My bad...

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.