bring to a tiebreaker and win that for the second set. The third set was just amazing. These two had played probably 20 matches combined in the past three days and were playing 110% in the blazing sun. They were exausted but were just slamming the ball back and forth for crazy rallies. Tim dug deep, went ahead early, and Rick could not pull back in front. Tim won 6-4.


Afterwards, they said how they were feeling during the match:

"I almost threw up on the court" - Tim
"I almost cried at one point" - Rick

Now that's some good tennis!

Afterwards we went to Bamboo 52 for some fun times and delicious drinks. Enjoy the pics! Thanks to Odin Medina for some of the pics

The A Finalist and Champion