Houston Tourney Tennis Scene

Is It June Already?

2010-06-02T15:51:00.000-05:00

Well, it looks like no one bothers coming to this blog anymore (myself included) but I thought it was about time for me to throw up something new. Heading into June, some of the most surprising things I have noticed are the following: 1) tournament participation may be down at 4.0 and 3.5 levels, but it does look like all the bump-ups to 4.5 have been willing to give it a go as draw sizes seem to be running a bit larger at the major zones this year, 2) true to recent history, no one plays 5.0 and it did not help that no one was bumped up to 5.0, 3) Some new blood from Houston has been doing pretty decent on the tourney front this year - namely Guy and McCool. Neither had much of a 4.5 history available on line but Guy has been active and successful in various leagues over the years. Good to see some Houston guys stepping up to replace those that seem to have fallen off the face of the earth.

Here's to a successful Tyler, San Antonio, and Fort Worth over the next couple of months.

Corpus this weekend, how about that.

2010-04-28T15:51:00.000-05:00

Good luck to Houston players in the draw. May your balls not be blown off the courts...unless you are into that sort of thing. I am talking about the ungodly wind in case your mind was in the gutter.

Coke...I mean Gallery...sorry, I mean HTA Major Zone 3 days away.

2010-03-30T16:38:00.000-05:00

Since I can't even stand viewing my own blog because of all the crap spam messages, I am sure you can understand why I haven't been very active. However, in light of the Houston Major Zone this weekend, it would seem very wrong of me not to post something new. Unfortunately, since this will be the second straight year that I won't be involved at all with the tournament, I really don't have any predictions or comments to make other than from what I can tell entries were down by a decent amount compared to last year. Is it the impact of the surprise USTA rating fiasco? The $33 entry fee? Houston's facilities compared to other Texas cities? We may never know.

Deadlines are here for Abilene & Mabry

2010-01-24T21:56:00.002-06:00

Late reminder. Deadline for Mabry is tonight (200 pointer in San Antonio, starts Feb. 5). Deadline for Abilene Major Zone is tomorrow night (400 pointer, also starts Feb. 5). Abilene probably a worthwhile trip for any of the freshly-bumped-up players who want the best shot at getting some hefty next level points. All the major zone gets a lot tougher competition-wise after this one.

So long 2009. So long USTA participation....

2009-12-28T11:17:00.002-06:00

Maybe that is a bit of an overstatement. We shall see. I for one don't see the 3.0 to 3.5, 3.5 to 4.0, 4.0 to 4.5, and 4.5 to 5.0 (oh wait, there weren't any) bump-ups eagerly signing up for events in 2010. Will the 2009 30th-ranked 4.0 want to drive 200 miles to get spanked by the top 4.5 guys who stayed put? I doubt it. Will a team of 4.0s who couldn't win their division in league play be excited about the prospect of getting humiliated by the latest edition of the Freeman All-Star team. I doubt that too. But I bet the 41st ranked 4.0 from 2009 who was left at 4.0 for 2010 is pretty darn excited. That guy only has Kris (I know how to game the system to get bumped down a year after making Master's Cup) Knutson between himself and 4.0 domination. Obviously I am a bit skeptical of the USTA's recent move. Maybe it will be a good thing. Typically, these type of decisions made by bureaucrats at the National level never achieve the polyannish objectives they envision. In this case, it must have been to level out the competitive landscape for league competition, tournament players be damned.

Other than that, I don't really know what to expect or look forward to in 2010. Maybe instead of seeing the departure of unexpectedly bumped players, we will see the return of players that have been missing from the circuit the past couple of years. Lots of Houston die-hards that in the past played every event no matter how far away seem to have faded from the scene. Work, Family, Decline of Game, Bad Economy - who knows the reason, but I don't see a lot of the faces around Houston courts (let alone at tournaments) that I used to consider permanent fixtures on the scene. Kinda hard to talk and/or joke about you if you are not out there playing. Let's hope we see everyone back on the court in 2010 and that unexpectedly USTA got it right and somehow tournament tennis is a more enjoyable experience for everyone in the new year.

See you on the courts.

Guess 4.0 Draws were too big....

2009-12-03T08:02:00.002-06:00

....that's the only reason I can see for bumping up a ton of 4.0s and pretty much leaving everyone at 4.5 untouched. Too bad, cause it is the 5.0 draws that really suffer from lack of players. The reality is we are thinking like tournament players and I am sure this "mass" re-rating has everything to do with league play. If it is true that 40 of the top 50 4.0s were bumped up, it seems ridiculous that not even 5 of the top 10 4.5s were not bumped up. USTA has done a lot of bone-headed things the past few years, yet it appears that overall USTA tennis participation continues to rise. It will be interesting to see if a backlash against the new ratings and the ridiculous level of entry fees have an adverse impact in 2010.

Bring in the scrubs...

2009-11-10T10:06:00.002-06:00

Is there a USTA NTRP players' strike that I am not aware of? I ask cause I can't for the life of me understand why I see a bunch of names in the draws for the Master's Cup in Austin that should not be there. 4 of the 8 qualifiers for 5.0 are not in the draw. Maybe that should not be a surprise given the sad state of 5.0 tournament tennis in general. 4.5's - No Tim Green and no David Luetke. No Tim is a surprise cause I figured he would want to add this title to his collection before heading back up to 5.0 next year. Nothing else to add here really, as far as Houston's presense at the event it is a shame as John Patch, Odion Dibua, and Tim Green are out and only Reggie Black is in. Odion is the only guy I felt could have given Reader a run for his money, so Reader I hope I am not jinxing you by saying it should now be your event to lose. You are technically from Houston so I hope you do win it. 4.5s, I will still go with Juan Dekruyff to win it as he, like Tim, will be bumped up to 5.0 for the new year. As always good luck to all that are playing.

Master...Master...All I see or hear is Master...

2009-10-19T16:46:00.003-05:00

I think I have that lyric right, but it's probably been a decade since I heard that song. Anyway, that's my lame segway into the year end Master's Cup. Start with 5.0: Here are your 8 qualifiers - John Patch, Henry Manalo, Thomas Reader, Odion Dibua, Jason Gound, John McDonough, Henry Akono, and Phillip Zavala. I will call it a coin toss between Reader and Dibua to take the title. Dibua can physically destroy anyone. Reader is very skilled and crafty and it depends how much he cares whether he wins this event. If he wants to win this title then I can only see Dibua preventing him from getting it. I will pull for Reader cause just maybe it will make him hate me less.

In the 4.5s, your final 8 are: Tim Green, Jochen Moser, Alejandro Sanchez, David Luetke, Scott Sevin, Juan Dekruyff, Ben Hawkins, and Guillermo Martin Del Campo. I will look for the winner to come from either Green or Dekruyff. Both are being moved up to 5.0 at year end so that should mean Tim will want to win this title since I believe it is one he does not already hold. In Juan's case, it should mean that he will play right-handed when it matters instead of toying with his opponents by beating them with his off hand. If Juan shows for all matches he would be my pick to win.

In the 4.0s, I really have only heard of Ruben Vargas from the top eight so I guess I will go with him.

It's all my fault...

2009-10-06T12:46:00.002-05:00

That's what someone keeps posting anyway. Look I don't care whether you treat each with utmost respect or act like kids and cut each other down. My policy is that if I see people being attacked on very personal, 100% non-tennis related levels, I will remove it. Plus I am trying to be at least a bit PC by removing as much of the homophobic comments as I can. But I do not have the time nor do I have the interest to police every comment as it is posted. In that case, I would just start requiring registration again. If the conversations on this blog bother you, then please just don't come here.

With that out of the way, congrats to Fall Fest winners and I guess talk should now turn to Master's Cup in Austin with a little conversation thrown Lost Forest's way. I believe deadline for Lost Forest is October 9th. That might be the last one for the year here in Houston, so make the most of it.

Let the games begin....

2009-09-18T22:31:00.002-05:00

You can go ahead and attack me now but due to 80% poll response in favor of anonymous posting, I have reinstated it. We have gone too long without some fool recklessly insulting Kallus, Schmucker, Foad, Sarosh, LOTS, etc. I will try to be more diligent with regard to policing the posts. Let's see if we can make this work cause this blog basically died a couple months back when we tried to allow only registered users. No one registered cause apparently no one has anything to say unless they can say it anonymously. Feel free to click on some ads while you are between anonymous rants. Oh yeah, and good luck at Copperfield to those participating. Throw down a prediction or two if you feel so inclined. My picks for 4.5, either Wayne Morgan or Dave McMullan.

Is there anyone still playing tennis?

2009-09-09T17:31:00.003-05:00

Cause you sure aren't talking about it. Sectionals coming up soon. Do you even care? Is this really better than allowing anonymous posting? Say something. Seriously, say something.

HTTS 2.0 - Weekend Preview

2009-07-21T09:18:00.002-05:00

I am still on the fence about this new era of Houston Tourney Tennis Scene but I will give it time. If nothing else, profanity is down by 100%. As far as tennis this weekend, pretty busy. Start with the smaller, closer to home event, Conroe. 4.5 doubles is stacked with strong talent for a tourney this small. Must be some type of pre-playoffs/sectionals league practice. As far as singles, I will go with Green winning over Abshire in the finals.

Moving up I-45 to to Fort Worth, one thing is obvious...the bottom of that 4.5 draw is much more stacked than the top half, with Moser, Cherry, Rivera, and Schmucker all in the bottom mix. Right now, I look for Luedtke to make it throught the top (feel free to prove me wrong Scott Sevin), and either Rivera or Cherry to take the bottom. Probably Cherry. The fact that 3rd sets will likely not be played could definitely keep the older guys like Luedtke and Rivera in the mix longer than you think, but I will go with Cherry to take the title.

5.0 Round robin - I will go with Mcdonough if the guy is really back to playing tennis again. He used to be pretty solid if not somewhat theatrical on the courts.

Have fun if you are playing and if you want this blog to flourish, please register even if under a vague user-name so that we can make sure this blog achieves more than a means for Reader and Dekruyff to avoid having to go to Facebook to catch up with each other every day. Just joking, at least you guys are posting.

Restart...

2009-07-09T23:50:00.002-05:00

Due to intense pressure and the threats of legal action, the previous posting and resulting message stream was removed. I will likely do one of two things. 1) Require registration for posting, i.e. no more anonymous posting, or 2) just delete the blog entirely and get on with my life and let you guys get on with yours. I get very little out of doing this. I provide this forum cause I figured those of you that play tournaments might actually make it informative or entertaining. So far I have been dead wrong. Up to you if you want it to keep going.

Back on tourney news, I predict Alejandro Sanchez wins 4.5 singles.

Juneteenth....Time for the Chase.

2009-06-23T16:29:00.002-05:00

Hey, with my focus currently on Wimbledon, I will let you guys have at it with regard to the all-important (sarcastic) Juneteenth event this weekend. In my past, I had a policy of "NO Consolation = No Play Tourney", so I have never been a big fan of this event. Obviously, the biggest question this weekend will be whether or not a real person by the name of Patrick Chase shows up at Juneteenth as a spectator. I am in the camp that says no he will not as he does not exist other than in the typings of a wayward tennis player.

There is a yellow rose in Texas...

2009-06-08T12:49:00.004-05:00

I think that lyric has something to do with Tyler. If not, too bad. Looks like more of the cast of regulars will be back in action this next tournament. The heat should finally be enough of a factor to impact the outcome of matches so that should throw some wrinkles into things. I am not going to bother making any predictions this time around, other than there will be at least one rain shower during the event, most likely on Friday or early morning Saturday. No, I am not getting into meteorology. Its based on what seemed to happen every time I went to that tournament in years passed. Remember to BYOB, it is Tyler after all.

And Now For Something Completely Different....

2009-06-03T10:30:00.002-05:00

Not really, but I always liked that line from Monty Python, back in the good ole days. Before we turn to Tyler talk in a week or so, I think we should focus our efforts and the power of this blog (as if) to make this Green/Moser match happen. Not that there is any bad blood between the two or that the matchup is so compelling it would be a travesty for it not to happen, but just because. There are other matchups I would like to see happen. How about another Schmucker/Knutson showdown? Those are always tight.

Waco Time 2009

2009-05-21T15:06:00.002-05:00

Time to start talking up Waco. 5.0, why do you guys even bother? 4.5, 33 guys signed up so that's not too bad. Early predictions, Alejandro Sanchez and Tim Green should be favorites. Once again, there are some names missing from the list that surprise me. Looks like at least a couple of the Houston die-hard tennis junkies have finally gotten tired of being non-factors at these tournaments. All good things eventually run their course. How bout that Federer? And dont' tell me about the altitude or that Nadal was tired and maybe even injured. Don't think Fed will win the French but with him and Novak both given Nadal trouble recently and Murray also playing well, this could be finally be an interesting French Open. What does that have to do with Waco? I think they overlap on the schedule. Best of the Best and the Texas Wanna-Be's all going at it over the same weekend.

Time to get out and work on that Coppertone...CORRECTION - Make that Copperfield tan.

2009-05-11T11:50:00.002-05:00

Copperfield time. From the size and quality of the 4.5 draw it looks like this event is much more deservant of MZ status than Corpus was, but so it goes. It seems like a distant memory now, but there was actually a time when the 5.0 draw at this tourney made. Alas, no more. But that just means, the 4.5 guys get to welcome John Patch as a likely full time 4.5 player for the rest of the year. In singles, I will make an early call that Schmucker, Morgan, Kent, and Martinez will be in the mix late in the draw. Can't really call a winner, but would say Kent has a pretty good shot as this is his homecourt tourney. 4.5 doubles? Wow. The Dibuas going against each other for a change should make for an exciting match if their teams should meet. Would have liked to see a Dubuas vs. Dugas showdown, but this will do.

WindFest 2009

2009-04-27T08:06:00.002-05:00

Can you hear them winds a blowing? Do you like it? Well, then Corpus is just the tournament for you. Not going to comment much on this one. My early pick for 4.5 winner is Alejandro Sanchez. Moser should make it to semis and maybe even the finals if he comes to net with his major wing span. I am probably short changing someone but I will wait til there is a draw before I go any further. As far as 5.0, I cannot call it. 50/50 toss-up and a shame too because someone will be driving 235 miles to turn around and come home with 1 point. 5.0 has never had much of a draw down in Corpus but this one takes the cake. Only comparable draw I can think of was the Abiline draw of a few years back where Schmucker played against some other guy from Houston in a ABILENE FINAL played in Houston. I assume Reggie and John will at least be making the drive down to Corpus. Anyway, I am sure I will post again when there is an actual draw.

Talk Some More...Gallery Furniture Open Really Will Take Your Money...And Hopefully Give You A T-Shirt That Is Not Too Crappy.

2009-04-09T10:04:00.002-05:00

Hit 200 comments so time for fresh post.

Will keep it short. If you like doubles, the 4.5 draw is stacked like mad. Almost every first round match will be interesting. Really good draw. Coin toss as to who emerges the winner.

4.5 Singles - Sticking with Sanchez as winner, though this Lacy guy is getting talked up pretty strong here on the blog.

Open - I will also go with Euvgeny. The guy went deep in qualifying at River Oaks 2 years ago and played qualifying for the U.S. Clay Courts two years ago. He is strong.

5.0 - This may be the least interesting 5.0 draw in years. 5.0 as a level is unfortunately withering away to nothing. Maybe guys like Green will creep back up there if they do not have strong showings at 4.5 this weekend. There are about 10 guys in 4.5 that really should be playing 5.0. Please don't get started on defending your 4.5 status. Your arguments are weak.

Weather - Looks pretty good . At least for Friday. Doesn't look like heat will be much of a factor, but you never know.

Good luck to everyone.

Now you can start talking...

2009-04-02T10:07:00.002-05:00

Until we get the actual draws, here is some fodder for discussion. This is my early list of guys to watch in 4.5 at the Gallery, in alphabetical order:

Pat Abshire - drops down after a few year run at 5.0's, mini-Agassi, no particular weapons but one hell of a grinder.

Sarosh Ahmed - good strokes, way too cocky, and armed with the deadliest line-calling in Houston.

Omon Dibua - tennis monster, can't get any ball past this guy when he is at the net, nasty serve too.

Jose Garcia - have heard good things about this guy from the San Antonio MZ in February, probably another strong former junior knocking off the dust.

Tim "Henman" Green - best serve and volleyer in Houston, along with Benson, also the best at working the system...probably has already declared himself the winner.

Wayne Morgan - Already won one MZ this year, strong in 2008 but went down meekly to Moser at Lost Forest in October

Jochen Moser - The Terminator, massive topspin forehand, and will take your head off if you drop your guard at the net. Can he handle so many matches in one weekend?

Alejandro Sanchez - Already won a MZ this year...at 5.0...beating Reader...without much trouble. Keep an eye on this one.

Also good to see that most of the cast of regulars are turning out as well, resulting in a rather decent draw size. Lots of names I don't recognize so please feel free to point out the sandbaggers, ringers, and dark horses that others need to be aware of.

Back later with some 5.0 talk. All 10 words of it.

Journeyman

Too Soon for Gallery Talk

2009-03-17T15:52:00.002-05:00

It's too soon for me to start making any Gallery 2009 comments but that last stream is definitely way too long now. I will just leave you guys with this cause I thought it was pretty cool. We don't exactly get a ton of visits to this blog but over the last week we did have people log in from 11 different states and from 3 countries outside of the US, including India. Not bad for a site that spends all its time bashing the same 2 people and praising 1 guy from San Antonio who spends all his time threatening the rest of us. Where is the world headed?

Enuff! San Antonio Time

2009-02-19T19:02:00.002-06:00

Hey. I haven't had a chance to dig into the San Antonio major this weekend, if I do I will come back with predictions. I will say this. I do not pick Mario Gloria to win 4.5. I guess that is a start. Main point of the new post is just to refresh the comment string and give LOTS and the new-to-the-scene-and-I-for-one-am-not-very-impressed-yet GOT a fresh thread for slamming each other. Good luck to you crazy fools still spending your loot to fund USTA's misguided tournament efforts. I would join you if I could.

Follow Up (10 minutes later): Just looked at the draws, I guess Mario Gloria is the favorite to win 4.5. Scott Sevin the #1 seed...w0w, not a high point for the SA tournament. I have always thought of him as the Kallus of Austin. Plays a ton of tournaments, decent guy to talk to off the courts, can hang with lesser players, but definitely not one to fear in 4.5s. Maybe I am wrong. Here is a chance to prove it cause losing in straight sets to Moser in Abilene didn't help Scott's case. 5.0 - Congrats Reader on another 5.0 victory. Maybe Sanchez can breathe some new life into 5.0. 4.0 - at least the draw is big, 65 players, so there is a winner in there somewhere.

Has the tennis year started? Really? I hadn't noticed.

2009-01-30T10:05:00.002-06:00

It is hard to believe that Mabry is this weekend. This tournament used to be a pretty big deal. I guess it still is for seniors (major zone) but the 400, 200, 100 point tournament system has weakened its appeal as has the hit-or-miss weather this time of year. 16 draw for singles in 4.5 compared to 32 draws in years past. Did 5.0 even make? Did they even offer it? Berry Creek, disappointing participation. Abilene? If I saw it correctly, there were 9 guys signed up for 4.5 and only 3 for 5.0. Things are definitely amiss on the USTA tourney scene. Where are the die-hard regulars that sign up for every tournament? Kallus, you out there? Did you finally throw in the towel? Schmucker, did you decide to save the tourney fees and the hassle that comes with not showing up? Ansari is still at it, so 4.0 has that going for it? Where is the 4.0 graduating class of 2007 (Kern, Warren, etc.) that was so highly talked-up last year but never showed up at events. There is going to be a lot less to talk about this year if things continue the way they have started. I guess the MZ in San Antonio will be the first true test of player commitment this year. Maybe more guys are just planning to play closer to home, so let's see how things go at Lost Forest. I assume the Dugas brothers will play there so it will be interesting to see how many sh*t-talkers accept their challenge and come out to take them down. I wish them well cause it is good to see some new voices being expressed here. Til Later. JM

News Flash to Texas Tournaments...US in economic recession!

2009-01-06T23:00:00.002-06:00

Any one else get their USTA book/schedule for 2009 and notice that nearly every tournament in the state raised their entry fee by at least $3 - $5? Please correct me if I am wrong, but would this not seem a strange time for tournaments to be looking to squeeze out extra money from entrants? What makes even less sense is that it is the smaller local type tournaments that will only draw a handful of players for each level anyway that are asking the most. $33 to participate in a draw of 5 people at the nearly-monthly Missouri City events at the oh-so-lovely craphole that is Lee LeClear? Please don't hate me but I think I will pass. And don't get me started on the price to play doubles. $31 bucks to get in a 100 point tourney and I only get 1 guaranteed match? Well that t-shirt better be made out of silk, or in Lord of the Strings case, hemp (just joking LOTS, we all love you...even if you are out to kick each and every one of our asses on and off the court). Anyway, it seems like tournament tennis here in Texas keeps on taking one turn for the worse after another and I honestly don't think the players are to blame. If you ask me, $25 tops for singles entry and $20 per player max for doubles. And don't force me to sign up via the internet and then charge me an extra $3 for making your job easier, Mr. Tournament Director. How's that for kicking off the New Year. If you are bored and have money to burn, don't forget Mabry is coming up shortly for the 200 point, likes-to-travel crowd or you can just blow a wad of cash out at Lee LeClear at the 100 pointer I ranted about earlier. I didn't get enough of a response to the idea of a challenge ladder or one day Houston Tourney Tennis Scene tournament so I will drop the idea for the time being. Now get to hitting.

Merry Christmas 2008!

2008-12-24T11:22:00.002-06:00

Happy Holidays to all, 3.0 to Open. I hope you all get massive forehands and deadly kickspin second serves under your trees. To some I wish modesty, to others the confidence they lack. To some a bit better eyesight when it comes to line calls, to others a bit more focus when it comes to external distractions (you know who you are). Here's hoping that lower gas prices can offset the bad economy and keep everyone showing up at tournaments in 2009. I would wish "kindness onto others" for all the posters at this blog, but even though you get mean spirited quite often, you are never boring so I guess we can all live with you just the way you are...for now.

Oh yeah, and there is a tournament in Dallas this weekend for the one guy who cares. Good luck.

HTTS Tourney, League, Challenge Ladder, etc.

2008-12-09T16:44:00.002-06:00

Hey, I will throw this at you guys here in Houston and see what you think. Would anyone be interested in any form of organized competition associated with this website to let some of you guys basically put your money where your mouth is? Especially since there will not be much other organized tennis between here and the Spring. Just a thought. I don't know how committed I am to the idea anyway cause it would require me to come out from behind my veil of secrecy. If we did anything I can tell you this, no entries submitted in the name of Anonymous would be accepted. Stew it over, let me know what you think. Honestly, I really just needed something to talk about to justify a new discussion stream and this is all I could come up with.

Countdown to 2009...I can already here those Abilene winds a blowing.

2008-11-15T12:52:00.002-06:00

Well, 2008 is all but in the bag now. Interesting to see if the weak economy has any impact on tournament draw sizes next year. Perhaps the cheaper price of gasoline will more than offset the continued upward spiral in entry fees. To me, it seemed that the tournament scene lost a lot of steam around the time that Ike came through and screwed up Sectionals. The Sectionals makeup was largely a joke with so many players not being able to make it, but I still am glad USTA rescheduled and did not cancel. I also think it was the right thing to postpone it instead of playing it as scheduled and giving a big F U to all of the Houston and coastal players who had much bigger things to be worrying about that weekend.

Maybe its because I did not personally play in many tournaments this year, but I felt that this was one of the less exciting years we have had here in Texas as far as tournaments tennis is concerned. Please feel free to disagree if you felt otherwise. I think not having the Master's Cup count towards qualifying next year may help since that will open it up a bit and give more people a chance at getting the needed points. Plus I think USTA needs to consider 2 more things: 1) instituting ranking point penalties for no-shows, and 2) a reworking of consolation in major zones to make them more meaningful and increase consolation participation in the smaller draws so as 5.0. In terms of penalties for no-shows, I think each player should be given 1 major zone no show without penalty and after that, each major you sign up for and do not show up, the 0 points from that event will count as one of your five countable results for the year. That would likely prevent a few of the guys we know have a history of signing up and never showing up from screwing up seeding at tournaments, etc. For instance, sign up for all 8 majors and only bother going to 4 of them, well guess what you will end up with three 0's and two other results for your final total. As far as consolation, I think that, there should also be a penalty such as points being deducted from qualifying (for master's cup and year end ranking) totals for not bothering to play consolation. For instance, whatever the point value of a consolation match (30 in majors? maybe its 25, I can't remember right now) could be deducted for every tournament in which you are in consolation but decide not to stick around and play. Loss in the 1st round of 3 major zones and decide not to play consolation, well guess what, you will have 90 ranking points deducted from your total ranking points (best 5 total). This would force the top guys and anyone else who cares about their ranking from thinking that consolation is a waste of their time so they will just go home. Open, 5.0 and to a lesser extent, 4.5 are horrible in terms of consolation participation. This could fix that. Anyway, those are just some thoughts I have, it's not like I am exactly commissioner of tennis or anything.

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

2008-10-27T23:34:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-10-14T15:13:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-10-13T17:56:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-10-08T03:28:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-02T00:05:00.002-05:00

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.

Sights Set On Sectionals....Maybe

2008-09-09T13:18:00.002-05:00

It is hard to be very excited about the prospect of Sectionals with a hurricane forecast to hit the coast and more than likely drop rain down on Alamo Town but like it or not, sectionals will take place this weekend. Let's start off with the 4.5s. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure I was seeing the right draw because you would think Sectionals would boast the strongest or at least 2nd strongest draw (next to Gallery, aka "The Coke") of the year but that will not be the case. No Alfonso is pretty much the equivalent of no Nadal at the French Open....meaning someone will win this tournament who really doesn't deserve to be Sectional's Champion. And it does look to be a rather wide open draw, especially in the top half. There is probably a dark horse in there I have not heard of, but from the names I know, I do not see a winner coming from this half. From the players listed in this half, I would have to go with Yien Zheng to steady, backboard his way to the finals. Bottom half at least has some degree of fire power with #2 Alejandro Sanches joined by non-seeds Jason Kern, Juan Dekruyff (righty or lefty this time?, who knows), Greg Schmucker (if he has been hitting and if he bothers to show) and Guillermo Del Campo (who is in a rather tough quarter). Haven't seen much of Casas this year so don't know how he has been hitting but I have no doubt he will show up with his usual abundance of flair, gamemanship, and outright bad line calls, so he could always be a factor up to the semis. Taking a wild stab at it, I will go with Alejandro to win over Yien in straight sets in the finals. Though I think this tournament rightfully belongs to Alfonso Rodriguez so I hope he has a good reason for missing it.

5.0s - Wow. Another massive draw. 13 guys this time. I hope the winner can still walk on Monday after all that tennis. How about Brian Smith over Reader in the finals in a repeat of the "The Coke" finals. Also, look for an exciting semi between Amit Garg and Smith in another repeated matchup from "The Coke". Where are you Dibuas? A Dibua or two thrown in the mix would have added a little extra excitement, but oh well, it is what it is. At this point, I am starting to develop more of an interest in 4.0 than 5.0....

But not enough to bother looking at the draw and make a prediction or two. 128 Draw and probably 120 names I have never heard of. Outside my comfort zone to comment.

Open - I wish I knew these guys well enought to comment. Adrian Valdez is always a favorite, as are the Jejede ( I am sure that is misspelled) brothers and that Brian Wooten guy if he plays. Of course, Brian Smith could have also been a factor in Open. Maybe next year he will decide to give these guys a run for their money and let Reader have control of the 5.0s, with a still solid Tim Green nipping at his heels.

Here's to hoping all you guys get the chance to play, and play real tennis at that, not the 2-2, No-add BS that I am sure is already being planned.

Is there anybody out there?

2008-08-26T15:52:00.002-05:00

I think that comes from a Pink Floyd song on the great album The Wall. More importantly, it seems a fair question in regard to this weekend's tournaments. Where the hell is everyone? 5.0 draw in Austin, a joke. 4.5, not much better, 14 guys is the smallest I can remember it ever being. Beaumont, hell 4.5 didn't even make last I checked, let alone 5.0. Where the hell are Kallus and Schmucker and the usual cast of guys who run like made to lesser tournaments (200 pointers) in search of the easy points? At least the 4.0 draws are still well populated....by a cast of guys I know absolutely nothing about so I can't even comment on the draws. I know Sectionals will be the normal draw sizes but I am really surprised by the vacuum of tennis right now. I would love to hear your thoughts on whether you think it is just a fluke or if tournaments other than the 8 major zones and the Master's Cup are the casualty of the point system that really only recognizes results from those bigger events unlike the old system where head-to-heads mattered regardless of the size of tourney and players were also required to play at least 2 OTHER tournaments to qualify for a ranking.

2008 4.0 Major Zone Winners & Finalists

2008-08-06T10:30:00.003-05:00

Abiline - Winner: Tuyen Nguyen Runner Up: Bo Bassett
SAPTA - Winner: Fernando Ontiveros Runner Up: James Murray
Gallery - Winner: Roberto Narajos Runner Up: Matthew Schlensker
Corpus - Winner: Ismael Dutchover Runner Up: Scott Flores
Waco - Winner: Forrest Feuille Runner Up: William McKinney
Tyler - Winner: Ismael Dutchover Runner Up: Tuyen Nguyen
Alamo - Winner: Anthony Jones Runner Up: James Murray
FW - Winner: Forrest Feuille Runner Up: James Murray

Two things: #1 Obviously a bit more diversity on the winners list without Jason Kern running all over the 4.0's like he did last year

#2 Where the hell is Foad? Protest to stay down at 4.0 and not make one final? What is up with that?

2008 4.5 Major Zone Winners and Finalists

2008-08-06T10:20:00.003-05:00

Abiline - Winner: John Trautmann Runner Up: Adam Cherry
SAPTA - Winner: Alfonso Rodriguez Runner Up: Jacob Casas
Gallery - Winner: Alfonso Rodriguez Runner Up: Leonardo Solis
Corpus - Winner: Alfonso Rodriguez Runner Up: Alejandro Sanchez
Waco - Winner: Alfonso Rodriguez Runner Up: Alejandro Sanchez
Tyler - Winner: Ben Sticker Runner Up: Dustin Viktorin
Alamo - Winner: Brent Gruno Runner Up: Ben Hawkins
FW - Winner: Wesley Longacre Runner Up: Dustin Viktorin

Is it just me, or is it pretty obvious that Alfonso did not play Tyler, Alamo City, or Fort Worth. Ben Sticker? Wesley Longacre? Who the hell are these guys? I am sure they are great players, but not exactly fixtures in the Texas tournament scene. As far as Alfonso, he has not lost a match this year at 4.5 and beat Tim Green rather easily in 5.0 at Alamo City. I would have to put him right behind Brian Smith and Thomas Reader as third best LEVELS (not open) player in the state as I would go with him to have won the four 5.0 majors that Green won had Alfonso played those tournaments at 5.0. Again, just my opinion and not meant as a slight to Tim who is a really strong player. Alfonso is just better. Just imagine how it must feel for Federer to deal with the fact that Nadal is just better than him now.

2008 5.0 Major Zone Winners & Finalists

2008-08-06T10:06:00.004-05:00

With only Sectionals and Master's Cup left to go, I thought I would provide a rundown of winners and finalists at the 5.0, 4.5, and 4.0 levels, starting with the 5.0's.

Abilene - Winner: Tim Green Runner Up: Jason Gound
SAPTA - Winner: Thomas Reader Runner Up: Reggie Black
Gallery - Winner: Brian Smith Runner Up: Thomas Reader
Corpus - Winner: Tim Green Runner Up: Joe Schornick
Waco - Winner: Thomas Reader Runner Up: Jason Gound
Tyler - Winner: Tim Green Runner Up: Jason Gound
Alamo - Winner: Brian Smith Runner Up: Thomas Reader
FW - Winner: Tim Green Runner Up: Reggie Black

Of interest, only Brian Smith has beaten Thomas Reader this year and Tim Green has not won any major zone in which either Reader or Smith has played, so though he has won 4 major zones, he would rightfully have to be place third behind Smith and Reader even though he has them on points. Just my opinion.

Yee-Hawhhhh! Round 'em up for Fort Worth.

2008-07-22T15:53:00.002-05:00

You wanted a new thread, you got a new thread. Much like the Tyler draw, the Fort Worth 4.5 draw lacks alot of the star fire power. I would honestly have to say at this point I would think the winner will be an unseeded, unknown player. I can't see JD winning and I haven't seen enough of Yien to be convinced he can take a major either, though his backboard style can definitely wear an opponent down in the Fort Worth heat, if the Heat Index rule is not in effect. I hate that rule, and honestly it is the reason that I do not play Fort Worth anymore. If you can't play 3 regular sets in the heat, then stick to your cozy Thursday night league if you ask me. The only seed that I could actually see winning this thing would be Adam Cherry. He is a poor man's Jason Gound and can stay out there all day with his consistent round house shots and "gladiator" never say die attitude.

5.0 should be easy. If Tim Green does not win this one, then he probably is tanking. I hope he does win this, I know he has done well there in the past, though he is not much of a heat warrior. Doesn't really matter when you can count a draw size on your hands and have 2 fingers left over (long way of saying 8 man draw).

Further south, Conroe actually has one of the strongest 4.5 draws it has had in quite some time. Schmucker and Leach should both be at the top of the favorites list. Not sure why Chris picked this drive for 100 points instead of Fort Worth's 400, but to each his own. Good luck to both of those guys at Conroe and to everyone else playing this weekend. Remember to wear lots of sunscreen and try to enjoy the cramping.

I almost forgot, the 4.0 draws....nah, I didn't forget.

Ready to Sweat?

2008-07-08T09:25:00.003-05:00

Alamo City just a few days away. A bit of a shift this time around as Master of 4.5 Alfonso Rodriguez steps up to take on the 5.0 crowd, followed by fellow 4.5 Yien Zheng. Zheng will probably make it to the 2nd round and then get a rude send off by Brian Smith. Rodriguez will get a chance to prove his 3 set victory over Tim in 2005 (?) was not a fluke. I think he takes it but I do not see him as a sure thing in that match. I hope he does win the match because a Reader/Rodriguez match up would be extremely compelling. That one I would have to call a push as I have no idea who would emerge as both are very strong players. If you look at how Rodriguez has dominated Trautman this year it is hard to believe that he will not be able to hang with Reader, but I do not mind being wrong as Reader is also a tremendous player. Dibua should face Smith in the other semi and I would definitely have to go with Smith unless he has a problem playing in hot conditions. He seems fit, so probably not. After taking that one, I would assume he then wins the tournament. I wonder how shocked everyone would be, if Alfonso would somehow emerge champion. I can't say that it cannot happen.

4.5s, no Alfonso means that Trautman will have no reason not to show up and play, especially since he lives in San Antonio. Either Juan Dekruyff or Ben Hawkins might be able to give him trouble in the top half, especially Juan, but I think there is just a great a chance that Juan doesn't even show up for the tournament. If he does, watch out for him, he is a very interesting player. I do not know this Gruno guy that is being highly touted. If he can beat Alejandro in the 1st round then he definitely has the potential to take the tournament. If Alejandro takes it, I would pick him to win the entire tournament. A 2nd round match up between Anthony Tatu and Kris Knutson would be an interesting one to witness, especially 2nd match of the day. Should be a war of attrition, though not likely an exhibition of strong fundamental tennis strokes.

As always, I have no opinion on either Open or 4.0. Please fill in the blanks in those draws if you would be so kind.

To all the players with a shot at winner their draws, please don't go crazy on the free beer...you know who you are.

Remember The Alamo!....City MZ Deadline.

2008-06-26T17:07:00.003-05:00

Last string was getting really long (120+), so time to start fresh. Congrats to Tyler Champs, you know who you are, even if I haven't heard of some of you. To those participating in Al Edwards, have fun, but not much too talk about given the small draws. Reggie wins 5.0 and either Halm or Morales win 4.5. Done.

More importantly, deadline for Alamo City is Sunday, June 29, so remember to sign up. Please feel free to take the Dinker Challenge and sign up for the 5.0 draw. If you are a glutton for the punishment that 12 man singles and 3 team doubles draws represent (sarcastic), sign up for both events. More seriously and Dinker's comments aside, it would be great to see more guys playing 5.0, thus producing more interesting draws and the prospect of a true weekend's worth of tennis. Even better, if you do sign up for 5.0 and lose, why not actually stick around and play your consolation match for a change. That might also inspire some of the guys from 4.5 who are willing to give 5.0 a try, but know they may very well lose in the 1st round, the prospect of getting at least a couple of matches under their belt.

Finally, only 2nd round of Wimbledon and both Djokovic and Roddick are already gone. Time to pull for Safin. Maybe Alfonso will end up dropping a match here in Texas before the season is done....though I dont' see who could pull it off.

Stumped on Tyler.

2008-06-18T15:28:00.003-05:00

Well, with the draws out, the only thing I feel confident on predicting is that it will likely rain at least once over the 3 days. Other than that, 4.5 is about as open of a field as I have seen this year with no Rodriguez, Sanchez, Trautman, etc. and Schmucker having already pre-announced the customary no-show default. Zheng is solid and can stand the heat. Leach has to be the hometown favorite and has won this event before. Griggs has won major zones in the past. Luedtke is a pomposs a** but he is a very crafty, solid player. Knuston can definitely annoy his way to the finals. JD Miles can go far if his game is on. Goldberg, never say never, he tries harder than anyone else on the court. All these guys are solid but I would have to think Jason Cooney actually has the best shot if he has been playing recently. Let's go with Cooney vs. Zheng in the finals, with Cooney winning. With Leach as honorable mention as the 2nd favorite from the bottom half. Kallus, sorry you did not draw Bye as your 1st round opponent this time. Hopefully Chris will go easy on you and good luck in consolation, it is your's to lose.

5.0 - Well, at least the draw made. You got your Jason Gound and you got your Tim Green, in opposite halves respectively. Lets go with Jason over Tim in a tough 3 setter. If it goes the other way, it will not be a shock either. Of course, there could definitely be a guest champion among the couple of unknown guys in the draw.

4.0 - ZZZZZZZZ. I'm sorry, I dozed off. What were we talking about?

Anyway, good luck to everyone and here's hoping you get your $80 in gas money's worth of tennis out of the weekend.

Time for Tyler Talk

2008-06-12T12:45:00.002-05:00

I will wait for the draws to come out before making any of my worthless Tyler predictions. I can say that I am confident that Alfonso Rodriguez will not win 4.5 this time around. Remember back in early spring, when every other post was "Sarosh this" and "Sarosh that"? The guy is all but forgotten and Alfonso seems to have emerged as the new 4.5 focal point. Not much else to add right now, but it was time for a new discussion string anyway as the other one had gotten quite lenghtly and had way too much talk of Knutson vs. X. I am obviously to blame as well since I was the one who put up the polls. Someone asked for a Knutson vs. Reader poll but I won't even waste the time on that one cause a poll result of Knutson 1, Reader 39 just seems mean.

Unleash the Waco Heat....

2008-05-29T19:13:00.002-05:00

Wow, lots of good matchups in 4.5 and 5.0. A few 5.0 predictions to start it off. Dibua beats Gound. Dibua beats Green. Reader beats Schornick. Reader beats Manalo. Reader beats Dibua. 5.0 is done.

4.5s - Looks like David Guy decided he is 4.5 to stay, good for you I guess. He will have a tough one early against the mean spirited David Luedkte, ex-coach of the Baylor womens tennis team, who made it to the finals against Dibua last year. If he wins that one, I don't see David beating Alfonso Rodriguez who has been red hot this year. Trautman should actually be thrilled with his draw on paper as he will not have to face Alfonso til the finals so perhaps there will be no sudden early round shoulder injuries this time. He does have Sanchez in the quarters and that should be tough if it happens. I would not expect Knutson to have a chance against Sanchez but Sanchez hates junk and Knutson hits it like he is Fred Sanford himself, plus Knutson has the confidence of beating Solis which I still cannot believe happened.

The real possible upsetter to all this in the 4.5 draw is Juan Dekruyff who is a very, very strong righty who has played ages, 5.0, and Open but also likes dabble in 4.5 as a lefty and still makes it to the finals at Austin tournaments with his off hand. Will be interesting to see how he plays this one. If he really tries and sticks around to the end, he could definitely emerge as the dark horse from the bottom and give Alfonso a run for his money. Otherwise, I would say this tournament will go the way of the last 3 major zones and end up in the hands of Alfonso.

4.0 - There's Foad and a whole bunch of other guys. My guess is that the winner will be someone from the whole bunch of other guys, but if Foad and can somehow pull it off, I guess that is good for Houston, even if a bunch of you guys keep hating on him for some reason.

Good luck to everyone, lets have some fun this week and here hoping you don't cramp!

Next Up, Wacko Waco.

2008-05-20T08:58:00.002-05:00

Congrats to winners of Copperfield, especially last minute sneak-in David Guy, who ended up winning the 4.5 singles. I would have had Guy in my poll and voted for him if he had been in the draw AT THE SAME TIME AS EVERYONE ELSE. But no worries.

Next up Waco, site of the best tennis facility for a major zone in the entire state. Always good tennis up in Waco, and usually good weather to go with it, so let's hope for the best. Call out to all you 5.0 guys to answer lord of the strings and show up so that he doesn't get to take home the 5.0 title as the result of winning a measly 2 matches. Here's hoping for a 16 draw.

Will Alfonso and the valley crew make the drive? It would be a first, but Alfonso might like the idea of running away with all the majors with the exception of Abilene, which really only qualifies on the basis of points not level of competition anyway.

Will this year's crop of 4.0 graduates show up again and do some damage to the 4.5 veterans?

Will Greg Schmucker show up for his 1st non-Houston tournament of the year?

Will Foad's resurgence in 4.0 continue?

Will Brian Smith make the drive, and if so will he play 5.0 or Open?

Just a few of exciting topics to discuss on DAYS OF OUR RECREATIONAL, WANNABE TENNIS LIVES.

Countdown to the Magic Show (Weak David Copperfield Reference)

2008-05-13T14:08:00.002-05:00

You guys are getting chatty again. Yesterday was the biggest post day since the day before the Gallery Furniture (1st time I have not called it the Coke). And really, no is even be that mean either. So good job. It is quite a strong tourney this weekend, especially the 4.5 draw. 4.0 would have been impressive as well if Foad Ansari and Eddie Janek had played this one instead of the exhibition event going on on the other side of town. There should definitely be some good matches this weekend. Not to discount Mike Salinas cause he is a solid player, but if Greg Schmucker wins that match I certainly hope he does show up to play Knutson, assuming again that Knutson wins. Listen to me, I sound like Dinker with all my matter of fact predictions. That being said, I do agree with the poll that Red Benzon should be the favorite to win. I am surprised that he is playing a 4.5 tournament. Guess he wanted to shut some of the people up who are always attacking him on the league blog. Anyway, good luck to him, if the weather cooperates and he can take the wear and tear of multiple matches, he definitely has the game to beat this weekend. 5.0 is what it is and none of the guys who signed up for it should be spoken of poorly. Several of the 4.5 entrants should have joined them in the 5.0 draw. Red Benzon, Herb Morton, Greg Schmucker, David McMullan, to name an obvious few. Like I said, it is what it is. Everyone enjoy and try to lay off the beer until after your singles matches. Doubles players, feel free to drink up all you like cause no one cares. Just joking.

Not Quite Mid-Year Review

2008-05-07T12:59:00.002-05:00

Well someone posted today about how boring the blog has been and I agree. The blog has gotten very boring over the last week or so. See what happens when everyone is kind to each other. Yawn. No surprises in the winners of the 4.5 and 5.0 singles down in Corpus. Never heard of the guy who won the 4.os. Next Major Zone a little more than 3 weeks away up in Waco, home of the best tennis facility of any of the Texas Major Zones. Before that, there is Copperfield locally for those interested. Deadline is May 9. Usually a fun tournament if for no other reason than John Kutrick keeps the keg of beer flowing all weekend long, which is great for those who lose early as well as those who care more about free beer than how they play. With 4 Major Zones come and gone, have there been any major surprises to you guys? Players you would have thought would have a great year in 2008 who so far have not? Players who seem to be on the fade? Players you never heard of that have emerged as forces? Newly bumped 4.5s who have either exceeded or disappointed since moving up from 4.0? Players who seem to have disappeared from the scene? Alfonso Rodgriquez coming back looking like he has spent the last couple of years on the tour? Players you have completely grown tired of talking about?

Can Ya Feel The Wind Already?

2008-04-30T10:45:00.002-05:00

Yep, only a couple of days away from Corpus so time to fire up the discussion again. Starting with 4.5s, you don't have to go far down the draw to find the first compelling potential matchup and that would be a possible 2nd round showdown between Houston's own Greg Schmucker and Kris Knutson. Kris's unique style could be quite a handful if the conditions are on the windy side. If Greg shows I would think he should be able to come out on top if he stays patient. I am aware that Kris has had his number in the past but I believe it has been quite a while since they have last played. Brian Goldberg also will have his hands full with a tough 1st round draw against Leonardo Solis. Hopefully Brian can give him a tough fight but I would have to go with Leonardo. As someone pointed out, Kallus should be able to come out the victor against his 1st round opponent BYE but then will have to face the winner of two local Corpus guys. If there is even a hint of breeze, I am going with the Corpus guy. Bradley Nash, John Griffin, Ruben Vargas, and Richard Patton round out the Houston contigent and all would appear to have winnable 1st round matchups. Not saying they should win, just that the opponent's names should not inspire fear either. I know there will probably be at least 1 unknown and unseeded player who makes his way very deep but looking at the draw as it stands, I would go with Solis and Rodriguez in 1 semis & Sanchez and Casas in the other with Rodriguez taking home his 3rd Major Zone of the Year.

In 5.0, all but 1 of the 7 players are Houston area guys. The only compelling 1st round match up will be between Tim Green and Reggie Black as they both play well in the typical Corpus Conditions. Tim should come through in this one and should then win the tournament over the winner of the match between Herb Morton and Joe Schornick. From what I have heard, Tim has pretty much owned the Corpus tournament in the past at 4.0s, 4.5s, and 5.0s. Look for the domination to continue.

And finally, yes there will be some 4.0s going at it as well. Will Foad be able to break the streak of 1st round Major Zone exits? Will he fight his way through the consolation draw? Will anyone else try to comment on 4.0s since I obviously cant'? We shall see.

What's it take to get a seed these days?

2008-04-23T10:03:00.002-05:00

Looks like final competitor list are up now for Corpus since the seeds are already posted. Right off the bat it stands out that the 5.0s are once again getting screwed because of the small draw sizes. Herb Morton & Reggie Black get the only 2 seeds since there are only 7 players, leaving Tim Green and Joe Schornick out in the cold. Based on his history, Tim Green should be the top seed though I know he does not currently have the points. Does anyone know how many seeds the computer spits out per 8 spots in the draw? Based on the 5.0s it is 2. Based on the 4.5 and 4.0 draws it is only 1 per 8. I think tournament directors need to either be willing to add additional seeds based on knowledge of players or perhaps go to masters-cup round robin format for Major Zone draws of 8 or less. 5.0 tournament tennis is doomed to never grow in terms of draw sizes as long as the draws keep working out this way. 4.5 is a bit better as there are 26 guys signed up and thus 4 seeds. Even here I would say the seeds should be extended to at least 6 to catch a couple of other guys that are ranked right around the top 10 and basically one or two spots behind the #4 seed. This way, those guys at least get one of the 1st round byes and perhaps don't have to waste a full day of vacation to get down to Corpus for a Friday morning match. Maybe I am wrong but it seemed to me that in the past, tournament directors had discretion to increase the number of seeds regardless of the draw size. I don't see what is wrong with having 2 seeds for every 8 spots, meaning there should be 8 seeds for the 4.5s and up to 16 seeds for the 4.0s. In the atp, there are 32 seeds in the Grand Slam draws of 128 so 1 for every 4. Even here at River Oaks, there were 8 seeds for a 32 draw. That is the fair ratio if you ask me.

New Week, New Discussion Thread, Same old crap....

2008-04-14T08:18:00.002-05:00

Since we were past 100 posts again on the last thread I went ahead and started a new one. Still nothing new to talk about other than the approaching deadline for registering for the Corpus Christi Hurricane Tennis Challenge (or Buc Days Major Zone as it is also known). With nothing more to add at the moment, I will turn it over to you guys for a new round of bashing each other...well, more like bashing the same 2 or 3 people over and over again but you know what I mean. Have at it.

You guys bored or what? I am...as you will soon read.

2008-04-07T13:06:00.004-05:00

These are dark times in deed when the talk turns to the rumored outcome of a practice match. Perhaps the start of a new discussion stream can turn the tide. Still nothing to talk of on the tourney scene specifically but it is interesting that it seems we now have some valley guys coming to this blog to supplement the out-of-towners that drop in from Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. All are welcome of course, though only Houston-based opinions should be viewed as having any relevance (Joking...kind of...).

Had the opportunity to catch some of the golf tourney at Redstone this weekend and it amazes me that professional golfers out-earn professional tennis players by something like 5X. There will be well over a 100 golfers between the US and European golf tours that make over $1 million in prize money this year. There will probably be around 10 ATP players that make more than that this year. The 15th place finisher at the Shell golf tournament pocketed $97,000. The WINNER of next week's River Oaks tennis tournament will pocket $63,000. The winner of the Nationwide minor league golf circuit event this weekend won $108,000. The winner of the typical challenger-level tennis event pockets well under $10,000. What makes this so sad to me is that the average professional tennis player probably practice 3 or 4 hours per day (when not in a tournament) and spend 1 - 2 additional hours in the gym. A professional golfer spends his time between tournaments eating and fattening up before the next event. None of them other than Tiger Woods even remotely resembles an athlete. Is it fair to call them athletes? I guess, in the most generous use of the term. Just a random thought but it just really struck me how as a general rule they just look like any other average fat guy off the street wearing a pair of slacks and a short sleeve polo shirt. When you see a professional tennis player at a tournament it is usually pretty damn easy to tell them apart from the average guys there as spectators, even if you have never seen them before or even heard of them. I am thankful that I am not a golfer.

Line Finally Crossed. One of you has just been sent to time-out, so go sit in the corner.

2008-03-28T14:04:00.004-05:00

I didn't think it would ever come to this, but I was finally forced to remove a post because of of someone going a bit too far with their comments. To this point, I have not thought it would be necessary to police everyone's comments before letting them hit the blog but I guess from now on I will have to select the option that allows me to review them first. It's ok to joke around, even to extremes if you ask me, but there have to be limits as to the degree that we take personal attacks. I don't want you guys to start holding back compared to the normal tone of comments but to whoever it was that decided to go that extra step in an effort to be cruel, that was definitely a bit too much, so please try to show some restraint going forward.

Back to the tennis, the discussion was about Alfonso Rodriguez probably taking 4.5 this year and whether or not Freeman would be putting together a 4.5 super-squad and if so will he finally start receiving the abuse that Green/Benson & other uber-captains receive on the Houston League Blog. And we now pick up where we left off.....

Breaking News!....No Sarosh, ticket sales now in jeopardy.

2008-03-20T14:45:00.002-05:00

Chris Leach just posted that Sarosh has pulled out with an ankle injury. A real injury or an unwillness to face up to all the pressure the never-ending hype has likely created? I don't know the answer to that but my guess is it is a combination of both. Congrats to Chris for scaring Sarosh by sounding confident and unafraid. Congrats to those in the top half who now only have Trautman, Sanchez, Rodriguez, Leach, etc. to worry about. Sadly, Dennis Hilsmeier's chances did not improve one bit despite this development.

And the countdown stands at two....

2008-03-19T11:23:00.002-05:00

Time to reload with a fresh discussion stream, especially since that last one just deteriorated into a battle of "yo momma" insults. Poll currently indicates that Quack is the non-seed with the best shot at going far. If you haven't voted, please do, it's about as close as we can come to seeing how many people are visiting the site. Back in December, the polls were usually topping out at around 10 total votes, so 50+ shows that we are starting to get some traction on this blog. I have been blasted in the past for not commenting more on 4.0 or Open, two levels I have admitted I do not know much about. However, there must be someone coming to this site who does. So please feel free and share your opinion on these draws as well.

4 days and counting to Gallery Open

2008-03-17T13:56:00.002-05:00

Time for a new discussion stream. I still have not seen the actual draws but I have read everything you guys have posted. There was no way the seeding in 5.0 would make everyone happy considering how strong the field is so I would not fault the committee too much. There would be just as much bitching if they had seeded Reggie Black and not Amit Garg. Based on skill and reputation, Amit is far more the more deservant player. It may not be fair that Black has to play Reader in the 1st round but would it be any more fair if Reader had to play Amit? Kallus and Leach are just as much victims of the draw in 4.5 having to face Phi Hunyh and Sarosh Ahmed. I don't see Kallus pulling that one off but Chris just might have a chance cause he has nothing to lose and without all of the hoopla anything less than making the finals will be a disappointment for you Sarosh fans. He just might feel that pressure against a strong opponent like Chris in the 1st round. If he were to pull it off, I would not be suprised to see Chris be the victim of fatigue in his second match. 5.0s, Green has got it pretty bad for a self-rationalized 4.0 player like he claims to be. That would be an impressive run. His matchup with Dibua would be quite a match to see. Having had the opportunity to hit with Brian Smith a few years back I would also agree that he could emerge as the dark horse and take the whole thing. 4.0, the big question will be whether or not Ansari can bring an end to his 4 match major zone losing streak.

Anyone feel slighted?

2008-03-11T11:19:00.002-05:00

Seeds are out and as in years past, the seeding does not necessarily follow the rankings. I personally do not have a problem with this because I would rather see a known player get the seeding that is appropriate instead of seeing him facing a top seed in the first round or two, especially in the case where the ranking-based seeds care about the points and the unranked known player (usually a local ringer) just wants to win that local event and doesn't care about rankings and probably won't be playing other tournaments out of town. From what I understand, the HTA usually spends a lot of time trying to get the seeding right. Doesn't mean they usually succeed but they do try. Sarosh should probably be seeded higher, but #16 at least keeps him from facing another seeded player until the round of 16, so anyone he take out at that point will still get 150 points for the tournament. I am surprised that Chris Leach did not get a seed within the top 16 based on the same criteria HTA seems to usually use. Regarding the 5.0s, I agree that this will be a pretty exciting draw as there are 5 or 6 people who have a legitimate shot at winning. I also wouldn't be surprised to see at least 1 completely unheard guy in the 4.5 draw do some damage. It has happened quite a bit over the years. Sorry to those offended that I don't talk about Open or 4.0s. I just really don't know any of the key people to keep an eye on at those levels.

Counting Down to the Cok.....make that Gallery Furniture Open.

2008-03-05T16:51:00.002-06:00

Still too early for me to make predictions about the Houston Major Zone, but since talk will likely stay focused on this tournament for the foreseeable future I thought I would go ahead and start a new discussion stream since the last one was into the 130's. I also want to officially apologize to all the players who will be coming from out of town and forced to play at the far from impressive facilities at Lee Leclear, Memorial Park, and Homer Ford. It is sad that you can go to Waco and play at the kick-ass Waco Regional Tennis Center or go to San Antonio last month and play at the "hoity-toity" country clubs Fair Oaks, Dominion, and Sunterra. Come to Houston and you get homeless people, cracked and horribly sloped courts, torn nets, and crappy lights. No wonder we only get 1 Major Zone while San Antonio gets 3. With that I will bid you all Sarosh and here's hoping that all your Sarosh's may be Sarosh. Come to think of it, I am suprised that Jimmy Kimmel has not done a "I'm f&cking Sarosh" video yet. That would definitely top the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck videos for #1 on youtube. (You know I couldn't go a whole post without keeping the whole Sarosh thing stirred up and by the way, Lord of Strings, where have you disappeared to?)

By popular demand....Sarosh....Sorry, I mean San Antonio Major Zone....

2008-02-18T16:46:00.002-06:00

For my part I will already step in and agree with the fact that Trautman should take the 4.5 singles and Reader should take 5.0 if he will refrain from getting drunk the night before the finals like he seemed to do last year during this tourney. Trautman's opponent in final? Is Schmucker in the other half? Did Casas sign up? Sanchez warrants a few votes. In other words, I haven't really looked at the draw but I saw from the last string that you guys were ready to start a new one. The Schmucker/Kern poll has been a lot closer than I would have thought. I won't say which direction I lean in. Finally, I agree that whoever keeps posting that Sarosh can't make it past the round of 16 at a major zone is either dilusional or just trying to stir things up. I haven't even seen the guy but I can tell by the tone of most the comments on this blog that he must be the real deal. If that is not enough, the fact that he played successful line 1 league tennis on a 4.0 league that went to nationals should validate the fact that he is at minimum a strong 4.5. If he really was a top junior in India and was playing 3.5s two years ago then I agree that the guy is a joke as a person even if he is quite skilled as a player. Be a man and limit your sandbagging to one level down if you please. Anyway back to San Antonio. Any takers that Schmucker doesn't make the trip? He is 1 for 1 in Major Zone no shows so far this year. Though in his defense I don't believe that not showing in Abilene had anything to do with facing Cox or Kern. Schmucker won 2 major zones last year so I find it hard to believe that he would be ducking away from 4.0 players. Anyway, if I get the chance to look at the draws perhaps I will be back with more comments (as if anyone cares) if not, please start blasting away, there are plenty of egos that need to be either stroked or deflated by the community of "anonymous". You guys do realize that the majority of people post on here anonymously and that it is not just one or two people (even in the case of Sarosh bashing) as some of you seem to be alluding to. But again it is all in good fun....until someone cries. Then I guess we will have to shut this thing down so that no tries to call my mom and tell on me.

Abilene Draws Out.

2008-02-05T12:59:00.000-06:00

The Abilene draws came out yesterday evening. Instead of given my initial comments, I provided a link to the draw, I think it should go straight to the 4.5 draw since that is the one that will likely generate the most comments. I would envision Trautman being the favorite in addition to being the top seed. Oops, I guess I lied because that was in fact an initial comment. One more and I will be done. I think this is the first time that the 4.5 draw starts on Friday instead of Saturday since the draws are usually pretty small. Not sure why they are forcing everyone to drive up there on a Thursday since there is plenty of time to play 4 matches on Sat. and Sun. But then again, this is Abilene we are talking about. Nuff Said.

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

2007-12-31T11:40:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-12-10T12:28:00.000-06:00

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?

2007-10-30T12:39:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-10-09T12:46:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-10-02T12:39:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-09-24T09:34:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-09-20T16:55:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-09-18T12:58:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-10T15:26:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-09-07T12:16:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-09-04T15:26:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-31T11:01:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-31T10:44:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-31T10:07:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-08-28T13:11:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-08-23T08:13:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-08-21T12:57:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-08-13T16:40:00.001-05:00

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.

2007-08-08T16:40:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-30T12:07:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-30T12:02:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-23T09:33:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-19T12:04:00.001-05:00

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.