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Zoltan83 vs. MisterQ: a.k.a. Battle of the 10-point Scrabble Letters

3K views 63 replies 22 participants last post by  BelgianWaffle 
#1 · (Edited)
Well, as you may know, Nicolas (Zoltan83) has invaded the little town of New York City, and the place will never be the same again. He joined me for a classic set of tennis this afternoon. This battle of Zoltan and Q, a.k.a. the battle of 10-point Scrabble letters, was the most anticipated match-up since King vs. Riggs. The spectators were lined up for hours to get tickets to this epic match-up (OK, there weren’t really any spectators except for a few voyeur jogger types, but let’s include them because they really augment the story!)

Q and Z prepared their legendary legs for this encounter by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and through half of the city of New York for about 5 hours. After this point they felt sufficiently warmed-up. But just in case they weren’t yet ready, they ran themselves ragged by hitting on a spare court for 45 minutes before their scheduled time! They felt fresh!

The racquet spin was won by Z. He chose to serve. Q immediately understood why Z made this decision. You see, Z’s serve is… well, um… let’s say, it doesn’t suck! First game was won by Z at 15.

Q was a bit worried about his much-less-formidable serve, but fortunately Z decided to slam a few returns into the net and Q held at 15.

In the next service game of Z, Q’s returns were sharp and blunt. It wasn’t pretty. Q’s returns made Brad Gilbert look like Pierre-Auguste Renoir. But he did indeed jab some returns back. Nonetheless, with great flair, he still lost the game at 15.

Q served the fourth game and held at 15. A gentle breeze blew over the court, toying with his loopy groundstrokes. It was the breeze generated by the collective yawn of the crowd, watching the most boring match yet executed by humankind.

At 3-3 there was a most spectacular point! Z approached the net, and Q hit a phenomenal lob. The lob was nearly as high as Z’s shoulder! Z smashed the thing into oblivion and won the point.

Play continued in this manner until 4-4. Then things got interesting.

Q got his racquet on the ball and sliced back a couple of returns to bring a shaky Z to *4-4, 0-30. But Z managed to bomb two service winners to bring the score to 30-30. Then Q did the unthinkable. He approached the net. The crowd gasped. The press was stopped. Two air force jets were dispatched. This was unprecedented stuff. Q struck a forehand down the line and Zoltan just got to it with his backhand, but the return was not high enough. Q’s forehand volley slid crosscourt and out of Z’s reach. Break point! Unfortunately for Q, Z’s next three points were solid. 5-4.

Q lost the first three points of the next game and the score was 0-40. Three set points for Z! Then Q became a mental giant (albeit fleetingly). First point, service winner. Second point, Q runs to net and scoops up a half-volley, dropping it with sidespin near the sideline, out of Z’s reach. Hello Pete Sampras!! The crowd goes wild! “The Dropper!” cries Patrick McEnroe. The third break point is saved by a clean ace by Q out wide. This shot is not in Q’s arsenal. He clearly channeled it from Mars. Sometimes, mistiming is perfect timing! Deuce, then ad in. At this point Q closes in behind a strong crosscourt forehand to the corner, and Z replies with a flawless passing shot which dips over the net to Q’s forehand side. Too good! But Q manages to pull out the next two points. 5-5.

Now it is Z’s turn for “showtime!” Q slices a great return to Z’s backhand, and Z responds with… no! it can’t be! Another half-volley dropshot winner! Who’s Pete Sampras now, suckah?!! “The dropper!” cries Pmac! “Will you shut up for once?!” cries Cliff Drysdale. Z holds for 6-5.

Q plays a fairly solid game to get to 40-15, but Z reels off two smart points to bring it to deuce. Then Q floats a forehand about a foot beyond the corner. Let the record show: if the court were a foot longer and wider, that ball would have been good!!! Now it’s set point. Z plays this point ultra conservatively. Doh! Q wiffs a forehand into the net. Hellen Keller could have hit a better forehand than that! Z wins the set!! 7-5!!!! For Fee’s benefit, here are a few more exclamation points!!!!!!! It was just in time, too, because it was one minute after the hour and the next players were ready to play. Z and Q recouped from the match over some beers and wine and margaritas. The End. :drink:
 
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#27 ·
MisterQ said:
:lol:

Maybe tomorrow... but maybe not! Depends on scheduling of things... we're playing it by ear. Man, we have walked around this whole city in the past two days! Our legs have been put to work. I think Nick has seen more of the city than most of its residents have seen!

Central Park was unbelievably beautiful today with the May weather, blue skies, flowers, green trees, ahhhh.... We even saw some turtles! Who can top that?
steph, miek, vass, maria etc etc etc went to NY without me!!!! :mad:
 
#31 ·
tangerine_dream said:
Did you see any wolves? :D
You should have gone with them! :p
 
#32 · (Edited)
Z and Q met again on the court today. Expectations were high after Wednesday's epic contest, and the scalpers were out in full force providing overpriced tickets to the more rabid fans. The weather was almost as hot as the Australian Open, give or take 30 degrees. As the players took their positions for the opening ball, they knew that the noonday sun was as much their opponent as the man across the net.

Having foregone his 5-hour walking warm-up, Z exploded out of the gates. The serve was on fire! And on top of that, he was closing in behind all his first serves. His split step was electric, his volleys were high-voltage! Of course Q was shocked! He knew he was in for a long day of short points. Z holds at love, 1-0.

Q, modeling his approach after the great Ivan Lendl for some random and pointless reason, decided to ease into form rather than going for broke right away. The sun was in his eyes as he served and he wished he had worn his welding glasses to the match. Q's first serve traveled roughly 20 miles per hour. Z had time to tie his right shoelace and adjust his vibration dampener before the ball got over the net. Of course, Z pounced, and Q lost serve at 15.

This early break of serve did not bode well for Q. Nor did Z's subsequent easy hold put Q in a particularly cheery frame of mind. Serving at 0-3, 30-30, the first four-letter word escaped Q's lips. There would be more to come, even though he did hold after fighting off a break point with aggressive play from well inside the baseline.

When Z held serve again for 4-1, Q's muttering increased. It was something like: "God%&* $&%*$ %&$^#!" Q even threw his racquet once. He threw it really gently and daintily, however, as only one without the funds to buy another racquet can! Q did not, however, spit at his opponent, punch him in the locker room, take a 20-minute pouting break, or call any of the officials an "abortion." For this, the press lauded Q for his increased maturity and restraint from his early rebel years. They branded him a model citizen of the game, an ambassador for all that was good about the sport. Move over Arthur Ashe!

Q managed to hold to take the set to 2-4. Q made a spectacular volley off of a low blistering backhand drive-down-the-line by Z. The volley flew crosscourt and landed two inches inside the baseline. This one was channeled from even further than Mars, perhaps Pluto or Neptune! I will not go so far as to say that it was channeled from Uranus. That would just be a bad idea. The crowd went wild on this point! After all, they were cheering for the aging legend. No one wanted to see another young Belgian phenom come up and dominate the game.

Z held again. The placement of his serves was stellar! Q thought he was anticipating pretty well, but he still couldn't handle them, pushing them long or wide. 5-2. Then Q managed to hold to bring the game to 5-3. He was doing this solely with variety on the serve. Z began to get a bit frustrated as he dumped several of Q's slower serves into the net, expecting something with more pace. His frustration was short-lived, however, because he held easily to win the set, 6-3. Q had been unable to get that early break back.

Q and Z then embarked on a second set. The quality was higher here, and there were some fantastic exchanges at the net. But just when it looked like they might be able to forge another classic duel, they got kicked off the court by some uppity kids. Those kids sucked though. You could tell from their warm-up. That was encouraging. The score stood with Q leading 3-2 on serve in the second. This journalist could describe the points of the second set in detail, but in fact he would much rather stop writing this tedious account and prepare a chicken sandwich. With cheese, and possibly a condiment of some kind. What a luxurious life the tennis elite lead!
 
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#33 ·
:haha: :haha: :haha:

those damn kids for ruining this classic encounter :armed: :mad:
 
#34 ·
:rolls: I wish I had seen that :lol:
I love your writing Q :worship:
 
#35 ·
This has honestly been the best thread ever!
 
#38 ·
debra ¡|:! said:
:haha: :haha: :haha:

those damn kids for ruining this classic encounter :armed: :mad:
I know! We don't need rain delays around here, we have pesky kids to do the damage. :armed:
 
#41 ·
:haha::haha:


I take it you made it back to Montreal safely, Nick... hope you had a fantastic time in NY! Then again if you were hanging out with Matt I'm sure you had a great time :D

But we need to know - is he as funny in person as he is on here? :p
 
#43 ·
awesome :D

so besides your two classic tennis matches and the trip to Central Park, what else did you do? :)
 
#45 ·
debra ¡|:! said:
awesome :D

so besides your two classic tennis matches and the trip to Central Park, what else did you do? :)
Well... *take the paper where Matt wrote every places we went*

DAY 1 : Port authority (because I went to NY in bus), Times Square, Herald Square, Caroll Gardens (Brooklyn), Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Bridge, a little bit of downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, West Village (Greenwich), Washington Square Park, "Noho", The 1st classic tennis match, drink a belgian beers :drink:. Then we ate some Thai food and after the that we went in a mexican bar (drink some strawberry margaritas). After the that, we wanted to go to the Empire States Building for seeing NY during the night. But we changed our mind as there was rain.

DAY 2 : Columbus Circle, Lincoln Center (Upper West Side), Strawberry Fields, Central Park, 5th Ave, Trump Tower, F.A.O. Schwartz, 53nd Street to United Nations, United Nations, 42nd St. (Grand Central Station, Chrysler Building), 5th Ave. NY Public Library, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Little Brazil, Greenwhich village for eating some mexican foods, a small concert and beers at Peculier Pub.

DAY 3 : The 2nd classic match. Then I went to Wall Street, City Hall, New York Stock Exchange, Liberty Plazza Park, Trinity Church, Ground Zero, Chamber of commerce of the state of NY, Staten Island Ferry. And I saw the statue of liberty but I didn't go in the island where she is.

I think that's all.
 
#46 ·
WOW that's a busy 3 days if I ever saw some! Sounds awesome, sounds like you pretty much got to see everything :lol: It's a crazy place, no? I could never live there :lol:
 
#48 ·
There is still a lot of things to do in NY and that I didn't see it :( (like Flushing Meadow :p ) But well, I saw a lots of stuff. And that's really great :D

And yes, it's a crazy place. There is always activities there. And I don't know if I could live there or not :shrug: There is some part of NY which are more quiet.
 
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