The Great Valdez Trajedy...and I don't mean an oil spill in Alaska.

Discussion stream quite long, so time to refresh. Masters Cup predictions not too far off, feel free to share your's now. As far as Adrian, my two cents is that as long as he did not have a history of late entry the USTA should have let him in and they had plenty of time to do it before posting the invitees or sending out invitations. The argument that some other deserving player would get bumped and it would not be fair does not hold water. The lowest ranked player should be knocked back to alternate status to make room for the current and defending #1 player. How can anyone else be deemed more deserving for the chance to play than the #1 guy? If they had let him in late but before posting entrants or sending invitations, then no one but Adrian and the USTA would have even known and none of this discussion would even have to happen.

Lost Ghetto....I mean Forest.

The title is probably not very polite but you know what I'm talking about. It's a shame too because the club is actually a really nice little club, the owners are good people, and the tennis pros are actually quite talented, especially Hernan. I also hear they have a new guy from Chili who is quite the talented instructor and has worked with top guys down in that country. I digress. Anyway, there is actually a few pretty good players and a few early round match ups that will be interesting to see. I personally do not think either of the top 2 seeds, Kallus & Schmucker, will make it past their 1st matches. That said, I included Kallus in the 4.5 poll out of courtesy since he did get seeded #1. Plus, I thought it might deflect some attention away from Arya. Does that make me a bad guy?

Enuff.....Yes, Arya is a nice guy....and he can play whatever level he want to.

I can't take another Arya post. My email box is full of them, with a new one hitting every 10 seconds it seems. Let's get back to other tournament happenings post Fall Fest 1st round. How about some sectionals wrap-up.

Right off the bat, Men's 4.5 singles was a joke, with some of the best players never signing up (Aflonso), several others pulling out of the rescheduled event, and yet others losing early and unexpectedly (Alejandro, Casas). Congrats to Zhieng on winning. Unfortunately, when it sorts out there will be some guys at Master's Cup who don't deserve it. But I am sure that will always be the case.

At least 5.0 played out to form with Smith beating Garg in semis and taking down Reader yet again in the finals. I would say congrats but you are not a 5.0 so yeah you won, but anything less than that would have been a joke if you ask me. Congrats Reader, aka Lord of the Strings, aka #8 (my opinion), you have had a great year this year. It must be karma that after playing down and beating up all the 4.5s last year, you would get it dealt to you repeatedly this year by a guy who is well above the 5.0 level. You are still one of the most fun guys in Texas Tennis.

I think Schmucker broke his personal record for pulling out of tournaments this year. A couple hundred dollars well spent.

Lost Forest this weekend. Not a big event but keep an eye on the continued ascent of newly returned German Madman Jochen Moser. He could be the guy to take it all in 4.5 next year. You heard it here first.

Sectionals...Take Two.

You want a new sectionals blog, you got it. I am not going to comment this time around. Feel free to look at my comments from a couple posts ago. I am not sure who will still even be there this time around and I believe some of the draw match ups have already changed as well. In any case, I wish everyone a great tournament.

Fall Fest

Sorry for scarcity of postings over recent weeks. There was not much going on and I have been out of town for a good bulk of the time anyway. If I get chance I will make my usual useless predictions. If not, I leave it to you guys to let it fly as I know you are more than capable.