Goodbye 2007! And now for my 2008 New Year's Resolutions....

I will not lose to Sarosh....more than twice.

I will not sandbag in league....I would have to play at the 3.5 level for that to happen.

If I should see any Texas Section USTA Execute Officers, I will personally thank them for finally bumping Tim Green and Odion Dibua to 5.0.

I will figure out a way to determine whether it is only myself and 5 other guys who even bother to visit this blog.

I will not trash any of my fellow players on this site....unless opportunity presents itself and I think it might generate entertaining discussion.

Happy New Year and here's to a good tennis season for all!

Another month closer to 2008.

Wow, another month has blown by. Not much to talk about since the Master's Cup the first week of November. Still want to hear the full details on the Trautman/Reader match because I really don't believe Trautman could have legitimately won 2 & 0. Great to see Odion Dibua bumped up to 5.0. He will do just as well at either 5.0 or Open in the local events, and no one will be upset about actually having a chance now to win a 4.5 tourney in Houston. I don't really have much comment on other ratings changes, except maybe Tim Green getting an ironic bump up to 5.0 the year that he plays less tennis than any other year this decade. Soon we can start making predictions on who will dominate what level in 2008. For now, I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday season. Eat a lot, exercise little, and please don't practice. Maybe that way, I will have a shot against all you guys in 2008.

Out of Country for 3 Weeks and not one message?

Damn, I feel hurt in the apparent lack of interest in either this site or tournament tennis in general. Go out of country for 3 weeks and no one posts a single message on the site. Well, I am back and maybe we can see some discussion again.

This weekend....Austin....Master's Cup.

Some interesting groupings in the round robins, especially 4.5.

Here is my personal thoughts on each of 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0.

I assume Kern will not have any problem handling his group and then beating Janek in the finals of 4.0

The real finals of 4.5 will occur in round robin action as Reader and Dibua are in the same group. The winner of that one should win the tournament but as we have already seen, Reader cannot be counted on to show up for matches (even ones that would have been incredibly lop-sided in his favor...no offence Scott). So for that reason, I hope Dibua wins though I really see that match as a toss-up as both of those guys are incredibly talented though they have completely different games and Dibua has about 50X fitness advantage over Thomas Reefer. The other group is somewhat interesting as Greg has beaten Jochen but lost to Trautman and hasn't played Casas. Jochen has beaten both Casas (2X) and Trautman but has lost to Greg. Casas...don't see it happening. Problem for either Greg or Jochen is that Trautman is unlikely to show up for his other matches if he loses his first one. For sake of needing a body, I will plug Greg into the finals and then predict he will get rolled by either Dibua or Reader.

Finally, 5.0.... I think it will be close between Wescoupe and Hunckler from one group and Hilderbrand and Gound in the other. For the finals, I will go with the winner of the Hunckler/Wescoupe over Gound in the finals.

Comment away...

Rain spoils fun...but not as much as the guy at the desk.

First all, sorry to all who got short changed by the bad weather as there ended up being a lot of walkover semis and finals and of course consolation was cancelled.

Second, what is with the guy behind the desk at Lee Leclear? He is the rudest tournament volunteer I have ever dealt with in many, many year of playing tennis around the state. HTA should think about how it looks when you have someone being rude to basically every player or parent that approaches the desk. Not exactly good word of mouth to get other out of towners to come in to play Fall Fest.

Finally, congrats to all the winners and finalists, including:

Femi Thomas, who beat Will Taylor in the Open Finals
Odion Dibua, who beat Greg Schmucker in the 4.5 Finals
Brian Goldberg, who beat someone to win the 4.0 Finals

Maybe Brian would have gotten more poll votes if the tourney had happened last weekend.

Unfortunately, the 4.5 doubles fell apart at the end, as the matchup between Dibua/Moser and Kallus/Tass never materialized, I assume due to the weather pushing things over to Monday. Still curious as to whether there was a falling out between Kallus and Moser since those guys had been playing as a team all year and signed up with different partners. Plus, last I looked, neither had signed up yet for the master's cup. Anyone know anything?

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Sorry for lack of new posts, been way too busy with non-tennis life. Draws are out for Fall Fest and I am sure there is plenty worthy of note. Hopefully I will find time to really take a look at it. For now, I will just settle for predicting that Odion Dibua will run away with the 4.5 singles and as I have said repeatedly, I don't get why this guy is playing 4.5. But I digress... Anyway, feel free to discuss away and make predictions and what not. Hopefully, I will also get a chance to come up with another riveting poll question as your votes are the only way I have to see how many people are bothering to visit this site. Looks like it is a number somewhere in the mid-teens. Look at Google, Yahoo, Myspace, etc.!

My bad...

My apologies to Copperfield Racquet Club and all those who participated in the tournament over the weekend as I completely forgot about it last week. John Kutrick is one of the nicest professionals on the Houston tennis scene and I personally think Copperfield is a great club. With that plug out of the way, I would like to congratulate Brian Goldberg and Daniel Kallus for winning the 4.0 and 4.5 events respectively, especially Brian as the 4.0 draw was a rather full 32 draw so Brian had to win 4 matches to get the title. With no Dibua in the draw this time around, Kallus had a relatively easy go in the semis and finals. Unfortunately, the win will do nothing for him in terms of not making the Master's Cup. For Brian, that is at least the 2nd local title he has won in the past couple of months and perhaps that will give him a kickstart for his return to the 4.5 ranks next year. There were no doubles events at the tourney and I did not look to see what happened at 3.5 or if 5.0 made, so if you have any additional comments, please post away. Oh yeah, in reply to someone's question last week, I have no beef with Kallus and it definitely has nothing to do with my record against him (there isn't one), I poke fun because he is one of the few guys that I know has a good enough sense of humor to take it with a grain of salt and not come after me with a tennis racquet if he knew who I was.

Rankings updated thru Sectionals.

Well, the ratings have been updated to reflect sectionals and if someone wants me to I can post the top 10s here but otherwise feel free to hit the link on the home page and check them out at the USTA website. Not many surprises as we have already seen who did what at Sectionals. Janek's record at 4.0 this year (49-6 I think) is pretty impressive and deserving of #1. Knutson at 17-1 was a bit surprising but also a good accomplishment including 2 wins over Janek. In 4.5, Kallus fell 1 spot and 75 points short of making the top 8. Just think, if you had closed out just one of the many match points you blew in majors this year, you would have had enough to make it in. I still am surprised the guy has finished as high as he is in doubles but it looks like he and Moser had some good wins and were competitive in almost all of their losses (3 third-set tie-break losses in Major Zones). Schmucker never really made a full commitment to 4.5 but still is sitting at #3. Felipe Wescoup deserves to be in top 8 of 5.0s but only has 3 tourney results so maybe there is time for him to get one or two more in before the sign up deadline for the master's cup. Hunckler has had a year worthy of #1 but also has not played enough tournaments to maximize his points. If he played and won Fall Fest and then did well at the Masters Cup he could still take home the top spot. Moser is still tied with Dibua for top spot in 4.5 despite not winning any majors, but he was definitely consistent with the exception of Sectionals. Not sure what happened there.

Sectionals produces some shocks and one foregone conclusion.

Well, I was disappointed to see that Sectionals did not produce the 4.5 finals matchup of Reader and Dibua. To me that would have been a true meeting of the 2 best tournament 5.0s in the state. Instead we get Scott Sevin. Congrats to Scott on making a surprise run to the finals. I don't know what else to say as I don't know if it was great tennis on the part of Scott that got him there or what. I can't imagine he would have won 3 games off of Reader let alone the match but that doesn't matter when Reader no shows. Then again if Corey Noel can take a set off of Reader, we should all have reason for optimism, no offense to Corey. Dibua did the job I thought he would do in his half, bringing his lifetime 4.5 record in tournaments to something like 90-2. Its good that you were able to find your appropriate level a few years ago and settle into an extended run of beating up on lesser players. That said, you still deserve congrats on the win...even if there was never any doubt.

Congrats also to Hunckler for toughing out some long matches. You have really stepped up your game this year and deserve to be the top dog in 5.0...regardless of what guys say over on the league blog (bunch of ringers).

4.0 Shocker was the presence of Kris Knutson in the finals. I would never have thought it possible but you did it and deserve congrats. Congrats again to Eddie Janek for adding to what has been a great year...outshadowed only by Jason Kern, who in this case did not make it to the tourney to keep his domination going.

Doubles....I haven't seen the results yet so I cannot comment. Please help with recap/comments on doubles if you can. It would be appreciated.

Will be interesting to see how the Master's Cup lineups stack up now that sectionals is complete. I am sure there were one or two changes in who makes it but I will wait til rankings are updated as I am too lazy to make the calculations. If you know who is in or out at each level, feel free to share it here so that I don't have to figure it out.

There will be several small tournaments here in Houston over the coming weeks with Fallfest being the most meaningful (deadline for entry is Sept. 21 in case you are interested) but the real focus for the next month will be on how the masters cup looks to shape up in each level so I am sure we will focus a lot on that.

Congrats again to the Houston players who showed well in San Antonio and my condolences to those Houston players that disappointed (Reggie Black, Daniel Kallus, Arya Majed, Joe Schornick to name a few), there is always 2008.

The Draws! The Draws, Boss! The Draws!

That's a twist on Fantasy Island in case you missed it. Anyway, Sectional Draws are out and as is usually the case, there will be some very interesting early round matches on tap for 4.5 and 5.0, probably 4.0 too but as usual I just don't know the names and can't really discuss. Within 5.0, there are 3 exciting Round of 16 matchups as Pat Abshire will have to play the unseeded Chris Hunckler (downside of the small 5.0 draws as there are not enough seeds to go around). That one is a toss up. Chris Leach will have his hands more than full with Mark Hilderbrand in a matchup of unseeded but strong players. Finally, Herb Morton and Jorge Vazquez will make an interesting matchup in which no one should expect rallies beyond 4 or 5 shots.

4.5 is loaded as you would expect with all of the top guys (all of the top 16 I believe) taking part. Moser may get an early test from one of the top guys in 5.0 last year Kory Brown (also of Tennis Channel's Bragging Rights fame). JD Miles and Daniel Kallus could clash in the round of 16 (JD holds a 3-0 advantage in head to heads). Last year's #2, Philip Griggs gets to play dark horse Alfonso Rodriguez from the valley, a player that was very strong in 4.5 a couple of years back, including a Houston Coke victory over the (in)famous Tim Green. This would be a Round of 32 match up and if Griggs loses he can kiss master's cup goodbye. Winner of that match will most likely face angry ex-Baylor women's coach David Luedtke in the round of 16. Thomas Reader is in the same half with all of these guys and he would be my pick to reach the finals from this group, though if Alfonso has progressed from where he already was a couple of years ago, that match up could be somewhat of a challenge. No offense to all the other players but Reader is that strong plus he was already bumped midyear to 5.0 so he probably wants to go out in a blaze of glory. Yes, he is fat and likes to smoke the doobie so that might be his downfall if there is one in a tourney of this size.

In the bottom half, the just back on the circuit Mario Gloria gets a second shot at Jacob Casas in the round of 32 after going down meekly to him in July. Schmucker looks to have an easy path to the semis unless there is an unknown lurking in this quarter. Reader buddy James Regmund gets to go at John Trautman in the round of 16, and current odds are 50/50 Trautman comes down with a shoulder injury if he is down a set and behind a break. Alejandro Sanchez gets to go with Reynaldo Leija in the round of 32 who may be a much stronger player than early year results would indicate after beating Kallus and Schmucker a couple of weeks ago in Beaumont. If he survives that he gets to be the victim of Odion Dibua. Dibua should take Schmucker in the semis but it should be a very good match.

That gets us to the matchup I have been expecting to see unfold though I thought it would happen earlier, Reader vs. Dibua. This is a "you pick 'em" matchup as Reader has the shots and the strategy but Dibua has the athleticism and endurance to counter balance. There could be some sparks flying if this match occurs as neither of these guys are the type to back down and it should be expected that Reader makes a couple of "I can't quite get to that ball so its just gonna be out" calls as I am sure he wants this tourney badly enough that all the best cheating skills that are instilled into most former junior champs will come into play (a general statement about juniors, not an attack on Reader personally). Anyway, this match will be a matchup of the true #1 and #2 4.5 tourney players in the state.

In doubles, the only early round match worth highlighting will be the Hunckler/Leija round of 16 match with Reader/Regmund who I believe have not lost a doubles match as a team this year and should be the favorites to win the doubles.

The interesting fallout of all of these matches is that there are likely a couple of guys who probably assume they were shoe-ins for the master's cup but are going to lose points they gained from going deep at sectionals last year and end up just outside the top 8. Expect at least 1 "on the outside" bubble guy to sneak his way in.

Check out Novak Djokovic!

Hey, this guy is going to end up making some enemies on the court but he is going to pick up a lot of fans with his sense of humor. Check out the videos on the right. There are even more on youtube from some other tournaments earlier this year. You would never see Federer doing something like this! Do we have any tennis clowns/court jesters here in our own neck of the woods? I can think of a couple but I will wait and see if you guys care to mention any.

Labor Day Tourneys End With No Surprises...Except Who Won.

Starting with Beaumont, this weekend saw a different set of players reach the finals and win versus who I was expecting. In Beaumont, Schmucker made the finals but somewhat surprisingly lost to Reynaldo Leija for the 2nd time this year, throwing into doubt the theory that his loss to Reynaldo in Waco had to do with not caring about consolation. Like Waco, the match went 3 sets with Reynaldo taking it 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Reynaldo beat Kallus pretty easily (6-2, 6-2) in the semis but I am sure Kallus already had an excuse in hand before the match even got started.

In 5.o, another mild shocker as it looks like Jochen Moser pretty much steamrolled through the guys that regularly play 5.0 in tournaments as he won his posted round robin matches in easy straight sets over Jason Cooney and Pat Abshire, blasting Abshire by the score of 6-2, 6-2. Would have thought Abshire would fare better on his home courts but obviously Jochen's blistering second serves were too much for him. Not all matches have been posted for the round robin but it definitely looks like it will be Jochen. In a final Beaumount 5.0 footnote, Reggie Black shocked no one by not bothering to show up for any of his round robin matches so go ahead and tack another 4 losses next to his name for the year.

Over in Austin, Henry Manalo took home an unexciting 5.0 round robin with a straight set win over Mark Hilderbrand. In 4.5, I got both finalist wrong as neither Alejandro Sanchez or Phillip Griggs made it past their second matches. Sanchez lost in the 1st round to Joseph Griffin, who I have never heard of. Griggs went down to Steve Atherton, who has been playing 5.0 at most tournaments the past couple of years. In the finals, Atherton ended up winning it 6-4, 7-6 over Andrew Merritt who took out the guy who beat Sanchez. A bit of surprise to see Merritt in the finals as he has not done much in the past couple of years, but perhaps he is returning to the form that saw him beat Red Benzon in straight sets at the Coke a few years ago and then go on to win the Major Zone in Corpus a couple weeks later. Since then he has not been a major factor in tournaments.

One final mention of a Houston player at Austin, as Arya Majed (#2 seed) lost 6-1, 6-1 in his 1st match to the guy that ended up winning the tournament and then in typical style did not stick around for the consolation rounds.

If you have other results, especially 4.0, to share, please do as I am pretty much tired of typing.

4.0 Facts and Figures

4.0 Top 10 players records versus other top 10s ranked by number of wins:

Win/Loss Record:
Jason Kern 9-0
Eddie Janek 6-3
Mark Jenkins 4-2
Jason Warren 4-6
Greg Leiker 3-2
Fernando Ontiveros 2-2
Richard Patton 1-3
Richard Saldana 1-3
John Blackwell 0-4
Foad Ansari 0-6

Mens 5.0 Top 10 Facts and Figures

Here are the records of the top 10 5.0s vs. other top 10 5.0s for the trailing 12 months ranked by top 10 wins:

Win/Loss Record:
Jason Gound 6-2
Tim Green 5-2
Pat Asbshire 5-3
Henry Manilo 4-4
David Wright 3-3
Mark Hilderbrand 2-1
Herb Morton 2-4
Kory Brown 1-3
Chris Leach 1-4
Reggie Black 1-7

#11 Chris Hunckler is 6-2 vs. top 10 players.

Mens 4.5 Singles Facts and Figures

With only sectionals left before we set the players for the year end master cup, I though I would take a look at how the top guys have fared against each other over the past 12 months, starting with 4.5 (don't worry, I will also try to look at 4.0 and 5.0 as well).

Trailing 12 Month Top 10 Ranked players listed in order of wins versus other top 10 ranked players:

Win/Loss Record Against Top 10:
Thomas Reader 6-0
Greg Schmucker 6-1
John Trautman 4-4
Jochen Moser 3-4
Phillip Griggs 2-1
Jacob Casas 2-2
JD Miles 2-2
Alejandro Sanchez 2-6
Roger Morales 1-4
Daniel Kallus 0-5

FYI: #11 Odion Dibua is 5-0 against Top 10 players over the last 12 months.

200 Ranking Points for sale...This Weekend Only!

Not exactly but we do have two 200 point tournaments this weekend. In Austin, look for strong competition in the 29 person 4.5 draw anchored by Alejandro Sanchez at #1 seed and Phillip Griggs at #2. Would not be surprised if these 2 guys make it through to the finals and if they do, I would lean towards Griggs to win it. At the other end of the spectrum, State #2 Greg Schmucker leads a field of 7 playing for 200 points in Beaumont. A few names I do not recognize playing, but I would think #2 seed Kallus might be able to reach the finals ( I say might because it is pretty windy in Beaumont, and boy does that guy bitch about the wind, its no one's fault but his own that he stubbornly stays with hitting the ball flat as humanly possible regardless of opponent or conditions). He lost to a guy I have never heard of at Northgate this weekend so I do not know what is up with Kallus these days. There is a guy in the draw that beat Schmucker in consolation at Waco but from what I know of him he is more of a doubles player and that was during Greg's "lost in the 4.5 wilderness" period that ended with his strong showing at Tyler. At 5.0, it should actually be an interesting round robin with all the guys being pretty equally matched. I anticipate a couple of heat-related "retired" or "defaults" in the results for that level (Reggie Black). Good luck to Pat Abshire who will also being playing doubles with Schmucker in round robin 4.5, for a total of 8 matches in 2 days. As usual, I did not bother to look at the 3.5, 4.0, or open draws at either event, so please feel free to post your comments/predictions.

Look for another Dibua Romp this weekend.

Things look set up for a continuation of Dibua dominance in meaningless small local tournaments. So far this year a Dibua has won 4.5 titles at Lost Forest, Galveston, Copperfield, Conroe, and last weekend at Lee Leclear. And go ahead and throw in the Waco Major Zone if you like. In the Northgate tourney this weekend, look for Omon to throttle top seed Daniel Kallus in the semis and Odion might possibly cause a heart attack-related death if he were to play the 50+ year old, quite possibly not in the best shape Dennis Hilsmeier in the other semi. If anyone has any predictions on 4.0 or Open, please share them as don't have any value to add there. If you don't have a problem with the Dibuas ruining 4.5 the little guys, fine. But from my 10 years of playing here in Houston, it is not a good thing when guys like this start playing all the small events as it scares most of the middle-of-the-pack guys out of signing up and the end result is very small, unexciting draws.

Milestone Reached....6 visitors and counting.

Based on the fact that no poll question yet has garnered more than 6 votes, I am forced to come to the conclusion that there are a total of 5 people other than myself visiting this site, and I am pretty sure who 3 of them are. Not good. I know my posts have been infrequent and not exactly riveting but what are you to do during the deadest part of the tournament season. Let me know if anyone has any ideas as to how we can get more discussion taking place and if possible not solely focused on who is or is not sandbagging.

USTA Tourney at Lee Leclear this weekend...if anyone cares.

There will be a sanctioned tourney going on this weekend at Lee Leclear. Look for Odion Dibua to rise up from the overwelming field of 6 players to take this one. Way to challenge yourself Odion, as I am sure you were not able to get adequate 4.5 competition at League Sectionals this weekend. Not much to write about until September gets here so I will pose a question instead. What do you think is the smarter move, going to the weaker Beaumont tourney in search of easy points or heading to Austin to play in a much stronger field to test yourself knowing the same points will be harder to come by. Few Houston players seem to ever play the Austin Labor Day tournament even though it is probably the biggest Austin tourney of the year with big draws, good players, and played at some really good facilities compared to what we usually get to play at here in Houston.

Focus on League Sectionals This Weekend.

Stay tuned to the League blog as I am sure the blogger will be posting updates all weekend. For those not going or not caring about league, there is the Jochen Moser-hosted City Tournament this weekend out at Lee Leclear starting on Friday. I don't recognize any of the 4.0 players so no clue as to who will win that level. In 4.5, I see Chris Pacciotti winning, possibly over Daniel Kallus in the finals, if Kallus can keep it together in the early rounds. Not USTA, so not much on the line but it looks like Jochen secured some nice prizes for the winners. Good luck to all participating in league, I don't agree with all the sandbagging and ringing that you guys do but since all the teams from the other cities do it as well, its a fair game when you get there. Us crappy players get to stay home and play for fun. Whoopie.

Fort Worth shocker! Schmucker shows...and wins.

Well, Fort Worth is in the bag and it was a mixed showing for Houston area players.

4.0 - Congrats to Eddie Janek for reaching finals of another Major and to Greg Leiker for reaching semis. No Houston teams to speak of in doubles.

4.5 - Congrats to Greg Schmucker for winning 2nd major zone this year, and 2 of last 3 played. He is the 1st player to win two majors at 4.5 this year and probably shouldn't be playing 4.5, but still a run worth applauding. Jochen Moser lost in round of 16 but did not need anything from this tourney as he is in good shape for Masters Cup. Daniel Kallus got clocked in round of 16 and looks to be on outside now for making the top 8 after good showings from Alejandro Sanches, Roger Morales, and Greg Schmucker. On the doubles-side, Kallus and Moser may have proved some naysayers wrong by making it to the finals with a lopsided win over a strong Dallas area team in the semis and a though 3rd set tie-break loss to the winning team of Cherry and Rosenquist in the finals. The other Houston team of Peter Rothe and Justin Benoit showed up, played, and went home defeated on Friday, going down in their first match in 3 sets. Kallus/Moser now have a win, a finals, and 2 semis to show for their major zone efforts this year so it is fair to say that someone's comment that anyone can get ranked if they play every tourney and get lucky now and then is a bit off base in regards to these guys as their results as a team have been rather consistent with the exception of of Tyler. The same cannot be said for a lot of other top tourney doubles guys from Houston this year. Interesting to see if this team can manage any wins in a round robin format against the other top Texas teams as they have yet to defeat any of the other top-tier teams such as Dyer/Gold out of Austin.

In 5.0, Houston came up pretty weak. Joe Schornick won a round before going home, but the other Houston players, Herb Morton, Reggie Black, and Ronnie Johnson all lost in the first round. Herb did manage to take the consolation with a hard fought win over the always-dangerous(?) Ronnie Johnson along the way. On the almost as shocking as Greg showing up side of things, Reggie and Ronnie won the 5.0 doubles with an impressive straight sets win over Felipe Wescoupe and his partner along the way. Red Benzon did not make the trip and Herb Morton had to turn to Greg Schmucker as a stand in and they came up short in their match.

Unfortunately I cannot add a lot of color to any highlights of the various matches etc., so please jump on here and share anything you feel is worthy of note. After Fort Worth, August is usually slow on the tourney front though there look to be a couple of new local events prior to things heating up again around Labor Day.

Anyway, congrats again to everyone who played this weekend.

Conroe in the Bag.

Before I get to the Fort Worth results, I know everyone is eager to hear of the all important Conroe tournament. With no Dibua in the draw, recently self-demoted from 5.0 Jeff Matlock was able to take the coveted Conroe crown with a 3rd set super-tiebreak victory over Dan Morales. Never looked at the draws prior to the tourney, but Matlock would have been the clear favorite. There are not many guys playing 4.5 tourneys that would be Matlock. Very solid player and a nice guy too. In 4.0, everyone's favorite tabletop slice forehand lefty, Kris Knutson took it home without much resistance. My condolences to all that had to play him.

Fort Worth Draws Out.

The Fort Worth draws have been posted so please come forward will your predictions and comments. In 4.5, looks like Jochen Moser will have a strong shot at making it 8 for 8 in terms of reaching semis or better at Major Zones this year. No recognizable sandbaggers in the draw.
Would expect winner to come from group of Jochen Moser, Roger Moralez, Greg Schmucker, and Alejandro Sanchez. Don't see JD Miles beating Greg in quarters and don't see Kallus getting past Torch Acosta in the round of 16.

In 5.0, see winner coming from Pat Abshire or Henry Manalo. Red Benzon's got the game, but can he stand Fort Worth heat for 2 matches on Saturday?

See Nathan Lenss and Michael Miller winning 4.5 doubles. Kallus/Moser #1 seeds but tough to see them getting over Cass/McCallum in 1st match. Were down a set to Cass in San Antonio before he and his partner defaulted. Plus Cass beat Moser in in Corpus, though both had different partners.

That's my two cents, so have at it.

Welcome

Well, I wasted 10 minutes setting this up so let's not let all the effort go to waste. This is meant to be something of an alternative/companion site to the league blog that exists thanks to someone else's continuing efforts. However, I know a hell of a lot more about the tourney scene than I do the league scene as I personally stink enough to be a perennial non-factor in league play. Of course, I am slowly but surely becoming a non-factor in the tourney scene as well but having played about 200 tournaments in the past 20 years, I definitely know a thing or two that could be useful to someone and I definitely have crossed paths with the majority of the non-Open level Houston tennis community. I don't plan on being much of a moderator so other than setting this thing up, I hope everyone else will flood it with ongoing commentary, questions, and a healthy dose of thrash talking. I know from personal experience that there are more than enough of you out there who seem to have mastered the art.