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.