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

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.

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

Lost Ghetto....I mean Forest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sectionals...Take Two.

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

Fall Fest

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

Sights Set On Sectionals....Maybe

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.