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.

Is there anybody out there?

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.