Friday, November 9, 2007

3.5 Playoff preview

It seems like forever until Nov 30th but I will go ahead and post this up for lack of matches to talk about. (I guess we will have new ratings to talk about around 11/20)

I will be interested to see the pairings for the tourney but here is what I expect (just my guess on past pairings)

Flight I
Garland, HP and Oak Ridge

Flight II
Greenhill, SBridge and Oak Creek

And here are my pre-playoff thoughts.

3.5 Playoff Rankings

1. Garland
Undefeated and only lost Vijay Singh from their runner up finish in the Spring. Even though they lost Singh they gained Oberto. I think the difference with them will come down to Delira. This is probably his last hurrah at 3.5 and he has come up with great results in the playoffs but has also had some really bad results (I watched him get trounced by Rob Bliss in Spring 06 (6-2, 6-1). If he plays well they will be tough to beat but without strong results from him I am not as confident in their chances to finish on top.

2. High Point
Hmm. We lost 8 players off of the sectional team, one got his appeal through but we moved up 5 players from our 2nd team who had a 6-2 record in the Spring so they are experienced. Strong addition of singles specialist Di Zhao will help in that area as well. Although not as strong as our previous group I like the makeup of this team even better, there are three consistent doubles teams and three strong singles players that almost seem interchangeable. Also the bench players are very capable of stepping in and making contributions. Sorry I can't put them 1st but I don't want to be a total homer.


3. Oak Creek
Old and crusty but good enough. I haven’t seen the new dominant doubles team (Yauch/Rivera) but they should account for one win v. just about any team in the tournament. After that the doubles talent drops off a little to just good unless OC decides to split them up to disperse their strength. Singles now lands on the shoulders of Marc Klamecki, he must get a win each time out or I worry about their chances. Marc is strong but if he runs into a pusher he could get in trouble. Not sure who will be a regular in the #2 slot behind Marc, maybe Barnhard but line 2 singles will be important for them.

4. Greenhill
I like this team and would have them rated higher if not for the stronger and younger teams at the top. Greenhill will rely heavily on their doubles strength to do well. Their roster reads like a senior all star team at doubles but singles is pretty much John Sims and Jason Fraser, both solid players but not guarantees to win. If they can get a split at singles I like their chances but don’t see them being able to win a match unless they can grab at least one singles match in each match.

5. Stonebridge
This team continues to hang in there and returns just about everyone if I am not mistaken from their Spring team that made it to the QT tourney in the Spring. Too bad them and Garland look like they will not play a rainout match, I would be interested to see how they match up. They will probably go as far as Fitzpatrick and Ackerman can take them. They don’t have much at singles after that although Greg Barats is solid. Kevin Dooney, Ruben Muniz and Jim Bostick are probably their best doubles players. I think this is a good team but not enough firepower to contend with the teams at the top.

6. Oak Ridge
Jeromi should be happy I listed this team last. Truly nothing personal in fact I would say they could be tied with Stonebridge at 5th. I know a lot of these guys play tourneys but league tennis playoffs is a whole other animal. I took a talented team to this tournament last year and ended up 0-3 in our flight. I look at their results and roster and they all have good results but nothing stands out to say they can contend with the big 3 at the top. Prather and Girder have some good results but these teams squeaked by a few teams that were weak in the C flight. I did like their win v. Greenhill but Sims didn’t play that match and Terry Newman was playing singles, I would have liked to seen that match with Newman at doubles and Sims playing #2 singles.

16 comments:

  1. Haha. Thanks for the comment about them being last. If they somehow manage to get through the tournament I want the record to show that we (Springpark)where the only team who beat them this season. Woo hoo! Go Springpark!!

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  2. found this comment dug into one of my many posts (I had to share)

    Cary,
    If you do get bumped down, I'll take you in the spring. Our singles are stronger than you think. Practice more, play harder and we'll talk. Spring '07 TQ, Dennis, Bowman, and John all got bumped up and I read no blogs on their strength on your team. Why now?
    John Sisk

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  3. We lost much more than 4, we actually lost 8. Funny thing when I moved to TX, I was about to call Garland to look for tennis because you all had won the DCC the year before I moved here but I showed up at HP and landed on a team so I never seeked out Garland. I do miss the short while when I was just a player on a team. Someday I will get to do that again.

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  4. any opinions on the top five singles and top five doubles teams in the 3.5 playoffs?

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  5. i LIKE TENNIS,
    iT IS VERY NICE

    i LIKE TO HIT THE BALLS WITH THE RACKIT

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  6. Singles: (in no particular order) T. Bowman, B. Oberto, J. Delira, M. Klamecki and S. Varghese)

    6 Doubles teams to watch: Yauch/Rivera, Ohl/Davies, Harrison/Hess, Hutchison/Man and Kayser/Hall and Molina/Prather

    I didn't mention SBRDGE but they are close with Fitzpatrick and Dooney and whomever he partners with.

    So Garland and SBRDGE did play and Garland won 4-1 impressively, some curious scores at singles. Looks like somebody is reigning it in a little. Not a bad plan, actually helps my ratings so I won't complain.

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  7. Any change in your predictions based on the pairings below?

    3.5 Blue
    1. Garland/John Sisk
    2. Oakridge/David Prather
    3. Oak Creek/Don Smith


    3.5 Red
    1. High Point/Brae Bowman
    2. Greenhill/Bob Kayser
    3. Stonebridge/Michael Cook

    Match 1 (2 vs 3) - Friday 6 PM
    Match 2 (3 vs 1) - Saturday 9 AM
    Match 3 (1 vs 2) - Saturday 3 PM

    Championship - Sunday 12 PM

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  8. are these for real, did Jane just send them out?? interesting pairings that Blue flight is tough.

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  9. Yes..these are official. I have seen the schedule. Guessing from you comment about the Blue, you may want to rethink you predictions.

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  10. you + r X 2 (see above, should be "your" not "you"). Just like my game, not quite all there. ;-)

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  11. I'm going to stay Anonymous here since I'm Posting Hot Sports Opinions,
    I agree with Garland being ranked #1
    undefeated can't argue with that.

    I don't think Highpoint should be ranked #2
    If not for a DQ they lost to OakCreek
    and Lost to Westlake who did not make the play-offs, not a quality loss,
    I think Greenhill and Stonebridge should both be under oakridge with the depth of their team,

    Highpoint seems to really have the Good luck, being in the Red flight it seems much weaker
    In my estimation the Blue Flight has the First, Second, and Fourth best teams,
    While the red has the #3, #5, and #6 teams,

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  12. I think you got it right that the Blue has the 1, 2 and 4 place teams but not sure you have the correct order. Guess that is why we will play the matches. Unfortunately we will never know who is truly #2 as the format does not allow that determination. See ya on the courts.

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  13. What a bunch of pussies. If you've ever had to play 8 to 10 matches on a Friday through Sunday before, you wouldn't even mention that those tournament guys don't have what it takes. Also that team doesn't have any ringer type people, like jeromi or eddie hill, as they have proven records from the last year in the tourneys. Most every other team that is in this league has at least one or more sandbaggers on their team, so instead of trying to smear the only legit team, why don't you clean up yours.

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  14. Nice language. Didn't really help you make your point.

    I agree with your comment that tournament play is difficult especially if you play singles and doubles.

    But don't fool yourself that any playoff team has no players that could be questioned as playing below level.

    I assume you are referring to Oak Ridge 3.5, but am unsure because Eddie Hill didn't play 3.5 this USTA season.

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  15. What players do people think are ringers or sandbaggers at 3.5?

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  16. to Bazan, You seem to also have a lot to say about Oak Ridge,I guess you were not at the match when we played your team if you were I think we probably would have gotten a little respect from you since we beat your team badly. another item about our win over greenhill without john sims playing if you check his results against our players in tournaments he has never won a match. I think that was 3 matches against 3 different players. So the result probably would have been the same.I think the players on Greenhill & Life time have a little different opinion after playing us. I hope we can hold our own against these great teams in the playoffs. I guess your odds before the season didnt give us a chance of winning our section. But I guess we suprised you Hope we can do it again!!! Hope the playoffs are as much fun as this is.

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