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.
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31 comments:
The question I have is how is Majed always seeded at these tournaments? Does he ever do any good?
Cause once you get past the Valdez brothers from San Antonio, no other good open players play enough events to have points for a decent ranking and even if they do, the strong open players seem to stick to the major zones, letting Arya get a meaningless seed at event after event. He sure makes good use of them doesn't he?
That guy used to play a bunch of tournaments which allowed him to gain a bunch of points. He's a solid player with very solid strokes.... if you don't make him move anywhere. That's his major issue although I am uncertain whether he's gotten on it yet.
arya is a very strong player with excellent ground strokes and a wicked backhand. he is very steady; plus he has a very solid serve. i would not want to be on the other side of the net from him in a tournament!
Not sure how good Majed is. He seems to have good/bad matches. He recently went 3 sets w/ Farzad Hediari who is a very solid Open player who took out Varun Pandit in the same tourney (Coke Semi-finalist). But then he looses 1 & 1 in Austin to a kid!
At least the guy has the guts to play open rather than sandbagging! He is stronger than most in the 5.0 division. Give him some credit!
Majed is a middle of the pack 5.0 at best. He would probably end up in the top 10 without a problem at 4.5 but he would by no means be the top dog. Let's not forget that there are guys out there that talk a lot of crap and put down lower levels, in this case 4.5 and 5.0 and the best way to not have to put your money where your mouth is to not put yourself on the line in tournaments at that level and obviously losses at open don't look bad given the overall talent in the division. If I recall, Arya has quit HTA league before because he lost to 4.5 rated guys. All that being said, I could probably never beat the guy so I guess I should just shutup.
How about some predictions on San Antonio Zone Tournament
I was planning no waiting a couple of days past the deadline for San Antonio before looking through the list of players but I can tell you already that Odion Dibua is playing sectionals this year for the first time and I would put my early money on him to take it. Will be interesting to see what side of the draw he is on as a Reader-Dibua match up would likely be the highlight of the 4.5 draw.
I was planning no waiting a couple of days past the deadline for San Antonio before looking through the list of players but I can tell you already that Odion Dibua is playing sectionals this year for the first time and I would put my early money on him to take it. Will be interesting to see what side of the draw he is on as a Reader-Dibua match up would likely be the highlight of the 4.5 draw.
Reader will not win Sectionals because he is too fat and slow and way too many matches to play.
Dibua is a good player, but very beatable. Just depends if you walk on the court already defeated in the head before the match begins.
Troutmann will get pissed at someone on the court and either quit or tank his match.
Sanchez's fitness level may cost him in his matches. Also taking pace off the ball hurts his game.
Moser guess if he gets another sweet draw again, but fitness could come into play for him as well.
I don't know his league results (but any loses would be against above level guys anyway), but Odion has only lost 2 tournament matches in the last 2 years and 1 was a loss to his brother where they just turned in a 3-set score and did not even play the match. The other was at the Coke this year in the semis to Felipe Wescoup, who as a serve and volley player presented a style mismatch. Other than that Dibua has been untouchable, so I don't know where this easily beatable comment comes from. Reader may be fat and slow but his shots are deadly and he makes otherwise solid players look really bad with his mastery of junk shots. I would agree with the blogger that the winner of sectionals will likely be one of these 2 guys. That being said, the draws at sectionals are always really tough and with 50+ players, who know how the seeds will work out. A lot of guys that have made it to finals of major zones may have a very hard time getting past the quarters. In fact it is a certainty that some of the major zone winners won't make it past quarters if even that far. I would still bet my money that Moser gets another sweetheart, lucky-as-hell cakewalk draw to the semis.
What about Schmucker? From the head to head results, I see that his record against the top 4.5s is just as strong as Reader's and Dibua's. Has he played either of those guys this year?
Majed actually lost in 4.5? When did he actually PLAY league? I've never known the guy to touch it and always though he was a total tournament player. 'Course there are always guys playing down in league, so I wouldn't imagine that he should feel so bad about losing at 4.5 in league. I'm sure he didn't lose MANY right?
I would take Reader over the Dibuas in a one match sort of thing, like in league. If they meet really late in the draw, it's possible that the Dibuas (whichever one plays) might have an edge in fitness all other things considered....
It was in one of the HTA singles leagues, spring or fall I don't remember. HTA is not quite as strong as the USTA summer league so who knows whether it was against someone playing down or not. Kudva and Jonathan from Rice are strong HTA guys so maybe it was one of them.
Felt like I was being called a liar so I had to look it up. Majed has lost in straights to Jonathan Magid, David Yang, and Hai Vu in the 4.5+ HTA league over the past 3 years. No problem, those are all pretty strong players. Explain this one, he lost in straight sets to Kallus in 2004. Not exactly a top gun playing down in that case. As I stated in my original post, he Majed is a good, solid player and would be a top 4.5 tournament player. In 5.0, I don't see him having the answer against guys like Tim Green and Jason Gound. Maybe that is more a statement about how good they are.
I think the guy had just starting playing tennis again when he lost to Kallus. He has certainly gotten progressively better since.
Why does every comment that makes a reference to Kallus have to imply that he sucks at tennis?
Signed, Kallus
Sorry guy, wasn't implying that you were a liar. Just curious!
Magid is good on a consistent basis, I can see that. Yang is good when he wants to be good, I can see that. Vu is very consistent and a doubles player by my knowledge. That is less obvious to me, but I can understand him perhaps frustrating the guy eventually. Perhaps Kallus was on that day?
Nah, Kallus sucks.
FYI ... Kallus is a pretty damn good player with a unique, self-invented style. He didnt have "tennis lessons" like most of us here and learned the sport through hard work. Also, he loves the game. I respect the guy. On a given day, he can take down some good players as he has shown in last years 5.0 tourneys by beating Schmucker twice. Schmucker is another good solid player which does not get the credit that he deserves.
I know Arya pretty well. Know for a fact that he had just started again when he played the league match against Kallus and still went 5 & 5. A year later he played Kallus again in league and beat him 4 & 2.
I remember asking Arya about the match he lost and he never made an excuse about it. All he said was that Kallus played great, hit a lots of lines, and hit a pretty good flat ball that he had never seen before. Never know this guy to make a single excuse about a loss. I respect that about him.
Thank you to ever had the nice thing to say about me. I do love the game, just ask my wife and kids, who hardly get to see me because of it. Sorry to everyone who has a problem with my mental quirks. I am also proud of the fact that I have been able to get as far as I have on my own without instruction. I do think I have hit my developmental wall unfortunately. Hopefully I am wrong. Thanks again for the comment, it was nice to not be ripped on or read that I suck for a change.
How do you think that some of the guys who were bumped up from 4.0 to 4.5 are going to fare in tournament play for next year? Mainly the guys currently at the top of 4.0 now and from the Hurricanes team.
Is that Freeman's team? Guys like Eddie Janek, Greg Leiker, and Brian Goldberg have all played tournament seasons at 4.5 before, with mediocre results overall. Using Kallus as an example since he seems to be harped on as a mid-level 4.5 type guy, all three of those guys have played Kallus in 4.5 tournaments and none of them have ever beaten him. If Kern is on that team, I bet he will have no problem and will be a top 10 4.5 guy, though I have no idea what his style of play is.
Personally don't think they're going to be doing very well at all off the bat because they've been beating up on all the true 4.0s all season long. This will quite possibly leave them less tough in general and will probably take them a while to catch back up. That said, Kern does seem to be an exception though I haven't seen the guy play.
I would be surprised to see these guys be beaten at nationals. Freeman did a good job of recruiting, appealing, captaining, etc. I'm sure it was exhausting.
Daniel why are you posting at 12:13am when you had to be off the court at 11:00pm last night?
We could of hit longer last night
=)
Kern and Ahmed will are already top-teir 4.5 tournament players and good solid league players.
Patton and Knutson will be able to step right in with no problem either. There are not many 4.5 guys with quicker hands than Patton and Kern, both are excellent doubles players.
It will be interesting to see where these guys end up in league play next year. If they stay together and talk Freeman into running a team then the Hangovers and Kingwoods of the world will have to take them seriously.
There are not too many Houston 4.5 teams that their current 4.0 team could not beat (probably not any of the playoff teams). You are kidding yourself if you think they will have ANY trouble with or be intimidated by 4.5 tennis.
Leiker is NOT a 4.5 caliber player and he is not in the same league with these other guys. Goldberg is scrappy and is gettning better every time he walks on the court. Janek will compete just fine in 4.5 tournament play as well (he'll play enough tournaments to get plenty of points) but probably not do so hot in league. Swartly is a nice doubles player.
The draws should be bigger in 4.5 next year.
Janek didn't compete just fine in 4.5 when he was playing it up until a couple of years ago so why should he better today after spending 2 years down in 4.0s? He definitely didn't get any younger. He is basically on the same level as Stephen Newberry, another scrappy 4.0 and fierce competitor who moved up to 4.5 and hasn't been a factor yet and unlikely ever will, but I would love for him to prove me wrong cause I like the guy. Knutson gives some good 4.5s matchup problems with his annoying shots & even more annoying ever-present smirk and he can do ok in small local draws but he has no shot of being a factor in major zones and I don't think he can do anything in 4.5 doubles either as he has already tried. Goldberg is another 4.5 guy who got demoted because his results at 4.5 were not exactly stellar. Patton, who knows. Kern is the only one of these guys that I have no doubt can make a big impression in 4.5 tournaments.
Anyone who thinks Freeman's 4.0 team will be competitive with Hangovers or Crush are on crack. They may be able to compete in the same capacity as the other 4.5 teams but it won't be a contest - not at first at least. They'll be able to compete with the other 4.5 teams but that's where it ends
Would Crush or Hangovers take Kern or Ahmed on their team?
The 4.5 team to beat next year.
Don Rios
Ted Phourmarh (miss spelled)
Woody Rogers
David C. (teaching pro Forest Oaks)
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