Friday, March 28, 2008

Senior Playoff weekend

Feel free to talk about and post match results that happen tonight and on Saturday. If you played give us a recap or if you are anonymous you can make fun of how many times the old guys forgot the score, etc.

Hopefully the weather will agree and we will have three new champs on Saturday early evening.

Best of luck guys!!!!!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Sr. Playoffs this weekend

3.5 odds

HP/Bender 2 to 1
I have never seen David Atlas play but from viewing results he seems to be a lock for one win and with Ashok, Fujii, Richardson and Ferrell they look pretty strong.

Oakridge 7 to 1
Hmmm. Don’t want to get the Oakridge group going but I am not sure I see this roster prevailing this weekend. I like Prather, Reitzer and Anderson but not sure if they have depth after those three. They obviously are good enough to compete but can they beat three solid teams in a weekend. Their tourney toughness will help though which gives them an outside chance.

Huffines 8 to 1
I don’t know these players as much as the other three rosters but Newman, Leopard and Haney are strong players. Alexander seems to be very strong with Newman which should be a good tandem for them. It is hard for me to pick against them since they had such a good regular season but hard for me to pick them to win the whole thing.

Greenhill 25 to 1
If I had to pick a winner before this season started Kayser’s team would have been an easy pick after their great win in the Fall Adult League but that team seems to have been split up a bit with Huffines so it is hard for me to see them not struggling to win a match this weekend. I don’t think they will get crushed or anything but they just aren’t deep enough to come out on top.

4.0 playoff

This level is a little easier to look at with just two matches deciding the champ.

Springpark v. Bartlett
The first time they met Bartlett’s team won taking lines 2 and 3 in third set tiebreakers and Springpark dominating at line 1 with Raney and Roten. It is hard to go against this result repeating itself since it seems they both put out their best rosters. I have a feeling the results will be very similar and Bartlett will squeak out a win.

Both Springpark and Brookhaven lost to TBar M and it is hard for me to see one of those teams taking a lunch break and then coming out and beating TBar M in fact I think it might be lopsided with TBar M winning.

4.5 thoughts

TBar M will also be waiting for a winner at the 4.5 level. I know it is seniors but I like Oak Creek and their winning experience to win the initial match and then have a very close match with TBar M and unlike at 4.0 I think Oak Creek will come out on top over T Bar M.

Thoughts????????????????????

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Tourney Talk

So it seems a little too soon to talk about the first Spring match, we can save that till we get our schedules on April 2nd but in the meantime there is a big tourney down in Houston as well as a big tourney that just concluded here at Brookhaven so I thought I would open a forum to talk about this upcoming big tourney as well as other upcoming tourneys.

Here are my thoughts on the Gallery Furniture Open MZ in Houston.

Yep I am excited about how many Dallas players are headed down there to play. I wish I could be there but I haven't played in almost two weeks so I will stay home and practice:

4.0
Foad, Tim Newman, Mark Carter and James Murray should do well. Donald Allen who did well last week in Dallas could make a run. Eddie Hill is fit enough but is he consistent enough in a big field like this? Nguyen and Dutchover have seeds which should help them but I don't see them making it to the later rounds.

4.5
JD will be there and Corey Noel got a 7 seed which should help. Good luck Corey! Sarosh Ahmed who is constantly hated upon I expect to do very well I think he had to manage a lot of scores before nationals and once he got to 4.0 nats he didn't lose a match, scary.

4.0 dubs
Voss/Newman as a 2 seed and the 3 seed is Brouer/Robinson and Martin/Nguyen are seeded 5th. Wow that is 1/2 Somabut's team seeded in the top there. They should all do well. Thanks god I didn't pull you all in our spring flight.

I hope Dallas can bring home some points from Houston. Let them know who will be winning in August. I will be home alone this weekend so I will update results as they are posted.

Good luck to all you D/FW players.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Preseason thoughts 4.0-4.5

4.0 Preseason look

It is hard to think that Bob Somabut’s team won’t repeat as champs since all they lost was Kris Endress. Kris is a great player but with new additions from past championship teams they will be just fine. They do lack ringers at singles but their depth at doubles is mind boggling. The legendary Chad Carlquist and his forehand could be playing line #3 doubles. Brouer and Robinson have signed on as well as Jarad Kemp. Scary. Brand new Blumberg also playing 4.5, how good is this guy, my guess REALLY good.

So for the rest of us we will be fighting for the chance at the wild card to Sectionals or be hopeful that the favorite will slip up. Both Brookhaven regular playoff Brookhaven teams (Bartlett/Pearlman) should be in the mix although their lack of singles play will leave them vulnerable to some close regular season matches. Bartlett is best suited to make a run with Buford and if Pearlman can get Rhodes signed up again they will have a shot.

The obvious second favorite is Springpark/Walters who went to sectionals last Spring and did well in the Fall and added ringer Eugene Davis. They are built much like Somabut’s team with great doubles players and solid singles players but no guarantee, as good as Walters, Pearson and Wildberger are they are not guarantees at line 1 singles.

But then again who is really?

The Lakes didn’t lose any players from the Fall playoff team and actually gained back Mike Richardson who is a tough singles player. John Arnette’s Greenhill team looks to be strong once again and tries to return to Sectionals again.

Past those teams there are others than can make a run like Helterbran’s team, Canyon Creek/Heflin, Stonebridge, Garland, Lifetime and High Point/Harrison and my own High Point/Bazan rosters are pretty good as so it will be interested to see which teams make it to the playoffs. I really think there is pretty good depth in this level so I expect the QT tourney as well as the City tourney to be very competitive.

4.5 Preseason look

Hmmm. Should we just pencil in Branch’s team to Sectionals now or what? I wish them the best though I know the Houston and Austin teams are gearing up to compete for that National trip again so I hope Dallas can do well.

Corey Noel promised good things this season after a good showing in the Fall playoffs, nearly beating Branch’s team. Beyond Branch’s group the other Oak Creek teams (Bovermann, Feldman) usually do well too and I noticed Jimmy Walker’s move to the DFW team which will make them a threat at least a little bit. Kirby Martin has collected the best of High Point for a solid looking team.

So although there are less teams I think the regular season will be very competitive and we will see if by the end of the season it is just a replay of Branch's team marching on or if someone will step up and give them a real scare.

Spring Preseason Thoughts 3.5

As the snow flurries start to fall today what a better time to look ahead to the hopefully the heat of Spring/Summer tennis.

Our initial rosters were due yesterday and all the league look pretty good, 3.5 and 4.0 have grown yet again. 30 teams will compete at 3.5 and 32 teams at the 4.0 level. The 4.5 league will field only 17 teams. That is actually 2 less teams than last year. What’s up with that 4.5 players??

It might be too early to predict winners since the first match is 5 weeks away and some teams are still adding to their rosters and some like to wait till the day before match 1 to put on their best player (yeah we know who you are, that old trick has been around since league tennis began).

I think this post would be too big to list in one so I will break it into 3.5 and 4.0-4.5. So here it goes:

3.5 Preseason look:

I have to start with last Spring’s sectional and this year’s Fall winner in Garland. John’s team returns good players like Vandefifer, Ross, Key, Howk and Delira. Delira might be on the only guaranteed win each time out but they will be in the mix for sure.

I also like Jolly’s Canyon Creek team to do well especially if Reitzer joins the group. Oak Creek returns a lot of players but will not have Yauch and Rivera who were big reasons why they made the playoffs in the Fall. Westlake has collected some good players but will depend heavily on Eddie Johnson to win some single matches. Stonebridge returns everyone but will still struggle in singles unless they have some new recruits. You can copy my comments for Kayser’s team as well but their doubles teams are very tough, so even one good singles player could make them a force to be reckon with. Lifetime wins the most players signed up award and most have experience in winning so I expect them to do pretty well. Bob Bender’s 3.0 National winner has moved up and split to two teams, one captained by Pat Jameson. Jameson’s team looks to be the best on paper (Wiley, Harrison, Jauregi, Jameson, Moghe) but both lack some definite singles winners so far..

Last but not least the Oakridge boys. They should return to the playoffs and with no losses on a pretty good team they should do pretty well this Spring season. With Molina and Prather leading the way they should be strong and could they land Reitzer, if so I really like their chances.

I think 3.5 will be very evenly matched this year and will depend heavily on the flight seperation to determine playoff positioning.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Senior League Winding Down

So welcome ladies! I was looking around I did notice the Senior Women's League completed on 2/17.

Headed to Sectionals:
3.0-Eldorado
3.5-Brookhaven-Ground (Starring Jane Gilpin)
4.0-Northwood
4.5-LB Houston

The men are almost complete in their regular season.

3.5
Three of the four playoff spots are taken at 3.5 by Oakridge, Bender and Huffines. This weekend HP/Northcut and GH/Kayser play Huffines and Gleneagles respectively and the most impressive winner will advance since they are in a virtual tie only separated by 16 games lost with all other categories being equal. Their head to head record goes to Kayser who beat Northcut's team twice.

4.0
T Bar M finishes on top. I am not sure if there is playoff since there was only flight. I don't see schedules posted as of yet but I am guessing the top few teams would playoff against one another possibly Springpark and Bartlett's team.

4.5
There are still two matches remaining at this level, T Bar and Oak Creek are tied at the top with Harilee's Brookhaven squad needing to win out against Oak Creek and Hackberry to stay up in the top three.