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

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.

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....

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.

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?

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.

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...

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.!